The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love, by India Holton, is chaotic dash of a book, taking in a late Victorian setting, magical realism, and romantic comedy all at once. It is very definitely not Dark Academia, even though the main characters are Professors, instead I would propose Bright Academia. Everyone is running around in the sun shine and doing their best to get out of the studies and lectures!
It will be a surprise to no one that I love the aesthetic of the Late Victorian era, I kind of telegraphed that with the 1890s Poison Ivy Cosplay I did last year. The culture and mentality, however, not so much. But I think this book manages, even though it doesn’t take itself too seriously, to convey the aggressive “I wants it” vibe of Victorian collecting that I have always found so personally icky, but interesting to read about. The characters in this book find themselves on both sides of that issue. Though the author manages to swerve having them actually participate in the destruction of wild animals by stressing that the birds end up in nice aviaries where they are looked after. This is in contrast to the rampant and destructive taxidermy trade that actually went on in the period.
I’m not going to argue with that choice. You can’t really root for people when you know that the reason they want to catch a beautiful animal is to kill it, stuff it, and put it on a hat. And there are a lot of birds to catch in this novel. They jump out of every chapter with the best/worst pun names imaginable. I laughed and groaned in equal measure, which is how you know they were good quality, finely crafted, terrible puns.
The main characters, Beth and Devon, are Professors of Ornithology (the scientific study of Birds, to those of you not in the know) and are desperate to secure fame, fortune, and tenure! What they find is more chaotic than that, and has a lot more love and shenanigans than they probably expected. But that’s how it should be, isn’t it?
This book is light-hearted and hilarious, and I would recommend it to people who love the aesthetic of the late Victorian period but would like the morals to be a bit more in line with that of the current era. Also, before you start you should make sure that you are pro-pun. If you don’t like puns you are not going to get far with this book! There was some pretty clear set ups for the sequel, The Geographer’s Map to Romance, and I am definitely going to grab it when it comes out in April.
In addition, whilst I was looking on the Amazon page for this book, I noticed that there was a single one-star review, being a terribly nosy parker, I had to go and check it out.
“I could not finish this book. Got three chapters in and gave up. I am a serious birder, so the mythical birds being chased are just silly. There is plenty of adventure and competition in real-life birding. Then the two characters lusting after each other, in Victorian terms, was just over-the-top for me.”
And honestly, I think that sells the story better than anything I could say.
If either of these reviews has tempted you, I will pop the links below so that you can grab it. The ebook is currently 99p for those of us in the UK, so if you are a fellow Brit you should get on that ASAP!
See you next time,
K
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