Read September 2024
Recommended for a select group
★ ★ 1/2
This is a strange one to review. I honestly enjoyed it, but I also did not read all the words.
You read that right. Skimming was involved.
How do I reconcile that? Something about Shaw’s writing is smooth, but I think it’s the kind of smoothness of easy listening music, I’m listening, following along, and then less interested, start thinking about something else, then a particular run or note pulls me back in. Shaw’s world is a modern one with references to Disney princesses and she uses a cell phone, but it still manages to feel very Edwardian. It doesn’t help that the opening scene is getting ready to go to the Parisian opera.
Like McGuire, Shaw occasionally brings in enchanting little creatures, here a well monster and a hair monster. I suspect wanting to find out more about these charmingly ugly creatures motivated me to continue, which was fortunate, because I started to recall I had trouble finishing her first book.
It’s told in limited third person, with the bare majority in Greta’s head, although we also stop in a vampire’s, Sir Frances Varney; the villain’s, the villain’s girlfriend, the villain’s henchman, a pair of ancient beings’, and even a very side character, the local werewolf Alceste St. Germain:
“He was sufficiently tall and broad that very few people took the time to point out to him that Alceste was a girl’s name. His mother had seen Molière’s Le Misanthrope shortly after its premiere, and it had apparently left an impression; and the young St. Germain had very quickly attained a size and stature that dissuaded people from saying anything about it where he might overhear.
Born in a small village in the province of Gévaudan, he had, in fact, grown so large and strong that his parents had had him quickly apprenticed to the local blacksmith in hopes of channeling that strength into something more constructive than getting into an endless series of embarrassing scrapes. St. Germain had taken to the work at once. In the forge he was able to make things, not just useful things but beautiful things–although a properly balanced blade was a thing of beauty in its own right–and his masterpiece showed an uncommon facility for rendering a kind of delicacy in the medium of iron.”
It goes on this way for another five or six pages. Will Alceste play a significant role in the story? Does being a blacksmith have anything to do with it? Spoiler: not really and no. So, it helps if you have a high tolerance and/or interest in sidetracks. Not that I don’t, but to be honest, the bit on Alceste, which is basically a character summary, isn’t particularly interesting and definitely doesn’t relate to the plot. Though said prettily, it was basically introducing age, birthplace, and supernatural status (oh, and that he’s self-centered). Now that we’re talking about it, I realize this is also unnatural head-voice, as we rarely reflect on our backgrounds so comprehensively. I, of course, skimmed over many of the words, because I had already started to suspect Alceste of being peripheral.
Anyway, I’d rather not go on, but I think that gets to the essence of what about this doesn’t work for me, and what does. I enjoyed the medical moments and the physiology. I rather like that the plot is so darn Scooby-Doo. I enjoyed the rather kind nature of the story, that redemption is possible (we’ll ignore the dead bodies), and that we can create bonds through compassion. But, and this is a very big but, there is far too much head talk from too many characters, to the detriment of story momentum. There are, frankly–and I’m aware of the irony here–too many words. Your mileage may vary.