Amberlough

Amberlough is a highly impressive first novel, but it was too dark for me. While I want to know what happens to the three protagonists, I'm not really likely to go on and read volumes two and three.

This reminded me a lot of Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box series, with more violence and less tongue-in-cheek humour. I agree with a lot of previous reviewers that it kind of starts in the middle of a conversation none of us were having - the writer casually drops names and places with no explanation or introduction. This would have been less of a problem if it took place in our own world, but it is set in a fictional city with elements drawn from New York or London in the 1920s and 30s. Think Bright Young Things gone spy thriller. It took me a couple of chapters to feel familiar enough with the setting to be interested and then I really got attached to Aristide and Cyril in a way that made the ending a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation. Now I eagerly await the sequel.

3.5 stars. Dark and somewhat nihilistic. I enjoyed it. Can't say anymore without spoilers.

Amberlough is a spy thriller that takes place in an eponymous fantasy nation, which largely takes its aesthetic from early twentieth century Europe (if steampunk is based on Victorian England, maybe we could call this Belle Epunque?). It features a spy named Cyril, his lover, jazzy burlesque dancers, and the rising spectre of a fascist party that could threaten everything they hold dear. Amberlough was a fabulous, fantastic read that felt chilling and topical, with three-dimensional characters that weren't afraid to show you their ugly side.

Didn't enjoy at all. Hated the characters and the plot. The world building was boring and the political aspects were too.

that ending tho 😲

This study in contrasts extends to the characters, in that many of them lead double lives; are hiding secrets about themselves; or both. Cyril DePaul is supposed to be a spy trying to bring down a smuggling ring, but is in fact sleeping with the leader of said smuggling ring. Aristide Makricosta is a criminal, but is also the most popular entertainer in the most popular cabaret in Amberlough. And Cordelia Lehane is a dancer at the same cabaret as Aristide, but is also a drug runner. None of the characters in this novel are, strictly speaking, ???good people???; they do things that would be considered reprehensible, but their reasons for doing so are often understandable, if not outright sympathetic. This is especially true as the plot progresses; the adage ???the road to hell is paved with good intentions??? becomes especially applicable as the plot goes on and chaos descends upon Amberlough and on the characters, some of whom are partially responsible for bringing down that chaos in the first place.

It is also in that adage that supports the novel???s thematic backbone. Throughout the novel the characters make decisions that impact the fate of those around them both directly and indirectly as Amberlough starts to fall apart all around them. Some of them ignore what is going on until they cannot ignore it any longer, while others gamble, taking first one course of action and then another in order to protect what ??? and who ??? they value the most. Some of them turn out to be unlikely heroes ??? while others turn into unlikely villains. Either way, they do what they do because in the moment they make their decisions, they think they are doing the right thing. It is only later, at the end of the novel, that the characters really understand the consequences of their actions ??? and what they need to do in order to go forward.

Full review here: https://wp.me/p21txV-Gt

DNF - PG 80

Why?

Because this book is not for me on so very, very many levels.

First up, as this was the first thing that caused me trouble, my library only had this available in audio book format, so I listened to it. And I hate the narration. First, the accents. They are so jarring - and terrible sounding. I'm not going to say they are fake, but they sound it to my ears. (I'm not good with accents, like telling where they come from, but they sound like such a hodgepodge of French, British, Irish, possibly Scottish and German - and for as much as I love accents, they all sound bad.)

And...as of the point where I stopped, I believe we have three main characters - two men and one woman. Yet we have a female narrator - and I truly HATE what so many audio books have their female narrators do to sound more ‘masculine'. I don't know what it is about their voices, when they try to voice male characters, but there's this quality to them that I usually truly cannot stand. I do not have the same trouble with men voicing women, as they usually do not seem to try to change their voices as much and I wish that, if each main character wouldn't get their own narration, that we would have had a male narrator.

So, now, other issues besides the narration.

This book is very...sexual. So, we first me our main main character - I assume - Cyril when he is waking from his lover's bed. We first meet our third main character - who is the second POV character because our second main character is Cyril's lover Aristide - Cordelia when she is waking from her lover's bed. (Actually, from the sounds, while they were taking a break in getting frisky that, sadly for them, happily for me, ended when one had to go to work.)

This is not something I like, care about or need to read. But, it gets worse, because it is not only extremely sexual, it's rather crudely sexual as well.

There's a whole lot of crass sexual remarks and crude innuendo and while this would usually not bother me - in fact, it would probably make me laugh - I think it's bothering me in here, because this book is trying so very, very hard to be sexy and it's not. It's off-putting when the non-fade-to-black sex scenes (of which I get two in only 80 pages) feel like coerced consent. (Both feels like the song Baby, It's Cold Outside, when the predator keeps saying ‘let's have sex' while the prey is saying ‘no, I'm not interested, not tonight' until they finally give in.)

Related to this is my absolute inability to actually care about an already established couple when their ‘issues' are a major plot point. Cyril and Aristide's issues are a major plot point. I also feel like they are both terrible people - Aristide more than Cyril - and they are so, so bad for each other. There is no trust there and, really, all I get from either is lust for the other.

Cordelia's relationship is even worse because she is cheating on one man with another. One knows, the other doesn't. She wakes up in the cuckold's bed and - the next day? - is later found by him when she's having sex in her dressing room - of the theater he owns - with his friend.

By this point, all I have is disgust for this story, but I do have other issues. Aren't you lucky?

I personally think that each of our three main characters are terrible, horrible people with absolutely no redeeming qualities. I hate, loathe and detest Aristide, (don't ask why, just everything about his personality grates) Codelia is a drug-selling cheater and Cyril is a cruel, bitter man.

The world building is confusing as heck. There are all these name drops and info dumps that - not gonna lie - made my eyes glaze over. Someone said this is based around the Weimar Republic and that sounds likely. But there's so much stuff in here that's barely explained that...I can't help but wish the book hadn't been set in a quazi-historical setting, but the real deal setting.

So, yeah. This is a book that happened to me, but I am so glad I grabbed the audio book instead of buying the book - as this was a book that had been on my TBR for so very, very long.