I wanted to love this more than I did
★★★★☆ – CALSPIE: 7.57
Title: The Familiar
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Fiction / Historical Fantasy / Magical Realism
First Published: 2024
Edition: Hardback, published by Penguin Viking in 2024
FROM THE BLURB: In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position.
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I had been looking forward to this one. I enjoyed the Shadow and Bone trilogy by the same author some few years back and I was looking forward to a more adult novel by her. I also tend to enjoy historical fiction and fantasy, so a combination sounded great! It did not quite work as well for me as I had hoped, but it is a good book.
I think my main struggle was with Luzia as a main character. I found it difficult to pin her down. Especially in the beginning she read younger than she was supposed to be and that made the story a little jarring to me. It did get better as the book went on. The relationship at the heart of the book was just ok for me, but it did have an ending I really enjoyed.
I thought the setting in Spain was great, but I did not quite get enough of a sense of place to really feel it beyond the side characters.
I think this novel will work for a lot of people. It certainly is not badly written. I just had some issued with it that stopped me from enjoying it more.
3.75 out of 5 stars
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CALSPIE: 7.57
- Characters: 7
- Ambience: 7.5
- Language: 7.5
- Story: 8
- Pacing: 8
- Interest: 7.5
- Enjoyment: 7.5
Lola Et La Vie 