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A review by immovabletype
A Long Day in Lychford by Paul Cornell
2.5
2.5 stars
The Lychford series are all short novellas, and a particular strength of the previous two was that they didn't feel short: Cornell packed in a ton of atmosphere and twistiness and understated character development to make them feel rich regardless of length. I've loved how they've built mystery and foreboding, the way the stories present the things that are wrong very tightly from the characters' perspectives, so that we only start to see them as odd when the characters do — whether that's in an instantaneous double-take or several pages after an out of place object makes an appearance. It really pulls you into the narrative while tilting you a bit off-center. And it does this with a heavy dose of charm without eschewing the modernity of the three witches at the center of the series; their worries are grounded in reality with a supernatural twist, such as the way the building of a new supermarket threatens the long established borders keeping the town safe.
This book kind of falls short in all those respects. In the beginning Cornell chooses to unfold the mystery at the center of the plot by having Autumn (each book is written from all three witches' perspectives, but there does always seem to be one the story revolves around a little more, and this is Autumn's turn) recollecting the events of the previous night in the midst of a hangover: an interesting conceit, but it doesn't quite work. Autumn remembers everything in not just a linear fashion, but at a pace to suit the progress of the narrative. I've been drunk and suffered hangovers, but the side effects have always been headaches, nausea, and a spotty memory, not a narratively convenient one. That made it a bit hard not just to suspend disbelief but to gain any real sense of portentous happenings. Things do eventually pick up a bit for about the last third of the book as the witches go about solving and righting the mystery in a way that seems familiar (and unique and magical) from the previous books, but aside from a couple spooky moments, it never really achieves that charming, lowkey spookiness of the previous novellas.
This is particularly disappointing because I felt so much could have been done to meet the established tone of the series. The witches have always dealt with protecting the borders of their town (it's a sort of Hellmouth in the way it's a focal point for these boundaries that supernatural creatures would very much like to breach), and this is suddenly complicated by the recent Brexit vote. Cornell does some really lovely things with linking the task of keeping supernatural outsiders out with the fact that Autumn, a black woman, has in many ways always felt like an outsider in her own town, as well as what this means for her relationship with Judith, the fellow witch (and old crone, you might say) to whom she's apprenticed and who's also dealing with the impact of aging in her life (the fact that many who voted in favor of Brexit were old and white is not irrelevant). Unfortunately, while the story embraces the quarrel between the two characters, it shies away from addressing Judith's beliefs directly. Or from linking the very real dread at the state of the world that's invoked at the beginning of the story to the continuing and escalating threat to the town of Lychford.
Which would've probably required a longer novel, or at least a more tightly written one. Cornell writes his female characters beautifully, authentically and distinctly, and that remains true. There's just not a lot of room for the rest of the stumbling that occurred here, so instead of savoring this newest installment I just find myself looking forward to the next one and hoping it's able to recapture the magic the next time we see these characters.
Also, on a more shallow note: The previous books have both had those really beautiful buttery, velvety covers, and I'm actually pretty disappointed that this is just your standard cardstock sort of cover. I was honestly looking forward to the experience of simply holding another one of these books in my hands again. :((((((
The Lychford series are all short novellas, and a particular strength of the previous two was that they didn't feel short: Cornell packed in a ton of atmosphere and twistiness and understated character development to make them feel rich regardless of length. I've loved how they've built mystery and foreboding, the way the stories present the things that are wrong very tightly from the characters' perspectives, so that we only start to see them as odd when the characters do — whether that's in an instantaneous double-take or several pages after an out of place object makes an appearance. It really pulls you into the narrative while tilting you a bit off-center. And it does this with a heavy dose of charm without eschewing the modernity of the three witches at the center of the series; their worries are grounded in reality with a supernatural twist, such as the way the building of a new supermarket threatens the long established borders keeping the town safe.
This book kind of falls short in all those respects. In the beginning Cornell chooses to unfold the mystery at the center of the plot by having Autumn (each book is written from all three witches' perspectives, but there does always seem to be one the story revolves around a little more, and this is Autumn's turn) recollecting the events of the previous night in the midst of a hangover: an interesting conceit, but it doesn't quite work. Autumn remembers everything in not just a linear fashion, but at a pace to suit the progress of the narrative. I've been drunk and suffered hangovers, but the side effects have always been headaches, nausea, and a spotty memory, not a narratively convenient one. That made it a bit hard not just to suspend disbelief but to gain any real sense of portentous happenings. Things do eventually pick up a bit for about the last third of the book as the witches go about solving and righting the mystery in a way that seems familiar (and unique and magical) from the previous books, but aside from a couple spooky moments, it never really achieves that charming, lowkey spookiness of the previous novellas.
This is particularly disappointing because I felt so much could have been done to meet the established tone of the series. The witches have always dealt with protecting the borders of their town (it's a sort of Hellmouth in the way it's a focal point for these boundaries that supernatural creatures would very much like to breach), and this is suddenly complicated by the recent Brexit vote. Cornell does some really lovely things with linking the task of keeping supernatural outsiders out with the fact that Autumn, a black woman, has in many ways always felt like an outsider in her own town, as well as what this means for her relationship with Judith, the fellow witch (and old crone, you might say) to whom she's apprenticed and who's also dealing with the impact of aging in her life (the fact that many who voted in favor of Brexit were old and white is not irrelevant). Unfortunately, while the story embraces the quarrel between the two characters, it shies away from addressing Judith's beliefs directly. Or from linking the very real dread at the state of the world that's invoked at the beginning of the story to the continuing and escalating threat to the town of Lychford.
Which would've probably required a longer novel, or at least a more tightly written one. Cornell writes his female characters beautifully, authentically and distinctly, and that remains true. There's just not a lot of room for the rest of the stumbling that occurred here, so instead of savoring this newest installment I just find myself looking forward to the next one and hoping it's able to recapture the magic the next time we see these characters.
Also, on a more shallow note: The previous books have both had those really beautiful buttery, velvety covers, and I'm actually pretty disappointed that this is just your standard cardstock sort of cover. I was honestly looking forward to the experience of simply holding another one of these books in my hands again. :((((((