Showing posts with label historical fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historical fiction. Show all posts
Book Review: The Beholders by Hester Musson
Buy The Beholders here - U.K. | International
OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: June, 1878. The body of a boy is pulled from the depths of the River Thames, suspected to be the beloved missing child of the widely admired Liberal MP Ralph Gethin. Four months earlier. Harriet is a young maid newly employed at Finton Hall. Fleeing the drudgery of an unwanted engagement in the small village where she grew up, Harriet is entranced by the grand country hall; she is entranced too by her glamorous mistress Clara Gethin, whose unearthly singing voice floats through the house. But Clara, though captivating, is erratic. The master of the house is a much-lauded politician, but he is strangely absent. And some of their beautiful belongings seem to tell terrible stories. Unable to ignore her growing unease, Harriet sets out to discover their secrets. When she uncovers a shocking truth, a chain of events is set in motion that could cost Harriet everything, even her freedom…
FORMAT/INFO: The Beholders will be published on January 18, 2024 by Harper Collins. It will be available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Let me just tell you that Harriet Watkins, young maid newly employed at Finton Hall did something most of us never could. She gets a beautiful diary, a lovely green one, and actually writes in it. If you've gotten over that, let's continue. She flees an unwanted engagement to take up service at this place, and writes entries in her diary, which we get in the form of this simply marvellous debut.
In this house, Harriet gets astounded by what to her service-class eyes looks like a world within the walls of the property, as well as the enigmatic mistress, Mrs. Gethin of the house. Beyond the first entry in the diary, it is clear that this is not a rosy environment, there are something sinister and this feeling slowly builds toward a certain point. I admit, the beginning was slow and will irk some readers, but trust me when I say the payoff is worth it. It's been two days since I finished reading this, and the more time that passes, the more I realises this pace was really effective.
Why does all this matter? Because the mistress, Mrs. Gethin had a reputation among the work staff of being difficult, constantly dismisses servants, but suddenly takes an inscrutable interest in Harriet, who is nothing special. In a few months, she gets convicted of the murder of her child, and our protagonist is swept up in the case, all while not knowing what the complete truth could be, and wondering if she judged her situation correctly.
The writing is quite strong and the voice feels authentic. It acknowledges all the grind and drudgery of being part of the servant class in such a place, as well as the feeling of being trapped with no better prospects, of having been painted into a corner, and possibly pissing off those in more powerful positions. What it does better, is paint a very compelling picture of how scary it is to live in a corrupt man's world. The character introduction and establishment takes about the first half of the book, and the plot is sheer genius in some ways. I feel like certain things could have been written in a more direct manner, but they did add to the gothic atmosphere well.
CONCLUSION: If I said anything more, even more good stuff about this book, I would be spoiling it for you. Hester Musson knocks it out of the park with sheer ingenuity in plotting and fine atmosphere-building. So good, and very recommended.
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Monday, December 11, 2023
A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself by Katherine Howe (Reviewed by Shazzie)
Book Review: A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself by Katherine Howe
Official Author Website
Buy A True Account here - U.S. | U.K.
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Katherine Howe is a #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer of historical fiction and nonfiction. Her best known books are The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2009 and was named one of USA Today's top ten books of the year, and Conversion, which received the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in young adult literature. In 2014 she edited The Penguin Book of Witches for Penguin Classics, a primary source reader on the history of witchcraft in England and North America. She co-authored the #1 bestselling Vanderbilt: the Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty with CNN's Anderson Cooper, which came out in September 2021. Their next collaboration, Astor: the Rise and Fall of an American Fortune will release September 19, 2023. And her next novel, A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself will be out November 21. 2023. She holds a BA in art history and philosophy from Columbia and an MA in American and New England studies from Boston University, A native Houstonian, she lives in New England with her family. She also puts hot sauce on everything.
FORMAT/INFO: A True Account was published in November 2023 by Magpie Books in the U.K. and by Henry Holt and Co. in the U.S. It is available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
FORMAT/INFO: A True Account was published in November 2023 by Magpie Books in the U.K. and by Henry Holt and Co. in the U.S. It is available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
Review: Our Hideous Progeny by C. E. McGill
Official Author Website
Buy Our Hideous Progeny here - U.S. | U.K.
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: C. E. MCGILL (THEY/THEM)was born in Scotland and raised on the east coast of the US, in North Carolina. In 2020, pining for the drizzly green countryside (and universal healthcare) once more, they and their family moved back to Scotland.
A lifelong fan of science both real and imagined, they originally studied aerospace engineering at NC State University. After discovering an unexpected allergy to lab reports, however, they switched instead to a minor in Physics and a Frankensteinian major of their own making entitled “Narratives of Science in Fiction and History,” an interdisciplinary degree on the interactions between scientific history and science fiction.
C. E. McGill’s short fiction has appeared in Fantasy Magazine and Strange Constellations, and they are a two-time finalist for the Dell Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. When not writing, they can be found reading, baking, sewing, crying over characters on TV, or preparing elaborate meals for the reincarnated spirit of a wilful and demanding princess who cannot be convinced that she is, in this life, a cat.
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AUTHOR INFO: Robert Rick McCammon was a full-time horror writer for many years. Among his many popular novels were the classics Boy's Life and Swan Song. After taking a hiatus for his family, he returned to writing with an interest in historical fiction.
McCammon resides in Birmingham, Alabama. He is currently working on the eighth Matthew Corbett novel, The King of Shadows.
Publisher: Subterranean Press (February 2, 2010) Length: 440 pages
One of the things I will miss most, now that the Winternight Trilogy has ended, is that at the beginning of each book, Katherine Arden has one of her characters tell a Russian folk tale, usually to a child, that foreshadows events to come within the narrative. These snippets don't spoil anything, but they set a tone for what's to come, and send a chill up my spine every time. Winter of the Witch, coming right on the heels of The Girl in the Tower, does not seem like it will find a dull moment in which to tell this folk tale, but it manages and that is basically one of the last peaceful moments in the entire book. Arden ends her trilogy in as grandly Russian a way as I can think of, and I am going to pine for her writing in years to come.
Strengths
At the end of The Girl in the Tower, Moscow is burning and Vasya is beat up. Vasya being beat up is the basic premise of Winter of the Witch, and for the entirety of the novel we rarely see her without bruises or cuts, mental and physical. The opening of the book is one of the most traumatic events a human being can go through, and it sets a tone for the rest of Vasya's journey. As hard as it is to read about the violence humans are capable of, it is almost necessary in this instance because it does not take long for Vasya to find her power. When she does, she becomes a force to be reckoned with, and without some kind of weakness or fear, she would run into the problem of near-invincibility. Her early trauma also leaves her vulnerable, and while she seems capable of facing down demons and the things that lurk in the dark, it is the actions of humans that frighten her most.Where The Girl in the Tower dealt with an immortal human sorcerer, Winter of the Witch brings us back into the conflict between Morozko and the Bear, fae brothers who wage an eternal war, with humans used as pawns. Vasya, in The Bear and the Nightingale, was at the center of this conflict, but Arden gives her the agency in Winter of the Witch to become her own faction, and it's a clever method of allowing her to finally break away from the confines of others and be her own power.
Arden's use of fae weirdness is also elevated in exciting ways as Vasya starts to travel down the paths of midnight, a mystical realm where she can pop in and out of anywhere as long as that place is enshrouded in those late hours of the night. Arden's knowledge of Russian folklore gets to have free reign in this novel more than in any other. If Katherine Arden ever published a book about the various weird creatures in Russian mythology, I would be 100% interested in reading it. I actually wish there were more of this in her novels than there is, and there's already a fair amount.
Weaknesses
With Vasya's great power comes a bit of plot armor that is difficult at times to reconcile. While she gets beat up almost consistently throughout the tale, there are times where she feels invincible, which leads to a lack of stakes. Thankfully, there are only a few spots in the novel where this might be an issue.The biggest problem I have with Winter of the Witch is that I wish it would have ended after its third part. There are four parts in total, with the entire fourth act as one battle sequence that, to me, felt out of place and forced. Arden talks in her acknowledgements about how she had always intended to end her trilogy at the Battle of Kulikovo, a historical event with some of the same figures as those in her novel. This is a respectable goal, but never once did I feel that the paths of these books would lead to a large battle against an enemy that is only ever an existential threat to the south. My reading of this series was always centered on Medved and Morozko, on Vasya and Konstantin and the Petrovna family. All of these characters do factor into that battle, but not in the way one might have expected when setting out on this journey. Winter of the Witch feels like a book that is over after its third part, with the fourth part feeling more like an offshoot sequel than part of this book. Perhaps students of Russian history would have a different perception of this, knowing what they know about the characters of these novels. For me, it was off-putting even if well told and exciting.
If You Liked
If you're invested in this series, this is an easy recommendation and it is a satisfying conclusion despite my misgivings about its final section. Vasya's growth over these three novels is remarkable, and Arden even manages to leave the door open to future development of the character. This book is also an easy recommendation for anyone interested in fae fantasy - books like Jeannette Ng's Under the Pendulum Sun, which deals with English fae instead of Russian fae but shares similar themes. There is a fair bit of romance in Arden's trilogy, and readers who find relationships between the supernatural and mundane engaging would find much to love here (though for those who aren't interested in the romance genre, it is never over-stated in any of these books).
Parting Thoughts
This is a series that I have been eager for and interested in since its first debut, and Katherine Arden has become a name to look for on shelves. I will be curious to see where she goes after this. Her heart seems to be in Russia, and there is certainly much more inspiration to be drawn from that frigid landscape. The Winternight Trilogy feels timeless, a thing to come back to every few years when the fire is roaring, logs popping, a cup of something warm to keep the wintry demons at bay (or something cold should one wish them nearer). Vasilisa Petrovna is one of those characters who feels real to me, like she's out there somewhere, roaming the various shadow realms that I'll likely never see. Those are the characters I look for in my fiction - the unforgettable heroes, the ones that defy everything to choose their own path. We need those.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION: Alma Katsu has a BA in Writing from Brandeis University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins Writing Program. The Taker is her debut novel.
PLOT SUMMARY: On the midnight shift at a hospital in rural Maine, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting another quiet evening of frostbite and the occasional domestic dispute. But the minute Lanore McIlvrae—Lanny—walks into his ER, she changes his life forever. A mysterious woman with a past and plenty of dark secrets, Lanny is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. He is inexplicably drawn to her . . . despite the fact that she is a murder suspect with a police escort. And as she begins to tell her story, a story of enduring love and consummate betrayal that transcends time and mortality, Luke finds himself utterly captivated.
Her impassioned account begins at the turn of the nineteenth century in the same small town of St. Andrew, Maine, back when it was a Puritan settlement. Consumed as a child by her love for the son of the town's founder, Lanny will do anything to be with him forever. But the price she pays is steep—an immortal bond that chains her to a terrible fate for all eternity. And now, two centuries later, the key to her healing and her salvation lies with Dr. Luke Findley.
Part historical novel, part supernatural page-turner, The Taker is an unforgettable tale about the power of unrequited love not only to elevate and sustain, but also to blind and ultimately destroy, and how each of us is responsible for finding our own path to redemption...
FORMAT/INFO: The Taker is 448 pages long divided over four Parts and fifty chapters. Narration switches between Luke Findley’s third-person POV set in the present day, and Lanore McIlvrae’s first-person story which is set in the past and comprises most of the novel. From chapter nineteen through the end of chapter twenty-four, the book features a third-person narrative from Adair. The Taker is largely self-contained, coming to a satisfying conclusion that wraps up the novel’s major plotlines, but two sequels have been contracted. September 6, 2011 marks the North American Hardcover publication of The Taker via Gallery. The UK edition (see below) was published on April 14, 2011 via Century / Random House UK.
The Taker opens in the present day with Dr. Luke Findley—a divorced father of two girls—asked to examine a young woman accused of murder. This woman, Lanore McIlvrae, reveals her secret to Luke in hopes of convincing the doctor to help her escape. Intrigued by the woman, Luke agrees to hear her story, thus establishing the novel’s central premise. As far as opening chapters go, The Taker’s is not very compelling. Luke is a dull, unsympathetic character; his third-person narrative is dry and awkward; and Lanore’s ‘secret’ is hardly a surprise since it is already revealed in the cover blurb. Because of these factors, The Taker completely failed to capture my interest. However, I decided to press on a little further and was rewarded for my perseverance.
After the opening chapter, The Taker switches to a first-person narrative as Lanore begins relating her extraordinary tale to Luke. This tale commences in the year 1809, introducing readers to Jonathan St. Andrew—Lanore’s one true love and the man she is accused of killing. From here, The Taker continues switching between Lanore’s first-person story set in the past, and Luke’s third-person narrative which occurs in the present day as the two of them try to escape from the law. Thankfully, despite the parallel storylines, the novel is mainly comprised of Lanore’s tale. Compared to Luke’s third-person narration, Lanore’s narrative is much more compelling. In fact, it almost seemed like two different people had written the book. Where the third-person narrative is dry and awkward, the chapters told in the first-person are elegant, accessible, and strikingly heartfelt:
“You might ask if I loved Jonathan for his beauty, and I would answer: that is a pointless question, for his great, uncommon beauty was an irreducible part of the whole. It gave him his quiet confidence—which some might have called aloof arrogance—and his easy, disarming way with the fairer sex. And if his beauty drew my eye from the first, I’ll not apologize for it, nor will I apologize for my desire to claim Jonathan for my own. To behold such beauty is to wish to possess it; it’s desire that drives every collector. And I was hardly alone. Nearly every person who came to know Jonathan tried to possess him. This was his curse, and the curse of every person who loved him. But it was like being in love with the sun: brilliant and intoxicating to be near, but impossible to keep to oneself. It was hopeless to love him and yet it was hopeless not to.”
Once I got past the novel’s opening chapter, The Taker became hard to put down. Lanore’s powerful love for Jonathan and the relationship that develops between them; Jonathan’s sexual escapades; the authentic portrayal of Puritan life with all of its propriety, religious beliefs and restrictions against women; and the heartbreaking events surrounding Lanore’s fall from grace . . . it’s very compelling stuff. Unfortunately, after Lanore was exiled to Boston in the year 1817, I became bored with the novel and almost gave up on The Taker a second time. Part of what attracted me to The Taker in the first place was the novel’s claim to be part “supernatural page-turner”. Yet, with over a third of the novel finished, where were all of the supernatural elements? After taking a break to read a different book, I decided to give The Taker one more chance. Once again, I was rewarded.
Shortly after the 150-page mark, Lanore undergoes her ‘change’ at the hands of Adair, a mysterious European noble she fell in with upon her arrival in Boston. Following this event, readers are graced with Adair’s story, which is nearly sixty pages long and narrated in the third-person. Taking place in the 1300s (A.D.) in Hungarian/Romanian territory, Adair’s tale is a fascinating one, chronicling the former peasant’s years as an apprentice to Ivor cel Rau, a physic/alchemist of noble Romanian birth. This includes the rape and abuse suffered at the physic’s hands, uncovering Ivor cel Rau’s dark secrets, and executing a devious plan to free Adair from the physic’s grasp.
At the story’s conclusion, Lanore’s narrative takes over with Lanore adjusting to her new abilities and her new life in Boston as a member of Adair’s court. A life quite different from her days as a Puritan, full of luxury, decadence and seduction, which reminded me a little bit of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel novels. From here, the action shifts back to St. Andrew where Lanore tries to convince Jonathan to become like ‘her’, and then back to Boston where the endgame between Lanore and Adair plays out. Completing Lanore’s tale are the recent events between her and Jonathan, which directly lead to Lanore’s current predicament with Luke. The outcome between Lanore and Jonathan—and between Luke and Lanore—is never in question, but reaching these outcomes is a fascinating journey all the same.
Even though The Taker can be a bit predictable at times, the novel boasts a couple of very nice surprises, especially regarding the book’s supernatural elements. Because of comparisons to such novels as Interview with the Vampire, The Passage and Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, a reader might assume there are vampires in The Taker. I know I did. That’s not the case however. Adair, Lanore, and the others may possess abilities similar to vampirism, but the differences are unique enough to be refreshing:
“We sleep and wake, eat and drink, go through our day like any other human being. The only difference is that another person might ponder, from time to time, which day will be his last. But you and I, our days will never end. We go on, bearing witness to everything around us.”
Negatively, I already mentioned the problems I had with the opening chapter and the supernatural elements taking too long before making their presence felt. In addition to these drawbacks, I also had issues with the shallow characterization of anyone not named Lanore, Jonathan or Adair; failing to flesh out the unique bond that Adair maintains with those of his court; and 160 years of Lanore’s life reduced to a few paragraphs. Fortunately, Alma Katsu is contracted for at least two sequels to The Taker, so it’s very possible that these issues with Lanore’s history and unexplained abilities will get resolved, although I’m not quite sure how the sequels will work without Jonathan in them.
CONCLUSION: Starting out, I had a difficult time with Alma Katsu’s The Taker, nearly giving up on the book at two separate occasions. Fortunately, once I got past the opening chapter and the supernatural elements kicked in, The Taker became nearly impossible to put down. It’s easy to see why. Take away the novel’s negative issues and what is left? How about a beautifully written, heartfelt narrative; compelling, unforgettable characters; and a mesmerizing blend of history, romance, and the supernatural. In the end, even with its flaws, The Taker is a captivating novel and one of the better debuts of the year...
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