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A review by whatjuliareads
The Shabti by Megaera C. Lorenz
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This was just great. Exactly the kind of thing I was in a cozy novel.
If you like the idea of a cozy low-fantasy set in a 1930s university town, full of spiritualists and hacks, this book is for you. There was a lot to enjoy in this one - for me, I'm interested in the spiritualist movement of the early 20th century and a huge chunk of my undergraduate thesis centred around Egyptomania in the same time period, more broadly I love cozy fantasy and leads who aren't my age or much, much younger (I love my middle-aged and older leads!).
The writing falls into what you'd expect from a cozy mystery. Spare, well-paced, cluttered with the occasional Scrabble championship word. Megaera C. Lorenz doesn't delve deeply into a lot of her subject matter and keeps things light throughout. The stakes are appropriately high, but there's no revelling in violent or sexual content. If you're looking for a dark critique of Egyptology, colonialism, or poverty, this isn't the book for you. And, as far as I'm concerned, that's totally okay. Not everything has to be hard-hitting.
Dashiel (I love the pun of "Dash Quicke") and Hermann's love story is sweet and again falls into the guidelines of cozy mystery. They're both lovely characters and their romance is tied nicely into the storyline, rather than distracting from it. Like in most cozies, the romantic storyline isn't particularly well developed, but, again, that's what you expect. You know enough to root for them.
I also liked Hermann's affectionate use of Yiddish, though overall a lot of the dialogue read awkwardly for me (some of the 1930s slang just felt forced, but I'm not sure how one would fix that). The fact that competing identities (queer, Jewish, etc.) were not part of a trauma storyline was a pleasant surprise. It's the 1930s - it would be easy to go for a quick dance down the road of homophobia and antisemitism for some trauma spice without actually engaging in a meaningful way - but Lorenz didn't go there.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I felt that the pacing toward the end was off (is it just me or is there an insanely long chapter just randomly near the end??) and the ending seemed very neat and convenient. When you're writing a cozy with a happily ever after, this is to be expected, but I would've liked to see more. I'd have liked to see more on the Egyptology side of things, and I would've liked to see the connections between Egyptomania and the spiritualist movement explored a bit more. As usual, these are matters of personal taste and not something that is necessarily "lacking".
This was just great. Exactly the kind of thing I was in a cozy novel.
If you like the idea of a cozy low-fantasy set in a 1930s university town, full of spiritualists and hacks, this book is for you. There was a lot to enjoy in this one - for me, I'm interested in the spiritualist movement of the early 20th century and a huge chunk of my undergraduate thesis centred around Egyptomania in the same time period, more broadly I love cozy fantasy and leads who aren't my age or much, much younger (I love my middle-aged and older leads!).
The writing falls into what you'd expect from a cozy mystery. Spare, well-paced, cluttered with the occasional Scrabble championship word. Megaera C. Lorenz doesn't delve deeply into a lot of her subject matter and keeps things light throughout. The stakes are appropriately high, but there's no revelling in violent or sexual content. If you're looking for a dark critique of Egyptology, colonialism, or poverty, this isn't the book for you. And, as far as I'm concerned, that's totally okay. Not everything has to be hard-hitting.
Dashiel (I love the pun of "Dash Quicke") and Hermann's love story is sweet and again falls into the guidelines of cozy mystery. They're both lovely characters and their romance is tied nicely into the storyline, rather than distracting from it. Like in most cozies, the romantic storyline isn't particularly well developed, but, again, that's what you expect. You know enough to root for them.
I also liked Hermann's affectionate use of Yiddish, though overall a lot of the dialogue read awkwardly for me (some of the 1930s slang just felt forced, but I'm not sure how one would fix that). The fact that competing identities (queer, Jewish, etc.) were not part of a trauma storyline was a pleasant surprise. It's the 1930s - it would be easy to go for a quick dance down the road of homophobia and antisemitism for some trauma spice without actually engaging in a meaningful way - but Lorenz didn't go there.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I felt that the pacing toward the end was off (is it just me or is there an insanely long chapter just randomly near the end??) and the ending seemed very neat and convenient. When you're writing a cozy with a happily ever after, this is to be expected, but I would've liked to see more. I'd have liked to see more on the Egyptology side of things, and I would've liked to see the connections between Egyptomania and the spiritualist movement explored a bit more. As usual, these are matters of personal taste and not something that is necessarily "lacking".