I read A Magical Girl Retires on a recommendation, but I can’t recall where that recommendation came from. Regardless, I found it an enjoyable read.

I like the main character. The power she gets—the ability to do anything by paying the price—is conceptually quite neat. I’m not sure how it would work in an extended narrative, but she only achieves her power at the very end of the book, and uses it do to exactly one big thing.

The twist was well-executed, I think. The main character was set up by everything to be the Magical Girl of Time: clock motifs, being past her prime, always feeling like she’s running up against deadlines. But her trinket is a credit card, symbolizing the debt that is held over her head and the price that she has to pay to stay alive. I think that’s neat.