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A review by fiona_leonard
The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley
3.0
The Oracle Glass and I got off to a bad start. The book opens with five pages (ok maybe three) of characters and for me, that is never a good thing. The sad fact is that I just do not have the patience to hold the names of fifty different characters in my head, especially when those names change during the course of the novel, and when those fifty different names are also French. Keeping track of those names on a kindle is also problematic. With a physical book it would be easy to go back and forwards between the list of characters but in an e-book it's a more convoluted process.
By the time I had half-heartedly skimmed diligently read through the list I was already feeling tired and I confess that I approached chapter one with a sense of foreboding. This may have contributed to my first impression of the dialogue being stilted and over written. Having just reread it, I'm not entirely sure why I felt that way, but whatever it was, I moved into chapter two with reluctance. Fortunately, from there things picked up and while sometimes I lost track of the characters, this tale of seventeenth century France proved to be an enjoyable one.
The story is told from the perspective of Genevieve Pasquiers, a young woman who escapes a desperate home life and is swept into a fantastic world of witches and fortune tellers. Her ability to accurately see the future in her oracle glass, and some excellent marketing, soon make her the darling of Paris' scheming and power hungry aristocracy. It is a world where fortunes are rapidly made and lost, patronage conferred and withdrawn and love is given and taken for all the wrong reasons. The story is rendered all the more interesting by the fact that it is largely based on historical figures. Their lives and (mis)deeds were documented during a series of high profile witch trials.
Genevieve, and her alter ego, the Marquise de Morville, are incredibly well drawn. She is consistent and well developed over the course of the story. She is believable and feels authentic. The world of her powerful patron, La Voisin is also well drawn. The novel provides a fascinating insight into a secret society of women who serviced the aristocracy whilst at the same time helping their own. These were women who had powers that they both exploited and satirised. In doing so they both acknowledged society's doubts about the services that they provided and shielded themselves from prosecution.
The one element that sits awkwardly are the interspersed chapters from the perspective of La Reynie and Desgrez of the Paris police. While their attempts to bring down the society of witches provides necessary tension, stylistically the chapters sit oddly in the book and jar the reader from the natural flow of the story.
The ending is also extremely unsatisfying. Whilst you clearly understand all that has unfolded and how things are going to turn out it feels like the story stops mid sentence: just an extra page or two would have made all the difference.
On the whole it's a good read - that is if you like 17th century historical novels about witches, populated by a cast of thousands...
By the time I had half-heartedly skimmed diligently read through the list I was already feeling tired and I confess that I approached chapter one with a sense of foreboding. This may have contributed to my first impression of the dialogue being stilted and over written. Having just reread it, I'm not entirely sure why I felt that way, but whatever it was, I moved into chapter two with reluctance. Fortunately, from there things picked up and while sometimes I lost track of the characters, this tale of seventeenth century France proved to be an enjoyable one.
The story is told from the perspective of Genevieve Pasquiers, a young woman who escapes a desperate home life and is swept into a fantastic world of witches and fortune tellers. Her ability to accurately see the future in her oracle glass, and some excellent marketing, soon make her the darling of Paris' scheming and power hungry aristocracy. It is a world where fortunes are rapidly made and lost, patronage conferred and withdrawn and love is given and taken for all the wrong reasons. The story is rendered all the more interesting by the fact that it is largely based on historical figures. Their lives and (mis)deeds were documented during a series of high profile witch trials.
Genevieve, and her alter ego, the Marquise de Morville, are incredibly well drawn. She is consistent and well developed over the course of the story. She is believable and feels authentic. The world of her powerful patron, La Voisin is also well drawn. The novel provides a fascinating insight into a secret society of women who serviced the aristocracy whilst at the same time helping their own. These were women who had powers that they both exploited and satirised. In doing so they both acknowledged society's doubts about the services that they provided and shielded themselves from prosecution.
The one element that sits awkwardly are the interspersed chapters from the perspective of La Reynie and Desgrez of the Paris police. While their attempts to bring down the society of witches provides necessary tension, stylistically the chapters sit oddly in the book and jar the reader from the natural flow of the story.
The ending is also extremely unsatisfying. Whilst you clearly understand all that has unfolded and how things are going to turn out it feels like the story stops mid sentence: just an extra page or two would have made all the difference.
On the whole it's a good read - that is if you like 17th century historical novels about witches, populated by a cast of thousands...