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sisteray 's review for:
The Chatelaine
by Kate Heartfield
This is a great little ensemble cast piece, with something of a main character to lead and motivate the team through a Bruegel/Bosch inspired invasion of medieval Bruges. Despite the abundance of monsters, this book reads as far more of dark historical fiction fantasy novel than horror.
Instead of the shock of the creatures, the tension comes mostly from the continual relegation of women just trying to survive as second class citizens. The book feels really true to the time and place, and the struggles of how women navigate the institutional biases all while trying to survive a war torn environment were gripping.
The plot of the book is pretty straightforward, our main character wants the money that's owed to her and her daughter from her PoS husband who may or may not be dead (instead is an undead creature of grief and disease), and she has to take up her rights of inheritance with her invaders who are literally chthonic entities, the church and a scheming monarch. On her way, this cranky protagonist enlists the help of a trans man-at-arms and the support of a cast of other intriguing women allies.
This book wasn't about action, although it certainly has real moments of action punctuating it. It's about the characters, their motivations, and what power that they can hold on to in an environment designed to strip it all away. Even the titular villain, The Chatelaine, is bound by these same constraints and the author makes her remarkably sympathetic as the straps tighten around her.
"When the Devil puts up walls, men smash them, and if they cannot smash them, they despair, or they walk away. But women must trickle through the cracks, they find a way through because they have no choice, because they have nowhere to go, and nothing to smash with."
There are some wonderfully human moments in this. I found myself loving it over and over. And even up to the very end the book had me guessing how it was going to play out.
Instead of the shock of the creatures, the tension comes mostly from the continual relegation of women just trying to survive as second class citizens. The book feels really true to the time and place, and the struggles of how women navigate the institutional biases all while trying to survive a war torn environment were gripping.
The plot of the book is pretty straightforward, our main character wants the money that's owed to her and her daughter from her PoS husband who may or may not be dead (instead is an undead creature of grief and disease), and she has to take up her rights of inheritance with her invaders who are literally chthonic entities, the church and a scheming monarch. On her way, this cranky protagonist enlists the help of a trans man-at-arms and the support of a cast of other intriguing women allies.
This book wasn't about action, although it certainly has real moments of action punctuating it. It's about the characters, their motivations, and what power that they can hold on to in an environment designed to strip it all away. Even the titular villain, The Chatelaine, is bound by these same constraints and the author makes her remarkably sympathetic as the straps tighten around her.
"When the Devil puts up walls, men smash them, and if they cannot smash them, they despair, or they walk away. But women must trickle through the cracks, they find a way through because they have no choice, because they have nowhere to go, and nothing to smash with."
There are some wonderfully human moments in this. I found myself loving it over and over. And even up to the very end the book had me guessing how it was going to play out.