About the Book
-
Author:
- Sarah Henning
- Voices:
- Cis Boy
- Cis Girl
- Straight
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Gorgeously Gruesome
BFF Charms: Yay, True Love
Talky Talk: She Said, He Said
Bonus Factors: Magic, Spooky Mansion
Relationship Status: You’re Mine
Cover Story: Gorgeously Gruesome
I love this cover, but I know it’s likely a pretty divisive one. That heart is quite realistic, and the surrounding foliage, rabbit, and other elements have a sinister feel to them. It captures the feel of the book pretty perfectly and rightly lets readers know that they’re in for a darker read.
The Deal:
Ruby and Wren Jourdain live a pretty simple life in Grand Lake, Colorado. The day that Marysas Blackgate makes them a proposition at their jobs at the local renaissance fair, however, everything changes.
The proposition is this: Pretend to be Marsyas’s grandaughters, Lavinia and Kaysa Blackgate, and attend a dinner party at the infamous Hegemony Manor. Ruby and Wren find the idea intriguing, and the fact that Marsyas offers them $2000 up front and another $2000 when the night is over is music to the girls’s ears.
The dinner seems to be going well—until Ursula Hegemony is murdered, and the magical natures of the families in attendance are revealed. And Marsyas disappears, the number one suspect.
Will Ruby and Wren be found out? Will the murder be solved in time? Will any of them survive?
BFF Charms: Yay, True Love
Ruby is the older, more reserved, less impulsive sister. But she can’t resist the allure of $4000, which would pad her college fund nicely. And even the most restrained of individuals would be hard-pressed to turn down a chance to discover the secrets of Hegemony Manor, a building and family that has long had rumors about them swirling about the town. I totally get both her hesitance and intrigue, and would likely be in exactly her position were I in her shoes. She’s definitely got a cooler head on her shoulders than I had at seventeen, but I think we’d make an excellent team.
Auden Hegemony is a mystery—to start—all lithe frame, handsome face, twinkling eyes, and wry grin. He’s exactly the kind of guy who appeals to my “mysterious and possibly morally grey” preference for book boyfriends, and he only becomes more appealing as the book goes on and we get to hear from his POV. I, like Ruby, would have a very hard time keeping my composure around such a specimen.
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Ruby and Auden have a history, but it’s one that Ruby has no recollection of, given that she’s not actually Lavinia Blackgate. Auden’s suspect of the drastic difference in her character—where Lavinia used to be all edges and darkness, Ruby has a kindness and softness about her—but he chalks it up to the 10 years since they’ve seen each other. Their childhood animosity quickly turns in the other direction when they’re forced to work together to find Ursula’s killer, but the truth about Ruby’s identity casts a shadow on any swoon they might have, especially given Ruby’s dislike of having to lie.
Talky Talk: She Said, He Said
The fact that we get to read from both Ruby and Auden’s POVs makes this an entirely different novel than if we were to only hear from Ruby. Hearing Auden’s thoughts and seeing his experiences rounds out the story without revealing too much, too soon—the book is certainly a thriller, and both Ruby and Auden are in the dark for much of it as much as we readers are.
Henning’s prose is beautiful without getting too purple, and her descriptions of the Hegemony mansion and surrounding grounds made me feel like I was actually there. Her magical system is unique, but believable, and her characters are folks I would love to know, even if I forfeited my life in the process.
I particularly loved this sentiment, which I’m cropping tightly so as to avoid spoilers:
… with Auden’s form still outlined in the deep purple of every incoming blink …
Gorgeous.
Ed. note: I pulled this quote from an advanced review copy; the final text might be different.
Bonus Factor: Magic
Early on in the book. Ruby and Wren discover that they’ve stumbled into a magical world that lives on the edges of the “real” one. The other attendees at the dinner party are members of the houses of the Four Lines, the strongest magic users in the U.S., and from whom all other magics flow. These four lines trace back to the Salem witches, and even further pre-America, and have an interesting variety of gifts. Magic isn’t the book’s main theme, but it’s certainly intrinsically involved in the search for the murderer. That said, it’s not the only way to figure out clues, as Ruby and Wren prove by helping in their own, unknown-to-the-others unmagical ways.
Bonus Factor: Spooky Mansion
The Hegemony mansion is all-black, with four wings of at least three floors each surrounding a courtyard. The multi-story foyer features a mural of the landscape of the outdoors, and there’s a fourth-floor turret reading room covered in bookshelves and old tomes. It gives Crimson Peak vibes, but yet has a warmth to it. I’d be terrified to come upon it at night, but too intrigued to tour it to give in to my fear.
Relationship Status: You’re Mine
Your story is exactly the kind of thing I like to read in autumn, Book, and it helped me forget about the fact that it is still 90º outside in Austin right now. Although you took place during a Colorado summer, you’ve got a Dark Academia vibe that cannot be denied. Let’s curl up by a roaring fire in our sweaters and with our hot beverages and read the night away, OK? Maybe we can keep the change of seasons at bay through sheer force of will.
Literary Matchmaking
Erica Waters’s All That Consumes Us is another novel with a spooky, Dark Academia vibe and dark fantastical elements.
Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning also features a spooky mansion and familial secrets.
Although Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle takes place in a different part of the country and deals with vastly different magics, the vibes are quite similar.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Tor Teen, but got neither a private dance party with Tom Hiddleston nor money in exchange for this review. The Lies We Conjure is available now.
