Let me tell you about the latest book that has delighted me. Since this is a review there will be some spoilers, but I will try not to give anything too important away.
No one, I think, is going to be very surprised to find out that one of my favourite fantasy sub-genres is “beautifully crafted historical setting + dragons”. I mean, I wrote one. But what is so good about Wormwood Abbey by Christina Baehr is that it ticks off so many of the other items on my checklist.
First of all, I love a good Gothic setting. Dark abbeys covered in spiderwebs and ancient tapestries? Yes please. Mysterious cave systems which are full of dangerous creatures and a hidden golden hoard? Sign me up! Libraries stuffed with books from centuries ago that actually read and sound like books from an earlier century, not just a token Ye Olde English sound? I love it. This is one of those books where the setting is basically another character, Wormwood Abbey is grasping and selfish and yet there is such pride there, even as it appears inches from falling apart. You can see why so many of the characters love it, but also want to be as far away as possible.
Secondly, female characters who act like real people and talk to each other. This sounds sarcastic but it’s not. One of the fun things about this genre is how many of the protagonists are women, but often they don’t seem to have any friends or ties to anyone apart from the romantic male lead. And that’s fine in moderation, but when you see it over and over again it gets frustrating. The push to make a romantic relationship both the most important one in someone’s life and in many cases the only one, is not healthy and I think it undermines the story when it is used over much. And it’s even better when you get to see the ups and downs of a friendship, like the one between the main character, Edith, and her cousin, Gwendolyn, in Wormwood Abbey. They both meet and assume the worst of each other, but as the story progresses we and they learn more and come to understand that they are both just doing the best they can in a world that is set against them. Interestingly, the noble cousin, Gwendolyn seems to have had it a lot harder than Edith. And that is something they both see and acknowledge.
After all, Edith has had much less pressure and has been surrounded by a loving family for the majority of her life. Compared to most people in the early 1900s, she’s got it pretty darn good. Compared to Gwendolyn’s life of societal pressures, unappreciated hard work and draconic secrets, you could see why Gwendolyn could be jealous. And she is. And they work through it like adults because they have stuff to get done. Gosh I do love it when people actually act like sensible adults in books. It makes everything seem much more dramatic when it starts going horribly wrong.
Third, the author has clearly researched her era of choice AND done the work to look at what might have been happening in the setting through previous centuries. There are bestiaries and tapestries that show people from generations before the character’s actually cared and were interested in the topic at hand (dragons). That isn’t something I see often and it makes the world feel more like a place where people have lived, not just appeared ten minutes before the start of the story. This is particularly powerful because the weight of generations’ of expectations hangs heavy over the characters, but unlike other stories they don’t absolve their ancestors of their bad choices. They see them and they are resolved to do better, to be better. And that is a powerful feeling that sticks with you after you stop reading.
The book is currently free on Amazon Kindle, and I would heartily recommend you go check it out. There are several more books in the series and I will be looking to collecting them as well! Here is a link to Wormwood Abbey (link) and the author’s author page (link).
And if you’re going to Amazon might I suggest checking out my own books, I have a new LitRPG novel out, Hack & Slash, and as I said above I also wrote a Dragons in Historical Setting story, though it is pretty different from Wormwood Abbey. Here’s some links to my author page on Amazon and those books in particular. Hack & Slash, Miss Haversmith Escapes.
Stay safe out there and I’ll see you next time,
K
Leave a Reply