Reviews

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

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book_snail's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

If you like cosmic horror with a massive heaping of biblical allusions and a gothic romance vibe, this book is probably for you :)

Content Warnings

From the synopsis, this book seemed like it would be exactly my cup of tea, but ended up being just a shade too weird. I'm really interested in the fae, and haven't read a lot of books exclusively about the realm, so I was excited at the prospect of this novel. It just fell short for me. It probably will take the cake for my least favorite book of 2018 and the year is still pretty much beginning!

I'm not sure if it was the supergross twist that did me in or just the lack of action. This is the book for someone; that someone just isn't me.

foggy_rosamund's review

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2.0

I had two major problems with this book:

1. The story centres around missionaries in the mid-19th century, but the novel is not at all critical of missionaries in general, and does not mention that missionaries were integral in destroying many cultures all over the world, and can never be considered a force for good. I thought this book would be a satirical take on missionaries, as it is set in Fairyland, or at would at least be critical, but it never gives any indication anywhere that missionaries are anything but a positive force. For a novel published in 2018, this is shocking.

2. The author is hugely imaginative and creates a varied and charismatic Land of the Fae, but her writing is not strong enough to hold together the gruesome and shocking story she spins. The characters' response to murder, death or cannibalism are all too restrained, and while the events described do send some characters mad, I still felt that all the reactions were not well-observed, and rang hollow. The author is inventive and intelligent, but her prose style and development of narrative are not yet sophisticated enough to carry off her ideas.

Spoiler

I also found all the Christian backstory and Bible apocrypha to be wildly convoluted, and I didn't find the revelation that they were in some kind of Hell particularly insightful or shocking. You really had to buy into a Christian outlook on the world for this story to pay off, but the author didn't do any work to convince you that the Christianity she described was a tangible thing within her narrative.

lelouis's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

linneahedvig's review

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5.0

This was super fun. It’s a take on the gothic novel about a girl who goes to stay with her brother who’s a missionary to Arcadia or Elfaen (sounds like “profane,” probably not a coincidence...). She meets a changeling who is her traveling companion (because changelings understand the human world, of course) and a gnome who is the only convert to Christianity (and he has a lot of questions) and she discovers old writings in Enochean, along with allusions to John Dee (actual court magician to Elizabeth I) and the story kind of goes from there. It’s a glorious interweaving of gothic convention, actual history and philosophy, and fantasy tropes. It gets darker and darker as the story goes on, but in a very Brontë way. And the main character always takes her tea with milk!

livtheninth's review

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4.0

Torn between 3 and 4 stars, but rounding up.
I spent most of this book terribly annoyed by its main character. I found her whiny, childish and self-absorbed. I'm not sure my opinion of her really ever changed, now that I've finished the book, but the way I felt about her didn't really take that much of my enjoyment of the story away from me. So, that's a plus. You don't always have to love the protagonist of a story, after all. I at least appreciate the fact that she wasn't stupid.

I felt like the concept was more interesting than the actual story. Don't get me wrong, it's a good story, but I guess I was expecting "stellar". My own damn fault. The tone and language are on point and evoke Brontë in more ways than one, the writing is poetic and beautiful, and the discussions about religion, morality and sin are very interesting. Then, the ending kind of fell flat for me. I think it might be because I saw the big "twist" coming from miles away. I might have been more shook if I hadn't. Or maybe the twist wasn't that crazy to me. I don't know. But I should have managed my expectations, I guess.

Still a solid read and definitely worth your time if you like gothic, Victorian, unsettling tales of ruthless fae and powerless, puny humans... and, to put it mildly, unconventional love stories.

simlish's review

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4.0

Under the Pendulum Sun is about an alternate history world where Fairyland is a real, physical place and England has sent missionaries to convert the fairies. The main character, Catherine Helstone, has gone to Arcadia (Fairyland) in search of her brother, a missionary.

Under the Pendulum Sun is delightfully lush and off the wall -- one of the greatest joys of the reading is the imagery. The sun is an actual pendulum that doesn't rise or set but swings across the sky, while the moon is a light carried by an anglerfish. The descriptions of the various fae and the Goblin Market were high points for me. Jeannette Ng was not afraid to commit to weirdness, and I really appreciated that.

Spoiler

I was spoiled for the incest coming in, and unlike many reviewers, I actually liked it -- I thought it worked really well with the plot. My spoilery plot disappointment was one of the final two reveals of the book, so if you're trying to avoid spoilers, really, really don't keep reading. One of my favorite aspects of the story was the concept of Christianity trying to reach into an inherently, definitionally pagan realm and create converts, so I was kind of disappointed at the revelation that Arcadia was Christian Hell. As someone who isn't Christian, I have limited patience for media that makes Christianity the fundamental underlying truth of the universe and I had really liked the conflict between a group that believed in that and a group that fundamentally contradicted it. Mr. Benjamin's questions made less sense in a world where he knew his place in Christian theology, and they had been one of my favorite parts.

On the other hand, I don't know how else Ng could have wrapped up her mysteries in a satisfying way, so it by no means ruined the book for me. It was just... kind of eh. Like, oh, okay. That's fine, I guess.

Since the characters and the relationships between them were my favorite part (aside from the lush descriptions), I would have enjoyed if there were...more characters. The focus is very tight on Catherine Helstone, and for much of the book she is not allowed out of her tower. While the limited cast contributes to Catherine's claustrophobia and functions well for the plot, it does, well...limit the cast. No one outside of Catherine and Laon gets much development.

Overall, however, I enjoyed it a lot and found it an easy, quick read.

titusfortner's review

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Author nominated John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Made it 20% of the way through the audio book, on my third attempt and I didn't really care about what was going on. I read some reviews that suggested it got worse rather than better, so I'm stopping.