Clara has a gift -
she can raise the dead. It’s not a talent she uses often - but when she needs a
husband to keep her home and protect the children she keeps safe she can think
of no other way to get a man quickly
Though he turns out
to be far less pliable than she imagined.
Steampunk! Sign me up
Steampunk with magic!
Sign me up twice! I do so love a paranormal steampunk.
This is a moderately
low-key steampunk and magical setting though. The central premise is that Clara
does have the power to raise the dead. And I can see you looking at me now and
questioning how “low key magic” and “resurrection and necromancy” can actually
co-exist - but this, so far, seems to be the sum total of the magic of this
book. Clara doesn’t have an army of zombies in the basement, but she can raise
the recently dead so long as they’re not too beat up. And she uses this
ability, for the first time, on Liam - because she needs a man. But after that
she doesn’t use it much nor does she have other magic to fall back on to help
her in her hour of need. The battle instead rests far more on the limited
resources they have at their disposal with a lot of that limited by the
prejudices and injustices of the world and time they live in
Clara has turned her
house into a haven for the dispossessed. Most of them are children- abused by
parents or employers, poor, injured and disabled from industrial accidents and
generally desperate in a time when there’s no support and no care for the weakest
and most vulnerable in society - including child labourers and the extremely
lethal factories that were so common in the Industrial revolution. We also have
Georgina, a Black woman and a former slave who has also joined the household -
who is clever, honest, tough and deeply valued by Clara. She also has a whole
side storyline of her romance with Clara’s lawyer and the whole scandal of that
atr the time
Liam himself is Irish
and is considered both inherently criminal and utterly disposable by many of
the wealthy and powerful characters in this book.
The central conflict
of the book - trying to fulfil the legal requirements to keep the house feels a
little… odd. I mean the terms her grandfather set is that she has to be married
by the age of 21 or she is evicted. Granddad clearly wants this and will
maliciously pursue kicking her out… but… why? I mean, why set the condition in
the first place? Why even stick to these conditions? I want to see these legal
papers that the grandfather has signed that legally compel him to give a house
AND annual income to his granddaughter which he doesn’t have the power to just
tear up and declare “nah”. And if he was so against his daughter’s husband and
his granddaughter, why even give them anything at all? If it’s social status
and a fear of being seen kicking his family out onto the street, why doesn’t he
fear this still? I mean, in these sexist times, a wealthy patriarchy kicking
his unmarried 21 year old granddaughter into the street doesn’t exactly look
good either.
Still running with it
isn’t hard and it’s still fun if you don’t dwell on that which isn’t hard as it
isn’t overly that central. The internal logic of the McGuffin doesn’t matter so
much as the journey
An element I just
can’t get past is the examination of Clara’s morality. It’s very good that we
have this moral hand wringing from Clara about whether she is a terrible person
in how she decided to use Liam for her own well being. Treating him as a blank
slate because she needed him to keep her home rather than viewing him as a
person or considering whether he has any kind of history at all. I mean this is
all extremely good debate and we see Clara repeatedly make some really
difficult decisions as she considers the easiest path that would save them all
but be morally reprehensible. There’s one thing she doesn’t consider
She has sex with him
I mean, after she
resurrects a child she sees that child feel compelled to come to her, to hold
her and is clearly mystically attached to her. She realises that maybe Liam is
mystically attached to her rather than feeling genuine love or attraction
towards her. This seems to be reinforced by Liam’s insistence that he normally
wouldn’t find women who look like Clara attractive and she’s definitely not his
type - despite that he feels sexually compelled even obsessed by her over all
others including women who far closer fit the body types he found attractive.
But the response of Clara to this is to despair that LIAM DOESN’T REALLY LOVE
HER and she’s all ugly and unloveable… while my concern is “you’re magically
raping this man.” It is really hard to swallow that Clara is worried she may be
evil because of how she is using Liam, while nightly having lots of sex with
the man and not worrying about how she is coercing him into this. Even worse
when she makes this repeated potential sexual assault about her self-esteem
issues. It’s a really glaring that this is ignored and makes it really hard to
run with Clara’s very real self-esteem issues because it’s just cringeworthy to
watch Clara seeking reassurance from the man she may be sexually molesting to
assure her he actually finds her beautiful he actually loves her. It grossly
undermines the central relationship which is the cornerstone of this entire
book. That’s… an issue.
This is the focus of
this book. The characters are fighting to keep the house and there is also a
developing question to figure out who killed Liam and why. All of these make
good storylines, fun storylines and we definitely have an action filled finale
I never predicted but was absolutely excellent. But the central premise of this
book is the relationship between Liam and Clara. She expected a memory-less
easily manipulated blank slate of a man - and got Liam. Yes he was a blank
slate but far from easily manipulated. He’s strong willed and while he has no
memory - he still has a past. Including a family.
The conflict of them
discovering their relationship, building it, knowing what connection they have
building respect and love and a mutual dedication to each other and the
household then followed by conflict over what the right thing to do is when
those old ties from Liam’s life appear - and they’re torn between what they
love and what they should do along with their obligations to the inhabitants of
the house and Liam’s own drive for revenge/justice over his murder all
threatening their relationship
If it weren’t for
that central issue I would really love this (especially with the steampunk
elements, the action packed finale) but that issue sabotages what is the
central point of this book. Alongside of that there is a more minor issue of..
Convenience. Liam seems surprisingly casual with the whole coming back from the
dead thing and joins Clara’s household awfully happily and the ending of the
main obstacle to their marriage is just awfully convenient. Still those are
minor issues which would normally have me happily giving this book higher
marks… but for that central issue.
