Honestly, this review is going to be a little
hard to write, just because there's a giant boulder of something I
didn't like sitting in the middle of a beautiful setting full of
everything this book did wonderfully, and I'm not sure how to handle it.
As a whole, A Golden Fury was an excellently written, original
take on a concept that I personally haven't come across since my baby
Harry Potter days. With a backdrop of late eighteenth century
revolution, we follow Thea as she studies alchemy and the creation of
the Philosopher's Stone. The story starts in France but quickly moves to
mostly take place in England after Thea's mother goes mad from the
Stone's curse.PLOT
As far as fantasies go, I really really loved this plot! At first, I was a little hesitant with the whole "Philosopher's Stone" thing, but it ended up being really refreshing. I think my main concern was that the story would be a typical quest for eternal life, but it really was about intellectual achievement, which made the story all the more refreshing. Even better was the twisted turn the story took with how the madness was a result of the Stone feeding off the minds of the other alchemists. It was so cool in a sort of creepy way how the Stone was a sentient being, parasitical in nature. It was so interesting, I wish he had more depth of that portion of the plot. Very quickly, we move from Thea finding out the Stone is consuming the minds of Dominic and her mother (along with all the others) to Thea willing to drown and die so that the Stone is killed as well. I would've loved to see more of that, not just because I think it would have drawn out the ending more, but because it was just so, so interesting.
CHARACTERS
So, A Golden Fury was... good. But here's the thing, I pretty much only had issues with the main character, and while that might seem like a pretty good position for a review, books in this situation are the most frustrating and borderline-infuriating thing ever. Like, it's so close to being excellent. It's just the main character of the story is maddening and that's kind of a big ******* deal. And while Thea was only slightly annoying in the beginning (her pining after Will did not make sense to me), she was distractedly annoying by the end of the book. As I thought about it -- because I typically try to give a lot of leeway to allow characters to grow over the course of their book -- I realized I was so annoyed because Thea is just as unhealthily dependent on outside emotional attachment at the end of the book as she is in the beginning. Let's delve into this a bit deeper:
I'm not saying she should be like her mother because let's be real, her mother is wack. A great character, but her disdain for any compassion, sympathy, empathy... emotion in general... is bad for any person. But while Thea shouldn't be like her mother, I thought she was trying to cling too tightly to the idea of acceptance by someone else as opposed to accepting herself by herself. Thea is a brilliant alchemist, achieves the greatest scientific feat of all time, etc., but so often, she is so passive, reaching for approval or support from the men around her. It does make sense to some degree. Growing up, she was surrounded, really, by only her robotic mother, which means she's probably starved for attention and affection. However, I don't believe becoming the stark opposite of her mother is the solution, but this is the development portrayed in the book. I would have rather seen Thea learn to find a balance between learning how to have relationships with the people around her and knowing her own value and worth herself outside of what other people can give her. Even at the end, the only plan we see her form is to follow her father back to Oxford. And it's him that's spitballing potential studies for her while she just sort of sits there and agrees with him. *sigh*
Outside of Thea, I thought the characters were pretty good. They weren't extraordinary, but they weren't completely flat either. There was just enough depth to each of them to balance the story on the edge between basic simple storytelling and heart-gripping engagement. Could they have been deeper and more complex? Yes. Did they have to be to improve the story? Eh? I don't really think so.
Also, last random note on characters- I loved Valentin. I know he's like, "one of the bad guys," but is he really? He was one of the most interesting and in-depth characters of the entire book I thought. I was so curious about his background, his morals, his actions and motivations. At one point, I was lowkey rooting for him and Thea to be a thing, but there wasn't really much romance in the book at all besides Thea's pining for Will.
WRITING
The writing was also really impressive. Even though the book was over 300 pages, I completely flew through it. It was captivating and just descriptive enough to give me a full picture of the world of the story without stopping the pacing or slowing it down. With that, if you're looking for a fully engrossing fantasy, this would not be the book for you. If you're looking for a quick dip into a fantastical, magical realism world, this book is spot on.
A Golden Fury: a good first book. For me, one of the best things about reading this was that while I was annoyed with Thea, I really enjoyed the novelty of the plot and the way the author writes, so I'm looking forward to her futures works because I think as her complexity and skills as a writer grow, her characters and depth will grow as well. And the writing style is already there, so huge win on that front!
Thanks for reading!
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