A Marvellous Light

This review contains spoilers! Proceed with caution.

First of all, before I dive into a scathing review, let me just say that this book is seriously miscategorized. It is not a “fantasy book with elements of romance,” but rather a “romance/erotica book with a vague nod towards fantasy as a theme.” Seriously, whoever though this was deserving of the fantasy label clearly never read a fantasy book in their lives (fyi to other reviewers: this is most definitely not high fantasy. Where did you get that idea from? Badly implemented magic does not equal high fantasy...)

Yet again, I find myself disappointed with a very hyped-up book. I've figured out by now that 4 and 5-star ratings mean nothing and that glowing reviews cannot be trusted for fault of lack of depth in said reviews.

What is this book about, you ask? Well, I have a hard time articulating that thought despite having finished reading the book not 15 minutes ago. The book is technically about magic in Edwardian London and a queer romance at its centre, but in actuality, this book isn't about anything, really.

Robert “Robin” Blyth is an ordinary, typical lordling who ends up in a job that is anything but ordinary. Without his knowledge, he gets thrown into a position where he should act as a liaison between the magical and non-magical worlds. The only problem is that Robin has zero knowledge of magic and has no idea what he's supposed to do. Enter Edwin Courcey, a stuck-up and condescending magician who knows everything, except why Robin is in this job nor how to get rid of him. Hijinks ensue, and Robin finds himself cursed by a strange lot of faceless people who are after a mysterious artifact called the Last Contract. In order to help Robin (and himself) out of this mess, Edwin takes his new colleague on romp through the countryside in search of a cure for the curse and with the hopes of finding the artifact.

Now, as far as plots go, this sounds pretty good, right? Well yes, in theory, except that the book then proceeds to give us the most drawn out, useless, and uninteresting scenes in the history of literature. I made a list of things that were especially bothersome, so here we go:

The magic system

Edwin and his fellow magicians, with the exception of old lady Flora, use a system called “cradling” to perform magic. Basically, it's like the kid's game of cat's cradle, but make it magical. Everyone in this universe cradles without assistance of any kind, except Edwin. He needs to use a piece of string to help him focus his magic. Why? Who knows, it's never truly explained. All we know is that some people need string to help them along, although we're not given another example of this outside of Edwin. There's also the idea of notations as being part of the process, but we as readers are never explained what notations are or how they work. Then, there's Flora Sutton who uses an entirely different system of magic, but once again, this isn't explained. There doesn't seem to be other people who can do what she does, but it's all brushed aside anyway like the rest of this system. In brief, what we have here is a case of very soft magic with little to no background information about how it works or how it came about.

Edwin and Robin's relationship

In a nutshell, it is so comically unbelievable, it hurts. The two have known each other for nine days by the time they have their big breakup.... NINE DAYS, during which time they've gone from being enemies to lovers to heartbroken to lovers again. What??? Does no one else think this is ridiculous? Robin's mushy inner thoughts of “let's make a life together, my future is you, blah blah” ... PLEASE. Calm down, it's been nine days. Also, allow me to point out that during the nine days of their acquaintance, they've had time to sleep together TWICE in between death threats, Robin's debilitating curse, Edwin's insane family, and acquiring a magical estate for their personal use. .... ????????

Robin's curse

What was the point of the curse? Who are the weird faceless people who attacked him in the first place? Why was it such an important plot point that took up more than half the book, only to be resolved in the most anticlimactic way possible, with no further thought afterwards of “huh, well this was a pointless exercise?”

Robin's sister, Maud

Why is she even there? Seriously, what is her purpose in this story other than being Robin's little sister and an unwanted guest at the Courceys? She was, 1000% useless to the plot. Actually, make that 10 000%.

The infamous Last Contract

Again, why? How is the cup, coin, and knife even remotely related to Robin? Why would a non-magical person be cursed, nearly murdered a few times, and then left to his own devices with all that knowledge on the basis that “he won't tell anyone, scout's honour?” The shadowy “Assembly” that is pulling the strings behind all this remains a mystery even after the last chapter (which yes, I understand that it leaves room for a second book, but still). There's mention in the very beginning of all this that the Contract is related to the Fae, but we never hear from them, nor that connection, ever again. (This is an old motif btw, it is not an invention proper to this book. There are tons of legends about Fae striking deals with mortals. Look it up.)

Death (in general)

When a certain (unremarkable) character dies towards the end of the book, there is exactly zero human emotion tied to it. Zilch. None. The person dies pretty horribly when you think about it, and is actively killed by our loving MCs, and their first reaction afterwards is to be all kissy-face and touchy-feely beside a dead body. Also, the fact these guys are not murderers and have never killed anyone before now, the lack of reaction to taking someone's life is all the more worrying. I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd be feeling very much in the mood with a dead man lying at my feet. Just saying.

The Wokeness(TM)

Ok, look, I know it's 2022, and being woke is the default now unless you want to be cancelled from this planet, but come on. This was wokeness for the sake of being woke. Robin asking about consent every two seconds (both in and out of bed) was a bit much. Like, we get it. Consent is important, of course, but you don't have to keep asking the same damn thing over and over again just for the sake of it. What's the point of going off on a huge speech about magical consent? Why do we care about magical contracts and how they're executed? Makes no sense. Even the blood pact/contract thing requires consent between the two parties, and Edwin makes a big show of it, except that one of the two parties is tied to a magical wall and can't move when he “consents” to the blood pact.... That's hardly consensual, now is it? Sounds like token wokeness to me. Do you know what we call that in legal terms? Coercion (with a dash of threat of bodily harm), not consent.

Then, there's the Strong Female(TM) trope, of course. Flora Sutton? The OG Strong Female(TM) with her merry band of girlfriends who “defied expectations” when they found the artifacts before the men did. Nice. Then there's Adelaide and Kitty, the two Strong (sister) token POC Females(TM) who save the White Males(TM) because they're so clever. Okay, cool, but then they vanish from the narrative completely and we don't hear from them again. Very woke indeed (read: sarcasm).

I could keep going, but I've already given this book too much of my attention. The only reason I finished it was because it was a library loan and I wanted to get ‘my money's worth', so to speak (10 hours of reading time over 21 days of rental, to be exact). Might I add that the book is only 400 pages long.... It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did to read it. I very nearly gave up around 60% of the way in, but then felt bad for having invested so much time already and giving up after more than half was done. I am infinitely grateful that my library had a copy I could borrow so that I could save myself a whole 36 Canadian dollars on purchasing this book that would have hereafter served as a doorstopper.