The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo Published by Flatiron Books on April 9, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Historical / Renaissance, Fiction / Magical Realism
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
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 improve the family's social position.
What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.
Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science, and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.
Before we get to the review, I want to take a moment to feature a GoFundMe to help Reema from Gaza rebuild her dream. Reema was a 4th level pharmacy student and health educator who’s dreams were shattered by the horrors of war. Her university now lies in ruins from bombings. Her and her family have been displaced multiples times, from their home to Khan Younes and later on to tents in Rafah (which I’m sure they’ve had to move again since the Rafah massacre) where basic necessities like water and electricity are luxuries they can only dream of. The funds from this campaign will go to not only Reema’s education but will also help her brother and sister to get back to school. Even if you cannot donate please consider sharing to anyone you know. Fundraisers shared on social media raise up to 5x more than ones not, so sharing truly does help!
I was so excited to get my hands on this book and actually managed to read it in May. Yet, I was a bit disappointed with the story, characters and how the novel ended.
Focusing on Luzia Cotado, a scullion, in a low level family uses magic to get through her day. I found her story and characterization so fascinating! I love how she’s this meek little mouse then decides to turn that around and find more for herself. “She would build herself a life of plenty. She would force her world to bloom as she’d made the pomegranate tree grow, and Santángel would help her do it. Even if blood watered the soil.” By the end of the novel, this is all washed away and forgotten about, partly due to her imprisonment and partly due to her love for Santángel, if I had to guess. But I was a bit disappointed we weren’t reading a morally grey or villain origin story that was more what I was expecting with the summary and how the beginning of the book was plotted.
The romance between Santángel and Luzia was okay. I was mostly neutral on that. For the most part it seems like Santángel likes her more whereas it was mostly the chance of freedom, maybe the danger aspect, of Santángel that drew Luzia in. I’m also just tired of the overdone trope of an immortal man falling in love with virginal young woman, give me something new. Mostly, their romance felt pretty one-dimensional as the only thing they really had in common was their magic. To go back to what I said above, I was really thinking this was a villain origin story for Luzia, yet that isn’t seen here.
Speaking of Santángel, I felt he was more boring than brooding. Everyone in the book keeps warning Luzia that he’s this demon in disguise but this is never actually shown. Yea, he’s planning on letting her take his place in service to the Pérez family, but that’s not to be cruel. He understands and is regretful of his decision but he’s tired of being trapped in this horribly toxic environment. I was ready to see the monster that everyone kept saying he was, and he never appeared. The only thing he has going for him is that he’s immortal. Before he found immortality, he was just searching for it and lived a life of pleasure. Yes, he was betrayed but I didn’t feel enough of a connection to Santángel to really care that he was betrayed.
Part of the tense nature of this novel is the fact that Luzia doesn’t just perform magic, she’s of Jewish ancestry. The summary even points to the danger of her Jewish ancestry being found out, “as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath.” Yet, no one finds out about this (I cannot remember if she tells Santángel or not but either way no one who will report her to the Inquisition finds out), and she’s only imprisoned for the supposed witchcraft performed. I was really wanting Bardugo to explore the way Jewish people were treated during the Spanish Golden Age, yet it felt all pretty surface level to me. It’s especially disappointing because one of my favorite lines (and one of the best lines from the book) discusses the idea of language and how it been be used. This theme could’ve been expanded on with the way Jewish people stayed in hiding or used their influence to create better lives for their people. The invention of Ladino could’ve been brought in. There were so many possibilities of having a MFC with Jewish ancestry that Bardugo could’ve explored, yet it’s only a surface level exposure and never truly plumbing the depths of this character or their story.
It wasn’t a disappointing story on it’s own, it was disappointing due to Bardugo’s previous work. From the King of Scars duology to the Alex Stern series, she’s proven herself to be an amazing author with inventive stories. While Ninth House and Hell Bent both have their issues that I went over in my reviews for them, it showed how Bardugo was really willing to experiment with her fiction with these dark and gritty stories featuring complex themes that had nuance. Whereas with The Familiar, it was indistinguishable from the plethora of other historical fantasy novels.
This may seem contrary to the above review, but hear me out. I’ve had a complicated relationship with Bardugo’s books. My loathing of Shadow and Bone has never been a secret, but I could talk about Six of Crows or King of Scars duologies for days on end. But this is the first book of Bardugo’s where I feel pretty neutral about. It’s one of those stories where if someone disagreed with me on everything in this review, I would pretty much smile and move on.
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