A review by besha
The Bone Palace by Amanda Downum
5.0
I don’t often have a sense of loss after finishing fiction—I shelve the world and move on to another. After reading this and its prequel I wandered around with the unsettling feeling that some large and well-written component of my life had disappeared.
The magic is complex and well-thought-out, the politics are dense and entertaining, and the cultures are analogous to the real world but dissimilar enough that it doesn’t feel lazy. Some surprising subcultures and customs make appearances, most notably the hijra, whom Downum portrays with care and grace.
Her sentence-level writing can be a little melodramatic, but she pays close attention to sensory experiences and has incredible skill in invoking them: the flavor of pastry, the chaos of a riot, the dankness of a vampire’s lair, the scent of a demoness’s perfume.
That, by the way, is an inside joke that I don’t want to spoil, but I’ll say that it’s possible to purchase the blend in question. I got a sample and learned that cinnamon perfume 1) smells like Red Hots and 2) will actually burn your skin. Presumably the demoness is unfamiliar with the former and immune to the latter.
I’m really looking forward to the third novel in this series, in part because it will provide an excuse to reread these two books.
The magic is complex and well-thought-out, the politics are dense and entertaining, and the cultures are analogous to the real world but dissimilar enough that it doesn’t feel lazy. Some surprising subcultures and customs make appearances, most notably the hijra, whom Downum portrays with care and grace.
Her sentence-level writing can be a little melodramatic, but she pays close attention to sensory experiences and has incredible skill in invoking them: the flavor of pastry, the chaos of a riot, the dankness of a vampire’s lair, the scent of a demoness’s perfume.
That, by the way, is an inside joke that I don’t want to spoil, but I’ll say that it’s possible to purchase the blend in question. I got a sample and learned that cinnamon perfume 1) smells like Red Hots and 2) will actually burn your skin. Presumably the demoness is unfamiliar with the former and immune to the latter.
I’m really looking forward to the third novel in this series, in part because it will provide an excuse to reread these two books.