Auraria

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Fundamentally this book is a “cityslicker” story. It follows the transformation of one James Holtzclaw from snobby city dweller of dubious moral quality to protector (sort of) and hotel entrepreneur in Auraria a small mining town in Georgia. However, this is not your ordinary cityslicker tale. It is steeped folklore and fantasy, from Great and Invincible and Harmless Terrapins, to gold covered moon maidens, to mushroom hunting ghosts, to treasure finding will ‘o the wisps, and all sorts of talking plants that moan or sing to varying degrees. The plot follows Holtzclaw, who is H. Shadburn's property acquisition agent, as he first seeks to purchase the town of Auraria, by hook or by crook, from its residents, only to find out that his boss is not actually interested in turning a profit in this particular deal. In the process Holtzclaw deals with all of the ghosts, and fairies with a matter of factness and determination that can only come from a person so besought with making money that everything can be taken in stride. The first section follows the progress of Holtzclaw's land purchasing, the second section follows the building and running of a resort placed on the shore of a man made lake which now covers old Auraria. The final section, well, I won't talk about it because it would spoil the book.

I found this book to be fun and amusing, although the style is extremely reminiscent of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I liked JS&MN very much, but it was never a thriller and never meant to be. I feel like Auraria falls into a similar category, where the prose is almost Austinesque. As soon as I recognized the similarities, I was actually a little off-put , because I felt like this kind of thing has already been done and done very well. Not that this was done poorly, I just think it is tougher to draw the reader into the story using the sort of old style voice, and since I have already read JS&MN, I felt this detracted from the reading experience.

On the other hand, Westover's world building is just spectacular. I loved the giant terrapin and his rumbly songs and stories, the ghosts who play piano, cook, hunt mushrooms, and hunt heads. I loved the house with infinite stories, and Ephraim and Flossie's trading game. I loved the fact that a refrigerator left open could freeze whole farms. I basically loved everything that Westover did with his world, and I kept turning the pages at some points in the book for no other reason than to see what quirky and ridiculous thing was going to happen next. He manages to capture the spirit of a backwater, washed up mining town, while still giving the reader a healthy dose of the fantastic.

In summary, I loved the world Westover made so much, that I enjoyed the read overall. However the plot dragged in places, and the voice of the book was such that I found it hard to really engage with the characters.