Saturnalia

It was the world setting in this that I found intriguing, a contemporary Philadelphia where the climate apocalypse we have all seen coming is now here and getting worse. The terrible storms, tornadoes that have destroyed houses, flooding, fever season as a common place consideration, but this is the background- setting the place

A story centered on a titular festival of misrule and fiesta, protagonist character is gradually peeled back, making her captivating if mercurial, compelling if occasionally duplicitous. She is both strong and vulnerable, and the more the narrative progresses, the more charismatic and compelling she becomes.

Kirkus reviews described it as "A near-future version of the U.S. entranced by mutual aid organizations–turned–secret societies and caught in a slow-burn environmental catastrophe that’s unsettlingly plausible, and her depiction of the aftermath of sexual assault is complicated in its rage and compassion. The novel’s pacing is electric, its worldbuilding seamless, and the magic that slowly reveals itself feels truly strange and captivating—a considerable feat".

Set over just one night, but with many flash backs to expand our understanding of character's and motivations the plot’s five-part structure has a traditional unity of time and place that serves only to contrast the chaos of the action.

I would have liked to spend more time with some of this fascinating cast of women (the male characters, not so much)

I think that I interpeted the social clubs in the book differently than a lot of others. I found them very plausible, especially when it's paired with the climate crisis(es) that plague this book, or rather the background of this book. I can see clubs, fraternities, like this being very popular in times of such uncertainty. I do find that the whole “secret” parts of the clubs are less so about “secrets” and more about what the people in these clubs get up to when left to their own devices.

Despite this above defense I still would have rather given the book a 2.5 because of the clubs . They are the least interesting part of this book. The coupling of magical realism and climate crisis made for an interesting atmosphere. I wanted to hear what these little guys had to say so bad. I wanted to see care for these human made creatures. I wanted to know more about the magic in this world so badly.

Her relationships were also complicated, interesting, and felt real to me in their messiness, more so the ones with the other women in the book. East, is painted very slowly and I could feel the betrayal of him to her character. Still I had gotten the idea that East had used her in the creation of the homunculus and was disappointed when this was not the case, I felt like he had already committed such evil against her it would have not surprised me if he had done so. He had been shown to have more obsession with magic and the club as well I felt it would have been fitting. A relationship, in the sense that they are two humans, with one abusing the other, taking advantage is hard to write on a technical level and I didnt see Feldman quite pull it off here.

Oh man, but there is A LOT going on in this novel. Just: A LOT. It???s kind of hard to know where to begin really.

Since I was just coming off my speedrun of Vols. 1-4 of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, I figured my brain would appreciate something a little different, and what could be more different than a straight-up horror novel? I built myself a little list from my (massive) TBR, but since I couldn???t decide which one I wanted to go with, I fed my top five choices into a randomizer, and figured I???d go with whichever came out on top. And since this is the one that turned up at the top, I decided to give it a go.

And it???s turned out to be a pretty great read, though it???s more anger-inducing than scary, truth be told. What grabs me most is the world in crisis (climate, social, all the crises really), and how the rich seem to be doing everything they can to run away from something they caused in the first place. They plan to leave and pretend everything???s okay, partying like nothing???s wrong, while elsewhere people suffer and die because they have no money and no prospects, and the world continues to burn. Selfish people broke the world, and they???re now running away from it, and they???re not above draining every other resource left - including other people - just to secure their own safety in the face of the apocalypse. Basically most every nasty, anger-inducing thing in this novel can all be traced back to selfish greedy people (aka the One Percent) who didn???t give one flying fuck about humanity and the world, and are so short-sighted that they???re willing to destroy everything around them if it will help them gather all the wealth and power they possibly can and hang onto it as hard as possible. This, despite the fact that they could have USED that money and power to make a change for the better, to help as many people as they could, to SAVE THE WORLD. But they don???t care because they???re greedy selfish fucks who only care about themselves. And the sad thing is: THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE RUNNING THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. So if you read this novel and think ???man, this world is pretty fucking bleak???, well: that???s where the world we have right now is headed in five, maybe ten years, unless, we, idk, make guillotines more fashionable tout suite. 

 I know this seems like this book is very depressing, and yes, it is, not least because of how close these events are to reality, but I think that???s important. It???s important to see the logical consequences of where our current world situation is going, so we can actually DO something about it before it???s too late. This book doesn???t really put out an overt call to action, but portraying these things, even as part of the novel???s overall worldbuilding, is still pretty powerful. 

Another important thread in this novel is about what it means to live on the fringes of wealth and power, ever-wanting it for yourself, for whatever reason. You may want it to protect those you love, or you may want it to protect yourself, or you may want it just because you want it. But either way, the One Percent don???t care about you; they only think of you as a tool to use for their own games. They only care about themselves - as individuals, not even as a group. And they will do everything to protect themselves, even if it means burning the world around them - and you, along the way. As I said earlier, they???re greedy selfish fucks. They don???t care.

Anyway. Those are the central themes of the novel, the core around which the story is built, and for the most part, the story itself holds up, though there are a couple of rough spots. Take the characters for example: they???re all pretty interesting for the most part, though some are more compelling than others. Nina isn???t half bad as protagonist and narrator: she???s flawed, sure, but she???s flawed in interesting ways that make her a pretty good narrator for everything that happens in the story. The rest of the cast is pretty interesting to read about, though I do wish that some of them had been given a little more screentime, as it were. 

I also had a slight issue with the way the movement between past and present was handled. I understand that there was likely a need to spread out flashbacks to Nina???s past so that they???d be interpolated with the appropriate moments in the present, but there were times when they???d cut into moments when the present was very tense and I was very interested in the action going on during that moment. This became less of an issue as the novel progressed though, so that was only really a problem for the novel???s first fourth. 

As a note, I think this novel occupies a weird space in terms of genre. I picked it up because it was billed as a horror novel, and it KIND OF is, but it doesn???t read like too much of a horror novel to me as much as it does a thriller or a mystery. It does have some creepy moments, though not the kind that would make me want to read it broad daylight. As I said, most of the horror of this novel comes from the fact that it???s about the One Percent and what their greed and selfishness are doing to the world; that???s horror of a kind, made scarier by the fact that it???s real. 

So overall, this is a pretty fun read, if you???re willing to acknowledge the fact that it???s going to make you pretty damn pissed about the state of the world right now. It???ll also make you want to look at your relationship with wealth and power, and the whys and wherefores of wanting them, which can be uncomfortable if you???re the ambitious type and/or are working towards ???bettering your situation in life???, as it were. It???s got a few rough spots, but I think the plot and the central mystery will help in overlooking those spots, not least because they happen early in the novel and do kind of disappear as the book goes on.

 

First book of the year! And it was damned near perfect.
The best way to describe this is as Night Circus's younger, gritter sister. I highly recommend going in cold. I knew almost nothing when I started it and the description on the back doesn't really prepare you for what is about to happen.
Everything takes place over one night, Saturnalia, in Philly in the not-tot-distant future where the world have been ravaged by climate change. This is a beautiful mix of the ancient and the modern. Rituals and old gods meets capitalism. It really helped that I have been to the places the action takes place in. Laurel Hill Cemetery, whoot whoot!
Expect: tarot cards, sacrifices, costumes, grand parties, alchemy, secret societies and a whole bunch of robes.
That said, it was nearly perfect. I had an issue with the fact that Nina spent so much time in the Saturn Club but seems to know so little about magic. And the ending was going to fizz out no matter what -the tension was TOO high, the sun was going down and I think any ending would have been a let down. Nina stays true to her character the entire book, though, and I greatly appreciated that.