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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
this book was really well written and atmospheric and great but the main reason it's 4 stars is because i really respect creating an entire complex mythology and going absolutely bonkers with worldbuilding and having your incest kink at the heart of everything. perfect. no notes. like all the horny gays who built enormous fuck-off churches in europe. gay rights
Its closest antecedents are Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, especially the former, to whose narrative beats it holds up a twisted funhouse mirror and which it sometimes quotes almost-verbatim in its lampshading way; elements of Goblin Market and Tam Lin are also mixed in, together with some impressively original world-building drawn from Ng's own imagination. I would contend that Matthew Lewis's The Monk is also a direct ancestor, though. Not a book for kids or the faint of heart (it takes a theme or two that were arguably implicit in its Bronte forerunners and makes them explicit, extending them to taboo and disturbing conclusions), but still a smart, magnetic read for fantasy-inclined adults and a formidable debut.
this is like if that scene in the mortal instruments where the fae queen made clary and jace kiss was 400 pages long, and they were actually related
This book is a love letter to the Brontë sisters if you know enough about their family history and their work to see it.
considered marking this DNF because i either was unable to comprehend this book starting about 60% in OR i zoned out too hard to understand it, because i thought it was weird and didnt make me like...feel...good. i want to be clear that's not a 'feel bad' in a normal book way about characters doing messed up stuff but just like a. whats going on. this is gross but why. sort of way. VERY glad we didn't read this for book club directly after Fledgling because its got similar stuff going on.
Spoiler
So we punted this for book club and i'd heard it had a 'gross twist' but didnt reveal what that was bc i still intended to read it. With that in mind i'd hesitate to call the incest thing a TWIST because knowing simply that sentence it was telegraphed from chapter 1. where i differ on this book from Fledgling is that, whats.. the point. i didn't get it? she's a changeling? she's not? it's hell? what.. happens. I would know if i hadn't zoned out in the last 30% i'm sure but it was gross and i wasnt interested. idk
I received this book as a giveaway prize, so thank you to GoodReads and Angry Robot for the chance to read and review.
We all know it is never a good idea to judge a book by it's cover. This book however is a perfect example of how to offer up a hint of what is to come within without giving it all away (thank you graphic design/illustration team). It is beautiful in a Victorian fairy-tale way, so intricate and full of little hidden details that... Wait. There's a dead deer beneath those angels. The castle is far more Grimm than Disney. The central figure's baleful gaze, the two beneath her not quite cowering but standing protectively close... There's beauty, but there's something terrible lurking within.
It is a slow burner of a plot, character focused in a closed setting with a small cast of extras. Our narrator, Cathy Helstone, follows her missionary brother Laon to Arcadia where his job is to convert the fae to Christianity. It is here in the fae castle named Gethsemane that mysteries and musings on theology collide. Revelations on the nature of Arcadia and it's inhabitants seem to be the purpose of the siblings' journey, but truth is the weapon of the fae folk and they wield it well. Mankind is in for some home truths as well. Some twists I saw coming, but it felt like watching a detective drama where the audience is allowed to be that half step ahead. There's that apprehension you feel before the main characters realise what you already know.
The tone of the book is set to Gothic throughout, managing to stay dark without being bleak. The world of Arcadia is richly described, and despite being almost entirely set in one location the idea of these other places, society and how the world worked came through to give a good grounding for the events to come. Any criticism I have of the writing would be the chapter openers. While they work to set the scene, the language could be obtuse and I found myself having read a passage before having to go back over it to make sure I understood what it meant. There is also a lot of reliance on real world theology of the Victorian era. I felt lost on occasion when characters discussed points from the Bible. I'm sure there are nuances and hints I missed because of this, which did detract a little from my enjoyment of the book.
On the topic of subject matter, one revelation did strike me as something I could both see coming and hoped wouldn't.
This is one of those looking for a supernatural-infused mystery/suspense. It is a tale reminding us that while truth has power over lies, it isn't always a positive thing. You remember that cover? Much like the book it holds, it is a beautiful montage made up of disturbing details. If you can enjoy a languid pace early on, then by all means follow this maddeningly meandering story. Don't expect big action pieces. The only thing being blown up will be your mind.
We all know it is never a good idea to judge a book by it's cover. This book however is a perfect example of how to offer up a hint of what is to come within without giving it all away (thank you graphic design/illustration team). It is beautiful in a Victorian fairy-tale way, so intricate and full of little hidden details that... Wait. There's a dead deer beneath those angels. The castle is far more Grimm than Disney. The central figure's baleful gaze, the two beneath her not quite cowering but standing protectively close... There's beauty, but there's something terrible lurking within.
It is a slow burner of a plot, character focused in a closed setting with a small cast of extras. Our narrator, Cathy Helstone, follows her missionary brother Laon to Arcadia where his job is to convert the fae to Christianity. It is here in the fae castle named Gethsemane that mysteries and musings on theology collide. Revelations on the nature of Arcadia and it's inhabitants seem to be the purpose of the siblings' journey, but truth is the weapon of the fae folk and they wield it well. Mankind is in for some home truths as well. Some twists I saw coming, but it felt like watching a detective drama where the audience is allowed to be that half step ahead. There's that apprehension you feel before the main characters realise what you already know.
The tone of the book is set to Gothic throughout, managing to stay dark without being bleak. The world of Arcadia is richly described, and despite being almost entirely set in one location the idea of these other places, society and how the world worked came through to give a good grounding for the events to come. Any criticism I have of the writing would be the chapter openers. While they work to set the scene, the language could be obtuse and I found myself having read a passage before having to go back over it to make sure I understood what it meant. There is also a lot of reliance on real world theology of the Victorian era. I felt lost on occasion when characters discussed points from the Bible. I'm sure there are nuances and hints I missed because of this, which did detract a little from my enjoyment of the book.
On the topic of subject matter, one revelation did strike me as something I could both see coming and hoped wouldn't.
Spoiler
The incestual relationship between the Helstone siblings was both expected (given the language used by both of them early on to describe their closeness) but still uncomfortable. A taboo subject in a book where sin is a major theme shouldn't be shocking, but it did still hit me. Thankfully though, while being a book for grown ups, it never went too far into "adult" territory.Spoiler
On another note, the name Helstone struck me a prophetic. Lo and behold, hidden in plain sight...This is one of those looking for a supernatural-infused mystery/suspense. It is a tale reminding us that while truth has power over lies, it isn't always a positive thing. You remember that cover? Much like the book it holds, it is a beautiful montage made up of disturbing details. If you can enjoy a languid pace early on, then by all means follow this maddeningly meandering story. Don't expect big action pieces. The only thing being blown up will be your mind.
At first it was intriguing- a combination of Victorian gothic tropes, theological arguments, and folklore. But even as someone who is very interested in all of those things, I got bored.
This is a horror novel. I know that some will argue with this classification, but it is horrific in the same way that Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_ is a journey into horror. The structures of the two texts are similar: a civilized person ventures into the unmapped landscape to discover someone who has gone ahead, someone irrevocably removed from civilization. The protagonist is a religious woman rather than a riverboat pilot, the landscape is Faerie rather than the Congo, but the seemingly dull journey is really a slow revelation of taboo gradually shifted until it is viewed from the other side.
If you are looking for a romance between a magic loving human and an iron allergic king of summer, this is not your book. This is not a feel-good Harlequin.
That said, if you loved the immersive voice of Clarke's Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norell, if you are not afraid of feeling lost and confused and following a candle through a dark hallway, if you like connecting the dots to reveal the giant teeth and gaping maw... this book is for you.
The story will disappoint readers who are expecting a Jane Eyre in Wonderland, but it may delight those with a genuine penchant for the truly, sublimely, horrifyingly gothic.
Ng is staying on my authors-to-watch list. I am curious to see what else may come from this mind.
If you are looking for a romance between a magic loving human and an iron allergic king of summer, this is not your book. This is not a feel-good Harlequin.
That said, if you loved the immersive voice of Clarke's Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norell, if you are not afraid of feeling lost and confused and following a candle through a dark hallway, if you like connecting the dots to reveal the giant teeth and gaping maw... this book is for you.
The story will disappoint readers who are expecting a Jane Eyre in Wonderland, but it may delight those with a genuine penchant for the truly, sublimely, horrifyingly gothic.
Ng is staying on my authors-to-watch list. I am curious to see what else may come from this mind.