282 pages
Published 2022
Read from October 6 to October 8
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Right from the first paragraph, I was in love with this book. It might be one of the best contemporary fantasy novels I’ve ever read, brilliantly mingling the dark glamours of studio system Hollywood with the treacherous rules of fae magic. It’s seamlessly woven, creatively rich, evocatively written. In the heady rush of scene-setting, I had to put it down once a page to catch my breath.
The movie set is fairyland, a realm where the colors are sharper and the air is richer; studio lots turn to earthworks and stone circles if you walk too far in the dark. Cameras are starving beasts, apt to leach color from your skin, to swallow your voice for keeps. Silver bracelets keep you bonded to your contract. Upcoming actors must surrender their names to the studios, stamped with new names to seal their oaths and turn them malleable to the studios’ whim. Child actors are swapped for changelings. The crews are protected by union rules, their real names kept hidden. The studio heads are avatars of older, more voracious predators.
It’s Radiance spun through fae rules. It’s luscious and dangerous and seductively queer, chilled and tempered with the realities of racism, bigotry, and patriarchal cruelty, the risks and bargains taken to survive.
No comments:
Post a Comment