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funsizelibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
Really 3.5ish. Interesting premise and I like the way Smith wove history and fantasy together. While characters are not deeply developed, they are likable, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series to find out what happens to the League of Ravens.
anniup's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent
ktidwell4391's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
scostner's review against another edition
4.0
It is the time when construction on the London Underground has just begun. Something is stirring up trouble. There is growing tension between the resident Londoners and those who have immigrated to England from foreign lands. A terrible sickness is killing people in the poor quarters of the city. An enemy from the past has reached out, causing Mrs. Grace to fear for the safety of her daughter Jessamine. And in the midst of all this unrest, Jess and her mother have come to London seeking help from a friend named Balthazar. But what can an old college chum of her father's do to protect them?
The Mesmerist is a thrilling mix of historical fiction and urban fantasy. Herring gulls flying over the seaside town of Deal. Charing Cross Station with its circular glass roof. A posh mansion in the West End. A shabby brick house in the East End. Each of the locations is like a window into Great Britain's past full of rag and bone men, ragged boys peddling newspapers, and rich gentry in their glossy carriages. And juxtaposed with signs of the modern age approaching (such as the Underground), there are things of the supernatural realm - ghouls, werewolves, necromancers.
Readers who have enjoyed stories such as How to Catch a Bogle will find this similar in its dangers, suspense, and the fight between good and evil. There are also the same type of resilient children who choose to face off against the evil forces. Highly recommended for middle grades and up.
I received an advance copy from the publisher for review purposes.
The Mesmerist is a thrilling mix of historical fiction and urban fantasy. Herring gulls flying over the seaside town of Deal. Charing Cross Station with its circular glass roof. A posh mansion in the West End. A shabby brick house in the East End. Each of the locations is like a window into Great Britain's past full of rag and bone men, ragged boys peddling newspapers, and rich gentry in their glossy carriages. And juxtaposed with signs of the modern age approaching (such as the Underground), there are things of the supernatural realm - ghouls, werewolves, necromancers.
Readers who have enjoyed stories such as How to Catch a Bogle will find this similar in its dangers, suspense, and the fight between good and evil. There are also the same type of resilient children who choose to face off against the evil forces. Highly recommended for middle grades and up.
I received an advance copy from the publisher for review purposes.
circusiana's review against another edition
1.0
(Originally reviewed in 2018.)
How to review a book when you can’t put the words together to explain what didn’t work.
A two-star review said that this book both rushed the storyline and that the storyline dragged. That would make absolutely no sense. It should be totally impossible. And yet it was true.
I don’t relish this one star review. This didn’t inspire the same frustration and anger as other one-star reviews I’ve given, and I’m eager to read the author’s previous book, Hoodoo, because it sounds great and it has far better reviews. I will also look for whatever he has coming out next.
Inside this threadbare book is an author with something to say and an ability to say it, so I’m not giving up.
I also feel badly because the author seems like a really cool person with interests that totally align with mine and I don’t want to give him such a bad review but here we are.
There will probably be spoilers, so for safety’s sake proceed with caution.
The biggest flaw was the narrator.
Okay, so the jacket copy plus the illustration didn’t exactly start me off with the right impression. I thought this was going to lean more heavily on Jess discovering she’s actually psychic in a world of fraudulent mediums (I love a good surprise-psychic-among-fraudulent-mediums story), or at least refer to the nascent Spiritualism movement spearheaded by the Fox Sisters and Madame Blavatsky. But nope. That was just a line on a cover. Jess’s life with her fake-Spiritualist mother lasts about a page.
But I could forgive that if the story was great. But it’s difficult to have a great story when your narrator isn’t strong enough.
I’d say that Jess’s voice, or lack-thereof, was the biggest issue, if not the dominant issue. I don’t know if the author was simply a bit at-sea with tackling hard Victorian England/Dickensian tone, but there was a complete disconnect between the protagonist, a thirteen-year-old girl, and her dry narration.
Told in first person present, not my favorite point of view to begin with, it read like an adult trying very hard to sound “old-fashioned”. I never felt that Jess had a unique personality or anything that made the story sound like she was telling it. She didn’t feel like she belonged, or that the author felt entirely comfortable charging through the world he developed. This is where it seemed like the author didn’t read enough fiction set during this time, or simply didn’t spend enough time with the era before taking the plunge. I think it would have been easier to get away with gaps in knowledge had the voice been third person.
After all, how many thousands of Victorian-era middle grade novels are there in the world, with far fewer attempts at accuracy? Too many to count. To single out this novel for that would be unfair, so it’s really a problem with the narration.
For first person present to really work, you have to have a great voice, and Jess don’t got it.
The second issue was the paradoxical feeling of a slow-burn and too-rushed.
This isn’t a long novel by any stretch, but it’s packing lore and layers better suited to something at least 300 pages, if not longer. By the end, the author was sticking in not-metaphorical racism/antisemitism/xenophobia in with the dark forces rising in London slums. It was so sudden and came to such an equally sudden end that it almost shouldn’t have been there to begin with. It felt tacked on.
Much of the novel is exposition with odd bursts of action that feel at-odds with how suddenly all of this happens to begin with. There is occasional exploration of a world that didn’t feel wholly developed, but had a lot of ideas clumped within its nebulous boundaries. A lot of the ideas weren’t unique, either, which added to the thin-ness of it all.
Even Harry Potter had all of August to prepare for Hogwarts and the idea of being a wizard whose parents were actually murdered and not killed in a car crash. I think this novel had Jess first channeling her mesmerism, going to London, discovering her dad was murdered, that her parents were part of a secret society, staying behind to join the new version of this secret society, losing her mother to the bad guy, training to fight sometimes, meeting three other unique kids (including a werewolf and an angel), and battling the Final Boss, then discovering she/her dead father are actually faeries, in maybe a week?
This read like the very earliest draft of an idea, and unfortunately it didn’t have the chance to reach its full potential.
As it is, I might have enjoyed it as a third/fourth grade kid, but I didn’t enjoy it now.
How to review a book when you can’t put the words together to explain what didn’t work.
A two-star review said that this book both rushed the storyline and that the storyline dragged. That would make absolutely no sense. It should be totally impossible. And yet it was true.
I don’t relish this one star review. This didn’t inspire the same frustration and anger as other one-star reviews I’ve given, and I’m eager to read the author’s previous book, Hoodoo, because it sounds great and it has far better reviews. I will also look for whatever he has coming out next.
Inside this threadbare book is an author with something to say and an ability to say it, so I’m not giving up.
I also feel badly because the author seems like a really cool person with interests that totally align with mine and I don’t want to give him such a bad review but here we are.
There will probably be spoilers, so for safety’s sake proceed with caution.
The biggest flaw was the narrator.
Okay, so the jacket copy plus the illustration didn’t exactly start me off with the right impression. I thought this was going to lean more heavily on Jess discovering she’s actually psychic in a world of fraudulent mediums (I love a good surprise-psychic-among-fraudulent-mediums story), or at least refer to the nascent Spiritualism movement spearheaded by the Fox Sisters and Madame Blavatsky. But nope. That was just a line on a cover. Jess’s life with her fake-Spiritualist mother lasts about a page.
But I could forgive that if the story was great. But it’s difficult to have a great story when your narrator isn’t strong enough.
I’d say that Jess’s voice, or lack-thereof, was the biggest issue, if not the dominant issue. I don’t know if the author was simply a bit at-sea with tackling hard Victorian England/Dickensian tone, but there was a complete disconnect between the protagonist, a thirteen-year-old girl, and her dry narration.
Told in first person present, not my favorite point of view to begin with, it read like an adult trying very hard to sound “old-fashioned”. I never felt that Jess had a unique personality or anything that made the story sound like she was telling it. She didn’t feel like she belonged, or that the author felt entirely comfortable charging through the world he developed. This is where it seemed like the author didn’t read enough fiction set during this time, or simply didn’t spend enough time with the era before taking the plunge. I think it would have been easier to get away with gaps in knowledge had the voice been third person.
After all, how many thousands of Victorian-era middle grade novels are there in the world, with far fewer attempts at accuracy? Too many to count. To single out this novel for that would be unfair, so it’s really a problem with the narration.
For first person present to really work, you have to have a great voice, and Jess don’t got it.
The second issue was the paradoxical feeling of a slow-burn and too-rushed.
This isn’t a long novel by any stretch, but it’s packing lore and layers better suited to something at least 300 pages, if not longer. By the end, the author was sticking in not-metaphorical racism/antisemitism/xenophobia in with the dark forces rising in London slums. It was so sudden and came to such an equally sudden end that it almost shouldn’t have been there to begin with. It felt tacked on.
Much of the novel is exposition with odd bursts of action that feel at-odds with how suddenly all of this happens to begin with. There is occasional exploration of a world that didn’t feel wholly developed, but had a lot of ideas clumped within its nebulous boundaries. A lot of the ideas weren’t unique, either, which added to the thin-ness of it all.
Even Harry Potter had all of August to prepare for Hogwarts and the idea of being a wizard whose parents were actually murdered and not killed in a car crash. I think this novel had Jess first channeling her mesmerism, going to London, discovering her dad was murdered, that her parents were part of a secret society, staying behind to join the new version of this secret society, losing her mother to the bad guy, training to fight sometimes, meeting three other unique kids (including a werewolf and an angel), and battling the Final Boss, then discovering she/her dead father are actually faeries, in maybe a week?
This read like the very earliest draft of an idea, and unfortunately it didn’t have the chance to reach its full potential.
As it is, I might have enjoyed it as a third/fourth grade kid, but I didn’t enjoy it now.
ssejig's review against another edition
3.0
Jessamine Grace and her mother make their living as mediums. They have a slick trade but it's all a ruse. Jessamine is tiring of bilking people out of their money and is more and more scared about how much time her mother is spending at the bottom of an absinthe bottle.
One day, the trick goes wrong. The slate that is supposed to have a message to their client from "his daughter" instead contains a mysterious message that makes Jessamine's mother pack her up and move them both to London. There, Jessamine discovers that the man they go to meet is half-fairy and that he fought with her parents against the evil Mephisto and that she, Jessamine, has the power to speak to the dead. Her mother leaves her with Balthazar to be trained into the new League of Ravens, the protectors of England. So it's up to Jess, Emily, and Gabe to stand for the country. Why children? They apparently have more power and it lessens in adulthood so they have to be the ones to fight. Jess is only just settling in to London when she gets some horrible news... something that makes her determined to fight what is to come.
An interesting story, definitely some interesting political commentary in the current climate. A nice start to some world building on what could end up being a fun series.
One day, the trick goes wrong. The slate that is supposed to have a message to their client from "his daughter" instead contains a mysterious message that makes Jessamine's mother pack her up and move them both to London. There, Jessamine discovers that the man they go to meet is half-fairy and that he fought with her parents against the evil Mephisto and that she, Jessamine, has the power to speak to the dead. Her mother leaves her with Balthazar to be trained into the new League of Ravens, the protectors of England. So it's up to Jess, Emily, and Gabe to stand for the country. Why children? They apparently have more power and it lessens in adulthood so they have to be the ones to fight. Jess is only just settling in to London when she gets some horrible news... something that makes her determined to fight what is to come.
An interesting story, definitely some interesting political commentary in the current climate. A nice start to some world building on what could end up being a fun series.
cozykrysti's review
4.0
Gorgeous writing, stunning world building, and a story that’s just the right combination of spooky and fun.
iilex's review against another edition
2.0
I thought there was just way too much going on in this children's novel.
cweichel's review against another edition
3.0
I like stories set in Victorian England and am a fan of adult mysteries with spiritualists in them. I hoped that this book would tide me over while I wait for a new Lockwood and Co. I had such high hopes for this book.
This lead sucked me right in.
"Being stuffed into a wardrobe with your hands tied is a dreadful way to start your day.
There's hardly any light, but for the yellow glint of a candle flame through a small crack in the door. Dust tickles my nostrils. Spiders are in the corners too.
I hate spiders."
We soon discover that Jessamine and her mother are pretending to be mesmerists who talk to dead relatives and bring back messages for them, but then Jessamine ends up bringing a real message from beyond the grave. The two of them flee to London where they stay with Balthazar, Mrs Grace's mysterious friend. It's here that Jessamine learns that she has special powers and is inducted into an extraordinary team of children who have their own unique powers. Their responsibility is to battle evil necromancers who plan to take over the world. Readers soon discover a lot of different mythical creatures in this book, including Balthazar.
What I liked most about this book was the relationship between the children. There are also some intense action scenes that many readers will enjoy. Smith has done a good job creating the atmosphere of Victorian London. I really liked the spooky images that demarcate the different chapters and sections. How the evil creatures spread hatred is an interesting theme given the encroaching punitive populism of politics today.
What I don't understand was why a certain character was killed off. I could live with this, except that there is a kind of disjointedness to the plot that made it hard for me to follow the story's reasoning. I acknowledge that some of this might be from the interruptions I took to read other books, but that the book didn't compel me to finish it, says a lot. I absolutely hated the ending. Honestly, I thought I was missing pages and something was wrong with my copy.
This lead sucked me right in.
"Being stuffed into a wardrobe with your hands tied is a dreadful way to start your day.
There's hardly any light, but for the yellow glint of a candle flame through a small crack in the door. Dust tickles my nostrils. Spiders are in the corners too.
I hate spiders."
We soon discover that Jessamine and her mother are pretending to be mesmerists who talk to dead relatives and bring back messages for them, but then Jessamine ends up bringing a real message from beyond the grave. The two of them flee to London where they stay with Balthazar, Mrs Grace's mysterious friend. It's here that Jessamine learns that she has special powers and is inducted into an extraordinary team of children who have their own unique powers. Their responsibility is to battle evil necromancers who plan to take over the world. Readers soon discover a lot of different mythical creatures in this book, including Balthazar.
What I liked most about this book was the relationship between the children. There are also some intense action scenes that many readers will enjoy. Smith has done a good job creating the atmosphere of Victorian London. I really liked the spooky images that demarcate the different chapters and sections. How the evil creatures spread hatred is an interesting theme given the encroaching punitive populism of politics today.
What I don't understand was why a certain character was killed off. I could live with this, except that there is a kind of disjointedness to the plot that made it hard for me to follow the story's reasoning. I acknowledge that some of this might be from the interruptions I took to read other books, but that the book didn't compel me to finish it, says a lot. I absolutely hated the ending. Honestly, I thought I was missing pages and something was wrong with my copy.