Melusine

This book is not for the faint of heart. The page-and-a-half long prologue introduces readers to the concept a powerful magic spell that gives a wizard complete and utter control over a person. And then it tells the story of an infamous lady wizard who used the spell on a gay man, forced him to be her lover for years, and when he begged her to stop or he’d kill himself, forbid him from doing so.

It gives a pretty good idea of the tone of the rest of this book.

But that being said, I still enjoyed this book greatly. It has dark themes and potentially triggering content, but it’s ultimately a story about characters struggling against a corrupt society and overcoming the trauma of their past.

Felix has scraped his way out of slavery to become a member of the ruling class of wizards in Melusine. But when his past comes to light it sends him into a PTSD depression spiral that allows his former abuser to take control of him again. Felix has a Bad Time™. I’m actually going to throw up some content warnings for his half of the story, including but not limited to: sexual assault, being forcefully commited to mental institution, abuse, gaslighting, and suicide attempts.

I would like to give Felix a hug. He needs it.

Mildmay doesn’t have it all that much better, but he’s at least in control of his own narrative for the most part. Catburgler by trade, he takes on a job that winds up being more dangerous than it was sold and winds up on the shit list of a powerful necromancer.

From reading, you can tell that Monette has done some really powerful worldbuilding behind the scenes. Melusine really feels like a real city full of real people and a real culture. My only complaint is that the people of Melusine use a base-7 numbering system. Add onto this foreign month names and a foreign year numbering system, and it can get pretty confusing. It’s something that makes the world feel real, but it often makes it difficult to figure out timelines.