mediaevalmuse's reviews
1153 reviews

I enjoyed The Death of Jane Lawrence so I decided to see what other books by Starling my library had on offer. I picked up this novella, hoping for some more spooky times, and I got that - at least at first. While individual parts of this book were interesting, as a whole, the story just did not cohere for me. Thus, my rating of 2.5 stars.

WRITING: Starling's prose in this book is ok. There are some things that are done well and some things I wish were different. I did like the gradual spread of the "plague" and the way the victims were described - Starling is good at creating some unsettling imagery. But when it came to crafting emotionally-resonant passages, I was left feeling a little empty. Pretty much everything that was supposed to have an emotional impact - Evelyn's past, her relationship with her family, her relationship with Violetta - felt told to us rather than shown, and on top of that, some of the prose buried us in overexplaining Evelyn's thoughts and reasoning. So while sentences themselves were clear and weird (in a good way), on a macro-level, I wanted a little more planning and less explanation of every little thing.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Lady Evelyn Perdanu, a shipping magnate in the fictional city of Delphinium. Delphinium is the last city standing against an enemy force, coming to conquer their territory. Meanwhile, Evelyn notices one of her ships has brought in a "plague" that seems to be making its victims fixate on her. Evelyn becomes obsessed with deflecting attention away from her lest she be accused of bringing a plague to the city, and moreover, she becomes increasingly paranoid that the plague will uncover some of her past sins.

I liked the premise of this plot, but in practice, it seemed to be trying to take on too much. It wanted to be part political intrigue, part plague story, part supernatural, etc with some murder and eccentricity and plant stuff to boot. I never felt like all these elements cohered into something; I was pulled in so many different directions that by the end, I wasn't quite sure what was going on or what I was supposed to get out of everything.

I think this story could have been more successful if it had picked just a couple things and really focused on Evelyn's paranoia. Trying to do politics and poison and supernatural stuff and plague and police investigations and whatever else just stretched its themes too thin.

CHARACTERS: Evelyn, our protagonist, has a lot going on so it's hard to pin her down. One minute, she's a ruthless shipping magnate with a fierce determination to keep herself afloat. She has no qualms killing people who get in her way and cultivates a garden of poisonous plants to aid her. The next minute, she's an anxious mess who can't act and who bestows tinctures and herbal remedies on her fellow aristocrats as a means to ingratiate herself to them. Personally, I found her to be full of contradictions, and her spiral downward doesn't so much show a devolution in character as it does tell us that Evelyn has too many secrets to keep up with.

Violetta, Evelyn's assistant, is ok, but her relationship with Evelyn isn't as well-developed as I would have liked. This book advertises itself as queer horror, but personally, the queerness felt shallow since all the romantic (or potentially romantic) aspects of the relationship were told to us rather than shown. Violetta's role as a loyal employee was much stronger.

Other characters were fine, if under-used. The strange man that Evelyn and Violetta find on the side of the road seems to be an afterthought for most of the book, and we don't really see Evelyn try to use him to the degree that she wants to. The police officer (or equivalent, in this fantasy universe) is also too besotted with Evelyn to be seen as a real threat, and I would have liked to see his suspicion be used to heighten Evelyn's anxiety more and to create some tension. True, Evelyn does do her best to keep her secrets from him, but as a reader, I didn't feel like he was truly someone I had to worry about.

TL;DR: Yellow Jessamine is a novella that tries to do too much at the expense of creating a coherent narrative. While some of the creepier elements were fun and I loved the idea of a character being brought down by their own paranoia, there were simply too many elements that competed with one another. 

I was aware that Cooper was writing a memoir, but I picked it up now because I wanted to think about birds. It's cold where I am, and I haven't seen birds in my backyard since it dipped below 20 degrees.

This book did have Birding in it, but it's not a Birding guide. It's more of a memoir that includes Birding in addition to stories about traveling the world, living in NYC, being Black and queer, and working for Marvel in the 1990s. All of this is very interesting - as a nerd myself, I liked reading inside stories about what working for Marvel was like, and I think if I ever met Cooper, we'd have a lot to geek out about.

The strongest parts of this book, in my opinion, were when Cooper connects what's happening in his life to something that goes beyond just him. For example, I loved the way he described a particular bird using a self-invented myth: it brilliantly captured his emotional reaction to the animal without merely describing what it looked like. His insights into what happened to him in Central Park was also good because he grappled with a lot of complex things: his personal feelings, the expectations of other people, the broader social context of Black suffering and racism. In these moments, I felt like I was reading about how one man experienced the world, and that deeply personal take was inspiring.

The chapter on other birders in Central Park is also pretty fun. I loved learning not just about Birding but about the Birding community. The insight into this niche hobby is so wonderful, and I wish more communities were as lovely as Cooper describes.

I do think, however, that the framing of this book could be a little confusing. This book is framed as lessons learned from Birding, and while there is some of that, Birding sometimes disappears for long stretches at a time. From all the Birding tips and the list of the seven joys of Birding, I thought most of this memoir would be told with Birding as a recurring theme, and while that happened sometimes, I think travel is much more central.

I'm also not the biggest fan of Cooper's prose. It's fine - it does what it needs to do. And there are some good descriptions of the natural world. But it didn't wow me, which is unfortunate since so much of the memoir involves the awe of nature and Cooper's fierce determination to stand up for civil rights.

Lastly, I think there needed to be a bit more reflection. Much of the memoir flits from story to story with only a sentence or two that reflects on why it matters. Personally, I think memoirs are strongest when the author gives some kind of insight or lesson learned from the situation - something other than a recollection of facts and events.

TL;DR: Christian Cooper's memoir makes the author sound like a cool person who I'd love to hang out with. But it didn't wow me to the extent I was hoping. 

 This book was recommended by a friend (the one with whim I share a historical romance novel blog). I generally trust her judgment, so here we are. Though I can't say this book was Gothic (as the cover advertises), I did have great fun watching our characters spar and then turn into partners. I'll be checking out more from this author, too, since my first exposure to her work is this 4 star read.

WRITING: Bennet's prose is about what you'd expect of the romance genre. As I've said before, this isn't a bad thing: Bennet knows her audience and her genre, and I appreciate a romance that's clear and quick.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Evangeline "Evie" Jones, a spiritualist/medium in Victorian London who holds seances to keep herself off the street. Unfortunately, she has attracted the attention of Alex, Duke of Harcastle - famous for his ruthless exposures of fake mediums. Evangeline must find a way to avoid his meddling while also obeying the commands of her mentor, a powerful criminal named Captain.

One thing I really appreciated about this plot was the pace. I felt like events progressed at just the right speed, and I further appreciated that a wrench was thrown into the narrarive at about the 50% mark rather than closer to the end (like a lot of romances). The pace did slow for the last 10-20%, however, when it felt like Evie and Alex were just waiting around for action. But up until then, I never felt rushed.

I also appreciated the class consciousness in this book and that no one ever shamed women for sex work. Evie challenges a lot of Alex's ideas, pointing out where his privilege makes him blind to certain things. It was very satisfying to me because I've read a lot of books where class is barely considered.

CHARACTERS: Evie, our heroine, is sympathetic in that she's just trying her best to make a living. Her backstory is understandable and informs her current choices: not only is she determined, but she also doesn't get close to a lot of people for fear of losing them. I especially liked the complexity of her relationship with Captain; as both her mentor and her tormentor, Captain inspires loyalty, fear, and gratitude, and watching Evie wrestle with these emotions made for a richer character arc.

Alex, our hero, was fun in that he has a single-mindedness that gets challenged in so many ways. I did feel some sympathy for him when I learned of his past, though I wish his past had informed his choice to pursue mediums a bit more strongly. I also wish more was done to develop the sense of responsibility he had regarding his estate. His estate is a major barrier to his marriage to Evie, and frankly, I wasn't altogether convinced he cared enough.

Supporting characters were sweet. I loved Evie's relationship with Mags, her roommate. I also loved Evie's affection for Jack, one of the younger boys in Captain's employ. Alex's sister and her husband will probably have more significance once I read book one in this series, and my guess is that Ellis, Alex's cousin, will get his own book as well.

Captain as an antagonist was fine. Though I liked the relationship he had with Evie, his motivations were a little iffy to me. I wish he had been a bit more active, especially towards the end when Alex and Evie seem to be waiting for him to make a move.

ROMANCE: The romance between Alex and Evie was fun. I liked how they started out as adversaries and bickered with one another, only to learn to trust each other and open themselves up to emotion. The way they mirrored each other in that regard was satisfying; both learned through the romance that being vulnerable can be ok and that people of all backgrounds need a little compassion.

TL;DR: The Ruin of Evangeline Jones is an adventurous tale of a duke and a medium going head-to-head, only to fall for one another and turn against one of London's most powerful criminals. 

This book has artistic merit, but in all honesty, it just wasn't a book I was going to enjoy. I picked it up not knowing what I was getting myself into, and despite liking the writing, the whole thing was just unpleasant. Perhaps it's because I'm not a fan of bleak stories set in the vague past. But again, that's my preference. 

WRITING: Moshfegh's prose is well-crafted: it flows easily, advances at an appropriate pace, balances showing and telling, etc. It also does a good job of creating various moods, wavering between despair and absurdity. For the themes that Moshfegh wants to explore, I think her style works. It's descriptive and sometimes blunt, and I always felt the bleakness coming in at every sentence.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows a cast of characters in the medieval town of Lapvona over the course of about a year. During this year, there is a murder, a drought, a wedding, and a bunch of other events, each revealing (to often absurd degrees) the length of human greed, selfishness, and corruption.

A lot of this book is gross. There is scatalogical imagery, sexual assault, casual violence, and so on, so if you're at all sensitive to those things, I'd advise skipping this book altogether. Intellectually, i understand why all these things were included in the book, but I personally don't get much enjoyment or narrative/artistic satisfaction from them.

But credit where credit is due: I think Moshfegh made a story that moved at an appropriate pace, neither rushing nor plodding along, and things were just interesting enough where I felt like I could stick it out to the end rather than DNF. Perhaps it's because the characters are the type you love to hate and I wanted to see them get their comeuppance. Perhaps things were just so bananas that I continued out of curiosity. Whatever the reason, I think the overall shape of the narrative worked well and kept the ball rolling, even if that ball was a pile of shit and piss.

CHARACTERS: There are a lot of characters in this book, so I'm not going to go over them individually. Instead, I'll just generally say that I think Moshfegh did a good job making them somewhat eccentric and well-rounded, despite how unlikable most of them are. We spend a lot of time in the heads of various characters, so we get to know their attitudes towards a number of things: religion, pleasure, self-importance, and so on. Each character was horrible in their own way, which made them interesting, and I was at least interested in watching them evolve (or devolve) over the course of a year.

TL;DR: Lapvona has artistic merit, but this kind of bleak storytelling is just not for me. 

This book has been on my radar but I didn't pick it up until I found a used copy. The premise was intriguing, and I'm a sucker for stories that grapple with complex understanding of religion and gender. But while I did like a lot about this book, I think the main think holding it back is the lack of a driving plot. Don't get me wrong - the story of queer survival is a good one, but personally, I felt like most of this book was just in a holding pattern.

WRITING: White's prose is generally pretty good. On a sentence level, it moves swiftly and works hard to capture Benji's emotions surrounding his transformation, his need for support, and his complex relationship with his past.

I did like the way Benji ran through a lot of Bible verses and teachings in his head, showing the hold that religious indoctrination can have on a person even if they disagree or leave/escape a church.

I do think, however, that some of the prose could feel repetitive, mostly because there are some places in the plot where it feels like we're waiting around. It felt like White used repetitive descriptions of Benji feeling sick or Benji checking in with Nick not to build suspense, but because there wasn't really much happening. I think if the plot was a bit more focused, less of this "dead time" could have been more interesting.

I'm also not sure how I feel about the switch in perspectives. If they were a little more consistent, I think that would have helped, but some of them feel random so it was a tad awkward.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Benji, a 16 year old trans boy who escapes from an eco-fascist Christian cult two years after said cult has released a virus on the world. Survivors live in an apocalyptic wasteland, and to finish off the 'unbelievers' and bring about the true end of the world, the cult creates a new strain of the virus called Seraph. Benji, being the first person to survive Seraph, is believed to be the ultimate weapon that can advance the cult's goals, so when he escapes, they make it a priority to get him back.

Meanwhile, Benji finds shelter with a group of teens holed up in an old LGBTQIA+ Center. While Benji tries to hide the transformations that are making him more monstrous, one of the group's leaders, Nick, has a plan for Benji that may work against everything they stand for.

I really liked the idea of monstrosity being not an allegory queer and trans identity itself (in the vein of monstrosity = outsider, monster as queer, etc), but also as a metaphor for how an oppressive group (Christianity, in this case) can create feelings of monstrosity in a queer person. Monstrosity is something that is deliberately done to Benji in order to further the cult’s own goals, and a big part of Benji's arc is learning to deal with his monstrosity despite never asking for it or having no control over it being done to him.

However, I do think the overall plot of this book was a little weak. White does his best to create an impending sense of dread while also reveling in a revenge fantasy, but there isn't a lot of support from the story to make those things land. The author's note tells us that more than dread and revenge, this is meant to be a survival story, but again, I think the plot needed a little something else to make it feel like Benji and the others weren't just existing. Perhaps Benji and Nick team up to try to find a cure but Nick is plotting a betrayal. Perhaps they team up to get Benji as far away from people as possible. Some kind of end goal that can drive the narrative rather than leaving it so open.

Lastly, I think more needed to be done to show us the impact of the past on Benji. The book opens with Benji running away and the death of his father, so it's a bit in medias res. From there, most of Benji's past is told to us, so it's difficult to absorb his emotional attachment to his father, to Theo, etc. I think having flashbacks or dual timelines would have helped a lot.

CHARACTERS: Benji, our protagonist, is interesting in that he's a trans boy struggling with his very literal monstrosity and his past as a child in an eco-fascist cult. I liked that White showed him as compassionate towards the Graces and I liked Benji's complicated feelings for Theo. But I do think more could have been done to give him a personal arc that unfolds over the course of the whole novel, not just all at once at the end.

Nick, the autistic teen in charge of the ALC (more or less), has some sweet moments. I liked the way he bonded with Benji by passing notes back and forth, and the pressure Nick was under to keep everyone alive and safe was understandable. I do think White showed his cards too soon when it came to Nick's secrets, and I think more could have been done to explore a personal arc of moving from staunch protector and soldier to something else.

Theo, Benji's former fiancé, was very interesting to me because he accepted Benji without question yet still fully believed in the cult doctrine. It was fascinating to watch the complexity of how feelings for someone could challenge one's belief in a cause, and I was eager to find out what would win out in the end.

Supporting characters were fine, though I think there could have been more opportunities to shape the plot so that Benji bonded with the ALC teens more emotionally. As it stands, most of the others just kind of feel there until the end, when Benji decides to view them as family. I wanted a little more growth to support that switch.

TL;DR: Hell Followed With Us is a book with an interesting premise but needs a lot more narrative support. While it's nice to have trans representation in a book about survival and religion, I also think this book lacked a driving force that would have made the plot more interesting. 

 This review hurts my heart to write because I'm a huge fan of Ann Reardon's YouTube channel.

For full disclosure: I haven't made every recipe in this book, but my 2 star review is due to my experiences making two different recipes: the chocolate cake and the heart cupcakes. In both instances, my cake/cupcakes came out of the oven completely raw in the middle even after leaving them in for a few minutes over the suggested time. Once I got the chocolate cake to test clean via the knife test, it was too dry. The heart cupcakes I never got to set.

Now, I'm a fairly competent baker, but it's possible I did something wrong. I want to give Ann the benefit of the doubt and day that there was something that I did in my preparation that threw off the whole process.

I'm sure that if I tried some of the other recipes that can be more loosey-goosey with their ingredients, they would turn out just fine. I also love the photography in this book and the little bits of food science that teach the reader how ingredients work and interact.

But unless I can figure out what went wrong, this book has to be a 2 star read for me. As such, I'll probably use this book as inspiration for experimenting with my more tried and true recipes. 

I didn't have any reason for picking up this book other than it was available at the library and I was in a Gothic mood. But once I started reading, I felt like it was hard to stop. So much was happening! It was weird! There's math! Ultimately, I gave this book 3.5 stars because I do think there was a bit too much, but at the end of the day, I had a good time. Maybe this isn't the traditional Gothic one expects, but it was so weird that it's hard to say it isn't memorable.

WRITING: Starling's prose and structure reminded me a lot of the romance genre - at least for the first phase of the book. That's not a bad thing. By setting up a marriage of convenience and then a quick descent into Real Feelings, Starling establishes emotional stakes and makes use of the romance part of Gothic romance.

As the book continues, the prose more or less stays the same but feels less and less like romance. Sentences are still quick and simple, so if that's the kind of style you like, you'll have an easier time with this book.

Personally, I think the atmosphere of the house could have been pushed just a bit more. But more than that, I think Starling could have drawn out the tension to make a more unsettling plot. More on that below.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Jane, a twenty-something year old woman who decides to marry rather than be a financial burden on her guardians. Jane proposes a marriage of convenience to Dr. Augustine Lawrence, the town surgeon: she will use her math skills to keep records and balance his accounts so that he can focus on being a doctor. As part of their agreement, Augustine mandates that Jane live at the surgical center in town and he live at his family home, Lindridge Hall. Jane is never to spend the night there. The two accept but soon find themselves genuinely attracted to one another. Moreover, Jane finds herself at Lindridge Hall, where something not quite right is happening at night.

I'm a Gothic girlie, and the first section of this book was everything I wanted it to be: marriage to a man with dark secrets, a dilapidated old house, possibly ghosts. I was very excited to figure out what had happened in the past, so the mystery was what kept me reading.

Around the 30-40% mark, the story shifts a bit. We get a lot of info dumped on us that changes the narrative from your traditional Gothic to something more. I wasn't necessarily displeased, but I did wish the shift had come from Jane's own powers of logic and discovery rather than things being revealed by other characters.

The last leg of the book follows Jane through an intense trial (of sorts). Without spoiling anything, I will say that part of me found this section too drawn-out, but part of me liked the psychological weirdness that I think was the point.

Moreover, this book takes place in a 'dark mirror post-war England,' and while I appreciate a bit of alternate history, I don't think the setting added much to this story. There wasn't really a reason for this not to be set in our world, and the 'dark mirror parts didn't necessarily influence the narrative in ways I found significant.

I don't know - I had a great time, but I also felt like there was just a bit too much.

CHARACTERS: Jane, our protagonist, was interesting in that I appreciated the way Starling filtered her thoughts through mathematics and logic. Jane is proficient at these things, and I've read books in the past where character skills don't necessarily have any bearing on their thought patterns or actions. Jane, by contrast, actively uses math and logic to try to understand what is going on around her (and to challenge her own perceptions and feelings), and I found that satisfying.

I also liked how Jane has a sense of agency even through parts of the plot when she is terrified and in over her head. For the last leg of the narrative, Jane's willpower and sense of agency kept me from finding her trials too repetitive or terrorizing. Instead, I admired the way she made decisions for herself and held a singular goal in mind.

Augustine, the surgeon, was also interesting in that Gothic-hero kind of way. I was totally invested in figuring out his secrets and learning if his past was in contrast to his present. As the book went on and his secrets were revealed, I liked how Starling pivoted to thinking about the difference between self-loathing/shame and humility. Jane has a bit of this journey too, but Augustine is the main vehicle, and I liked how it was combined with his supposed ghosts, visions, and obsession with [redacted for spoilers].

Supporting characters were fine, though I do think some of them were used to conveniently provide Jane with the information or materials she needed. I think if Jane had put more things together herself, the narrative would have been more tense and so many random side characters wouldn't have been needed, or else more time could have been spent building up characters with emotional impact (such as the Cunninghams or Jane's mother).

TL;DR: The Death of Jane Lawrence is weird. If you're looking for your typical Gothic novel, you'll only find that for about 30% of this book. After that, it's a wild ride of horror that is all at once fascinating and perhaps trying to do too much. I still had a good time, though. 

I was in a witchy mood when I came across this book at the library, so I decided to give it a go. I hadn't heard much about this author, so I was excited to possibly discover a new favorite. Unfortunately, this book was something of a let down, and though there were some elements I enjoyed, it just didn't come together as a whole.

WRITING: Henderson's prose is not for me, and I can't say I can tell if it's because the book is aimed at a younger audience or if it's because this is a debut novel and thus contains some inexperienced craft. Henderson seems to insert details that don't really matter in an attempt to pad the narrative while over-explaining things so that there is no room for the reader to piece things together themself. Moreover, I felt like Henderson leaned a bit too much on telling, making it hard to get a feel for the world and the relationships between characters.

Henderson also has the tendency to rely on filtering words that kept me an arm's length from the protagonist. There are a lot of constructions like "Immanuelle knew..." or "Immanuelle guessed..." that could have been eliminated to tighten up the prose. I think the prose could also have been improved by eliminating some repetitive descriptions, such as the thousand references to Immanuelle feeling sick or something affliction her belly/throat.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Immanuelle, a teenage mixed race girl born from a scandalous liasion between her mother and an Outsider father. Immanuelle lives in a place called Bethel, which houses a patriarchal, polygamous religion ruled by a figure called the Prophet. Bethel also exists at the edge of the Darkwood, which is said to be inhabited by witches.

One day, Immanuelle finds herself drawn into the Darkwood and unwittingly participates in a ritual that releases a series of plagues upon Bethel. She finds an unlikely ally in the son and heir of the Prophet - Ezra - and together, they seek to uncover both Immanuelle's parents' past and the dark secrets of the church.

I'm a bit torn because on the one hand, I love a witchy plot that pits people against a corrupt and controlling church. I love the potential feminist message that accompanies stories of witchcraft and I love skewering hypocritical cult leaders. Unfortunately, the plot and worldbuilding of this book was a bit too shallow for that kind of analysis to shine.

Henderson uses a lot of Biblical names and imagery to portray Bethel's religion, but despite looking a lot like Christian fundamentalism, the religion is not Christian. It's a fantasy religion that worships a Father associated with light and rejects a Mother associated with darkness. I understand how using the trappings of Christian fundamentalism gets the point across for Henderson: this is supposed to be a repressive religion. Names that evoke Christian fundamentalism are kind of a shortcut for actual worldbuilding; I know the religion is repressive, but I don't really know what their religion actually entails. Where does the dagger imagery come from? Why multiple wives? I think the story would have felt a lot more grounded if Bethel was rather a cult set in our world and not the dominant religion of a fantasy one.

Lastly, I think Henderson's attention was a little too broadly placed on the concept of "patriarchy." Don't get me wrong - patriarchy bad. But Henderson alludes to a lot of complex intersections between gender, race, power, and religion, and yet does not seem interested in exploring any of them. For example, Immanuelle is mixed race: her mother was white and her father, an Outsider who supposedly had more knowledge of the Mother, was dark-skinned. Yet there is no exploration of how race shapes Immanuelle's life or how church doctrine twists holy scripture against dark-skinned people. There is also a moment when a woman is dying in childbirth and the decision is made to save the life of the baby over the mother. And yet there is also no exploration of themes that connect to a pro-life stance within the church. Even when Immanuelle does realize that the church is hypocritical, it doesn't really feel like a turning point; it seems like Immanuelle had some hint of things all along or else she is Enlightened all at once. There is no gradual unfolding of the horrors of the church - it's bad from the get-go and it feels like Immanuelle is just not able to see it.

CHARACTERS: Immanuelle, our protagonist, is a little hard to be enthusiastic about because it's never quite clear what she wants. Henderson tells us that she cares for her family and for her friend, Leah, but interactions between them are minimal and don't carry a sense of deep love or emotional intimacy. Immanuelle also doesn't seem to struggle with her faith in a way that is narratively interesting; at times, it seemed like she was doubtful of the religious order, but at others, she seemed like she believed or accepted some aspects of its teachings. Rather than dive into the complexities of that, Henderson just made her heroine feel flat.

Ezra, Immanuelle's friend and the heir to the Prophet, is fine. He's the kind of person you'd expect your hero to be: protective, valiant, rejects social norms. He doesn't have much of an arc, which is a shame because there was an opportunity to move him from skeptic to a believer. His gift of Sight is also woefully underused, so I hope that's explored more in the book's sequel.

Supporting characters didn't quite feel fleshed out enough to feel consequential. Immanuelle tells us how much she cares for her family, but she barely has any scenes that establish their closeness. If anything, she seems to be treated rather harshly, so it's difficult to understand why she still adores them. Leah also barely feels like a full character because, despite being Immanuelle's best friend, her only role is to be a victim - never a real confidante and agent in the plot.

The antagonists were also difficult to get a handle on because their actions and motivations didn't make much sense. The Prophet was on the periphery until the end, where he began to make offers that made no sense to me. The Witches were more avatars than real characters, and this would have been fine if the themes of the book were explored more fully.

TL;DR: Despite some delightfully creepy images and some good witchery, The Year of the Witching doesn't quite develop its characters or its worldbuilding, leaving the story to dance around the themes of religion, race, and patriarchy rather than attacking them head-on. 

 This book has been on my TBR pile for ages and I finally picked it up thanks to my New Year's Resolution to read more chonky books. Overall, I can see why this book is highly regarded, but I think readers will struggle with it if they don't have a strong background in French history. Reading the Norton Critical Edition certainly helped, as I'm no expert myself. I can't speak for the translation's accuracy, but it was helpful to have a number of critical resources available.

WRITING: Since I do not have the original French edition of this book, I can't speak to the accuracy of the translation - only the impression that I have from the English.

It seemed to me that the prose jumped around a bit. Sometimes, the authorial asides were quite funny and charming. At other times, time skips appeared at random and were so jarring that they interrupted the sense of flow. There were also phrases that were repeated multiple times, so much so that they were distracting, but even so, I can't say that I disliked the prose. It's fairly interesting in a 19th century sort of way, but I can see how some people may struggle with it.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Julien Sorel, the youngest son of a provincial carpenter, whose ambitions for status and wealth are at odds with his own pride and passion. Julien begins by accepting a position as a Latin tutor for the mayor of the town, and after embarking upon an affair with the mayor's wife, must escape to seminary in order to avoid scandal. From there, he attaches himself to a priest who gets him a job as a secretary for a prominent Marquis. Julien then embarks upon another affair and things spiral downward from there.

There was a lot about this plot that I found quite interesting. I liked the way Stendhal interacts with the political climate of the 1830s and how Julien's ambitious fit in with various parties vying for power and influence. I also really enjoyed the way the heroic past is utilized, both in defining Julien's ambitions and in characterizing Mathilde's passion.

I can see how this book may be a struggle for some readers, however, as much of its significance derives from knowledge of Stendhal's interaction with French history and politics. In that sense, the Norton Critical Edition was invaluable; I'm no expert myself, so it was helpful to read through the secondary sources to get a sense of what Stendhal was doing.

CHARACTERS: Julien, our protagonist, was interesting in that he constantly thwarted his own ambition by getting caught up in emotion and passion. It made him something of a slippery fish but without much cunning; he wasn't ruthless, but he was nevertheless constantly thinking, and that was kind of fun. I also was never sure whether to see him as sympathetic or not; he would sometimes act abominably, but his point about the upper classes and social hierarchies are on point. In the end, I don't think sympathy mattered all that much; his attitudes were terrible and amusing, so what more can one ask for?

Mathilde, one of Julien's lovers, was more interesting to me personally because of how she embodied aristocratic pride and its relationship to the past. I was intrigued by Mathilde's wild desire for passion and danger, especially since it contrasted with the boredom of the present upper class, and her adoration for her ancestors and heroic past was particularly thought-provoking.

Mme de Renal, Julien's first lover, is fine. Her devotion to Julien is fun in a gossipy, scandal-making way, and she provides an interesting contrast to Mathilde.

Various other characters serve their purpose well, and several of them are instrumental for understanding the political climate I'm which Julien is operating. His various friendship were heartening even if they were risky, and his quarrels with various people were good fodder for exploring the barriers to his ambition.

TL;DR: The Red and the Black is a fascinating piece of 19th century French literature, though if you're not familiar with history, I would definitely recommend an edition with supporting materials.