I never got around to reading Caraval or Once Upon a Broken Heart – YA fantasy is such a saturated market that sometimes, popular novels just hit the point of, “meh, I’ll pass” for me. With the name, I was getting Carnivalé and The Night Circus knock off vibes so I just was never interested. This is Garber’s first adult novel and the December choice for one of my book clubs. I figured this might be a good time to check out the author with two complete series under her belt.
The novel is primarily told from Holland’s perspective (third person, not first) but has interludes that explore urban legends and folklore from Los Angeles. The novel actually starts with one of these interludes and very much felt like it was going for the dreaminess of The Night Circus, except around Old Hollywood rather than a circus.
Unfortunately while the ideas and premise all sound like they could be fun and magical, it doesn’t quite come together in a way that stands out or explores that setting nearly enough. It quickly becomes a standard contemporary fantasy novel in an urban setting with a woman thrust into a world she doesn’t quite understand as various magical orders around her pursue an object of unfathomable power.
There are also various mysterious men that show up to help that Holland goes along with pretty quickly but as readers, it’s just so boring/predictable because we’re all expecting a double and triple cross, and to discover that Holland has misunderstood someone’s motivations.
Garber just seemed to throw a bit of everything at this – there’s the urban legend aspect, magical society and then the vaguely explained magical system and abilities of characters. It all hints at a richer world that Holland has been kept from (even her twin sister January seems to be part of it, not that she shows up in this novel) and it could be so much more interesting but Holland is too much of a blank slate/non-character … she follows the clues left by her father to get from point A to B but there’s something missing to make it more engaging.
I also really don’t think this needed to be classified as an adult novel – other than the fact that Holland is 25 … but you could have just as easily made her 17 and I don’t think there would have been much impact, other than her inability to order a sidecar and not having to worry about a curfew. Overall, it was fine and it’s a quick read, there are hints at interesting things but it’s all so “been there, done that” – at this point, it would be a bigger twist if the handsome mysterious stranger was trustworthy. And the whole magic piece – there are other novels that have done it better. I kept thinking of Book of Doors and Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe for some reason, but if I started looking through my library, I’m sure it wouldn’t take me long to think of other similar novels.
