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infowitch's reviews
2004 reviews
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett
4.0
A mishmash of Jane Austen's ouevre with a healthy dash of Jane Eyre, plus some atmosphere courtesy of Wuthering Heights-- spun into a fantasy world with a passing resemblance to Regency England but mostly someplace totally new... This should not work! It should, in fact, elicit the same horror as that evoked by the existence of the new Jane Austen zombie book. But instead it's BRILLIANT. Beckett takes the tropes and attitudes of Austen and has a great ear for voice, so that it is original but clearly an homage, and adds to this a tightly crafted fantasy world, with very real and ugly political struggles. Magick, natural witchcraft, dashing but literally monstrous highwaymen-- yum. Sadly, it looks like the wait for book 2 might be very long and I am feeling very impatient, as the larger stories (and political machinations) are much more interesting to me than the smaller story whose arc finishes within volume 1.
Posh and Prejudice by Grace Dent
3.0
This series is my new guilty British pleasure, and Dent follows in the footsteps of Rosie Rushton, Louise Rennison, and Cathy Hopkins. Since I'm not a chav, I have no clue how accurate the language is, but it's a pretty convincing voice, and a really great take on class and society in the guise of silly chicklit. Also, funny.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
3.0
Picked up the prequel at ALA and thought perhaps I should start with the (much lauded, highly recommended) earlier work. So far, aside from the fact that the characters speak in paragraphs (which always distracts me a bit from the content), thoroughly captivating and filled with lots of gorgeous sentences about books.