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A review by desiderium_incarnate
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This book was a tad confusing to me. Not in regards to what was happening, but how I feel and think about it. Talking about and discussing it helped.
It seems like Leigh Bardugo was experimenting with this one. That is of course not bad per se, but I think her (assumed) goals got in the way of her strengths. It seemed like she wrote about history to honor something and introduced a bit of magic in it because she likes it but with wanting to stick to the facts that much, she came in the way of what she does best, which is of course creating her own in depth magic systems, writing about found family and getting you to care for the people, no matter how morally grey they might be. This was sadly not the case here. Her magical system was shallow at best and with no clear rules and random power highs, lows and ways to exercise it arbitrary and illogical at worst. The first half of the book was sadly just boring and you were left waiting for the shoe to drop and something grand to happen, which sadly, did not happen as Leigh tried to stick to the history. The love story was unexpected, surprisingly explicit and weird, if you consider the age difference. I did not like the ending because it just isn't an end in my opinion. The biggest surprise and I guess character growth was Valentina, she really stole the whole book. I'm glad she found her back bone and her desire and her calling I guess. A personal disappointment for me was the lackluster heist time and I didn't like the layered intrigues and court politics as well.
The writing was still nice though. Some of her sentences I feel she wrote because she thought they would be deep and connect with people, but that just didn't work a lot because they felt wrong and forced. There was a lot of anger in this book and literally not one male character was any good, which was super sad. I am a bit disappointed but I also recognize that Leigh was probably experimenting and I feel like her heart wasn't in it, so I am still excited for her next books.
It seems like Leigh Bardugo was experimenting with this one. That is of course not bad per se, but I think her (assumed) goals got in the way of her strengths. It seemed like she wrote about history to honor something and introduced a bit of magic in it because she likes it but with wanting to stick to the facts that much, she came in the way of what she does best, which is of course creating her own in depth magic systems, writing about found family and getting you to care for the people, no matter how morally grey they might be. This was sadly not the case here. Her magical system was shallow at best and with no clear rules and random power highs, lows and ways to exercise it arbitrary and illogical at worst. The first half of the book was sadly just boring and you were left waiting for the shoe to drop and something grand to happen, which sadly, did not happen as Leigh tried to stick to the history. The love story was unexpected, surprisingly explicit and weird, if you consider the age difference. I did not like the ending because it just isn't an end in my opinion. The biggest surprise and I guess character growth was Valentina, she really stole the whole book. I'm glad she found her back bone and her desire and her calling I guess. A personal disappointment for me was the lackluster heist time and I didn't like the layered intrigues and court politics as well.
The writing was still nice though. Some of her sentences I feel she wrote because she thought they would be deep and connect with people, but that just didn't work a lot because they felt wrong and forced. There was a lot of anger in this book and literally not one male character was any good, which was super sad. I am a bit disappointed but I also recognize that Leigh was probably experimenting and I feel like her heart wasn't in it, so I am still excited for her next books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism