(3.75*)
Started: 07/06/22
Finished: 17/06/22
Spoilers: No
3.75*
(Yes, I'm being that fussy about it.)
Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Characters
A sure and fast way to win my heart in any book is a ragtag group of friends that bounce humour off of each other just as frequently as they do ideas. The dynamic within this group had me smiling as I listened to them banter, and the banter itself was nothing short of excellent. It was incredibly easy to fall in love with these characters. They had fantastic chemistry together.
The slow-burn romantic tension between Severin and Laila was electric and I relished every scene they shared together. I also love how they are like chalk and cheese. He's the serious type, mean and moody, while she is quite cheeky and fun-loving. She a performer and she knows how to use her talent and looks to her advantage, even against Severin himself.
Enrique became a very east favourite of mine. He's such a strong character and bursting with personality. If Severin wasn't present, Enrique could certainly carry the weight of the story on his shoulders. He's the funny one. Bisexual and dripping with wit. He adds a light touch to every dark scene he's in.
Zofia was a pleasant character. Loved seeing a Polish girl included, and one with my great-grandmother's name, no less. She's a logically-minded genius mathematician. Her understanding of emotions is little more than a chemical reaction in the brain, but she's still very capable of feeling those emotions. And her lack of getting jokes makes her the perfect double-act with Enrique. Again, chalk and cheese, but on a much more extreme level.
Tristan was probably my least favourite of the group. Not because I didn't like him, but mostly because I just never really felt like I knew him. All the characters had goals, motivations, fears and desires, and I understood all of them perfectly. But with Tristan, I never connected to him like I did the others. He sort of felt like he was just there and didn't seem to contribute much. He shone the most when he was with other characters, bantering with Enrique, for instance. But take the other characters away from Tristan and he becomes very bland and inconsequential.
Hypnos was a joy, obviously. Like Enqriue's personality on acid. He's gay, gregarious and ostentatious. Larger than life and born without a single fuck to give. For someone initially introduced as the bad guy, there's never a moment to not like him. He's fabulous from the word go.
The representation in this group of characters is incredibly diverse, in race, ethnicity, sexuality, and neuro-divergent.
Although there were quite few moments where the characters just reminded me too much of Six of Crows. Like Severin and Laila were so clearly Kaz and Inej. The tall, dark, brooding man with the plan and the multi-talented Indian girl formally working within an exotic trade of some kind. Plus there's Laila's ability which makes Severin cringe away from her touch. Much like how Kaz couldn't stand to be touched by Inej.
So yeah, In the beginning, they felt very similar, but thankfully, the more time I spent with these characters and the more they grew, they started to feel like their own being rather than cast moulds.
Setting
Set in France 1889.
The world-building is flimsy at best. Its strength lies solely in the fact that it's based on an alternative version of our own world, with our own histories and mythologies. It's Paris. All we need do is imagine Paris. Very little is done to build upon this foundation. If this were a secondary world, it would fall apart.
In general, the world feels more fantasy than historical. It seems like it's trying to be both but how can it, when it's set in 1889. There is literally a way people spoke back then and yes, I know this is a sort of fantasy version of France 1889, but sticking to the conventions of 1889 and then building on that would have felt far more authentic to the time period. I'm almost inclined to say I think an entire fantasy world would've been the better choice, but, as I already mentioned, the world-building was so thin already that a fictional world would never have been able to sustain itself. It would have simply collapsed
I've little ore to say about the setting as there was little supplied in the first place.
Plot
Okay not gonna lie. I think the plot itself is probably the book's biggest weakness. Fortunately, I'm the kind of character-driven reader that will overlook a LOT of plot flaws in exchange for loveable characters.
I found the plot to be very difficult to follow to the point where I didn't know what the hell was going on at points. I really think it needed to cut back and be more focused. It tries to be so many things, a personal stakes heist story, a mythology mystery, an Indiana Jones style adventure, then a high-stakes save-the-world story. It wants to be all the stories at once and, honestly, I was sold with just personal stakes heist. All the extra elements confused the plot and muddied the narrative a little making the over-arching plot difficult to follow.
The real villain of the story isn't introduced until too late into the book which sucks out much of the tension and stakes, despite how high they are. I felt I never had a firm grasp of the villain's motivations either. Like, what exactly was he trying to accomplish? and why? I think that's the biggest question.
I did enjoy the plot, and there were certainly some twists towards the end that surprised me, but ultimately didn't create the emotional response that it probably should have. This doesn't affect my overall feelings of the book, however. I liked it, I just wish I understood better what the hell I just read.
Writing Style
The writing itself is quite gorgeous. The prose is very well delivered and there are certain lines, normally regarding the sexual tension between Severin and Laila, that were just delicious. Despite the muddled plot, the pacing is rarely off, constantly moving and changing, evolving as the story does. Between the action scenes, the scheming, the heisting and the banter, there's no room to be bored in this book.
As I was sent the audiobook by Netgalley, I feel I should mention the audio performances. This book had two narrators, one male one female. The woman was great, injecting passion into every chapter and delivering the line with whatever emotion was required of her at the time. Her various accents, French, Polish, and others felt authentic and each were different enough to differentiate the characters.
The male was a slightly different matter, however. Though his delivery of the dialogue was faultless and his accents were great, the rest of the time he sounded like a news reporter or a voice-over on an advert—no variation in the narration patterns. Outside of the dialogue, he delivered every single line in the same way and it became distracting and grating. Once I'd noticed the pattern, I couldn't unhear it.
And I know narrators can't get every pronunciation correct all the time, but it bugs me when people mispronounce the Polish alphabet. For instance the mention of Głowno. The Ł letter is actually pronounced like a W, not an English L. I hear Ł often pronounced as an L and it bothers me just a little. But I'm glad the narrator got the Polish W correct, which is pronounced like an English V. I don't have a print copy of the book so I can't speak to the actual spelling of the word, but, yeah, it should be Głowno.
Final Impression
I liked it. I had a couple of issues with it, as I said, but I'm nothing if not dedicated to characters I love. Even though I've no clue what happened in this book, I'm willing to follow these characters into the fire once more and read the sequel. I'm just too damn fond of them not to.
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