Review: The Bedlam Stacks

Merrick Tremayne is stuck. After an injury to his leg, he is confined to the crumbling familial estate where he is slowly going crazy of boredom (if his brother doesn't drive him there first). When the India Office asks him to take one last expedition, he knows that it will be a disaster. But his desperation to do something other than sit at home drives him to take the job, even though the men sent before him didn't come back. Merrick sets out into the Amazon to find the quinine that can cure malaria, but the locals or perhaps the local spirits aren't going to allow an easy expedition. Can Merrick trust the people he encounters? Will he make it out of Peru alive?

When I saw that Natasha Pulley had a new book coming out, there was no doubt that I would have to read it. I loved her quirky and charming debut The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and I was excited to see what magical and unexpected things she would do in her newest book.

As it turns out, the two books are somewhat connected. There is a minor inclusion of a character from the first novel, but it mostly feels as if the two books are two sides of one coin. Watchmaker was very centered in the possibilities of machines and gears within the city and Bedlam lives in the realm of forests and seas and ancient magic. But I found myself frustrated because I wanted more and less at the same time. This book can easily be described as sprawling; the author is in no hurry to reveal all of her secrets. It seemed to take forever to get to the heart of the story and when we finally do, it seems like Ms. Pulley left out things that would have made the story and the characters richer.

Although this story didn't work for me completely, I was enchanted by many parts of it and I find Natasha Pulley to be a wildly inventive and unique writer in a sea of similar stories. I will certainly be back for the fascinating stories and characters I can't help but adore.

The Bedlam Stacks
By Natasha Pulley
Bloomsbury USA August 2017
336 pages
Read via Netgalley

Review: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

By Natasha Pulley

Bloomsbury USA July 2015

336 pages

From the library

 

Thaniel Steepleton would certainly not call his life exciting. He works as a telegraph operator in the Home Office and then returns to his small apartment each night. One day, he finds a pocket watch on his bed that he has never seen before. Assuming it is a gift from his sister, he largely ignores it until the day it saves his life. Thaniel decides that if he cannot figure out who left him the watch, he can at least talk to the man who made it - Keita Mori. The watchmaker is a quiet man from Japan who quickly becomes a friend to Thaniel, but he suspects that Mori has dark and dangerous secrets. Is Mori himself behind the explosions that rocked London or did he just save Thaniel through his ingenious watchwork? Is he a criminal mastermind or in danger from a determined villain?

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street reminded me in several good ways of Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker, which is one of my favorite books in recent years. There is intricate and amazing clockwork and mechanics in both stories and each one features a protagonist who is as shocked as anyone else to find that he is at the center of an adventure. That being said, this book also shows itself as a debut novel in some spots where the story dragged a bit.

The most wonderful thing about this novel is the characters and the possibilities with which Ms. Pulley imbues them. Mori is a genius who makes a semi-aware mechanical octopus that crawls around his house. He also happens to be a former samurai/Japanese nobleman who can see the future, or at least all of the possibilities of the future. As if Thaniel and Mori weren't interesting enough, they warily join forces with Grace Carrow, one of the few female physicists at Oxford University.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is as intricately composed as the inner workings of a watch. Ms. Puelley takes us down dead ends and makes us deliciously unsure who we can trust. Each one of the characters is a bit of an outcast and the most delightful part of the story is watching them find people they can love and maybe even trust. This is a fantastic debut.