October 1, 2022
In a fantastical city split by a mountain range and entirely unmappable, former domestic servant Dora wants to discover where her brother went after he died. As revolution rages in the streets, Dora and her student radical lover use their new-found power to secure her the curatorship of a museum where she could find some answers. King is author of Double Feature and coauthor with father Stephen King of Sleeping Beauties.
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2023
Sprawling, densely populated, intricately plotted, King's new novel is the kind of book that practically begs to be called Dickensian--and the rare one that mostly earns the moniker. Dora, who came of age at an orphanage amid squalor and cruelty after her beloved brother and then her less-beloved parents succumbed to cholera, has until recently been a domestic servant at the National University. The violent unrest that's convulsed the unnamed city has made her a refugee again, but this time she has a patron, an idealistic blueblood named Robert Barnes who's now a rebel officer. In a quest to find and reconnect with her dead brother, Dora gets Robert, her beau, to finagle a place for her--via a wartime field promotion to Curator--at the Society for Psykical Research, the occult institute where her brother worked before he died. Alas, it has burned to rubble, and so (a neat scratch-out on her appointment document does the trick) she settles for curating the bizarre, decrepit, automaton-filled National Museum of the Worker next door. As the city's beloved/despised cats and its factions of revolutionaries wrangle over the city, ordinary citizens suffer. Before long, a mystical Morgue Ship filled with souls mistreated during their lives is seen plying the city's waterways, even its paintings of waterways, and Dora begins to uncover ever deeper and more sinister conspiracies. The book can seem overstuffed at times--the wheels within wheels have wheels that occasionally get tangled in their wheels--but for the most part King carries it off successfully, with vivid prose, excellent minor characters, and a scrappy, every-which-way inventiveness. Best of all is the resistance he musters to sentimentality--this is a Dickensian (im)moral universe, yes, but if the arc of history bends toward justice, it's going to have to be because a working person wrenched and hammered it in that direction. Ever so slightly. Dickens novel meets Hieronymus Bosch painting--dark, chaotic fun.
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January 23, 2023
King (Double Feature) expands his 2014 short story of the same name with arresting results in this Victorian-esque fantasy that contains moments of both horror and humor. The offbeat tone is evident from the outset, as the novel’s setting, a city nicknamed “the Fairest,” is described as jutting “from the body of the country like a hangnail from a thumb.” The Fairest is in turmoil following a popular revolt, sparked, in part, by the callous shooting of a businessman by a government minister. In the wake of the government’s collapse, Dora, a former servant, seeks to understand the meaning of her beloved brother’s cryptic last words before he’d died of cholera: “Yes. I see you. Your... face.” To that end, she obtains a position in an occult research hub, The Museum of Psykical Research, with the aid of her lover, Robert Barnes, an officer in the rebels’ civil defense force. Her increasingly desperate efforts to ascertain what her brother meant play out against the ongoing upheavals. King’s creative worldbuilding is admirable and he makes even walk-on characters feel fully realized. Fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will be especially enchanted.
February 1, 2023
A class revolution sweeps over a city, forming a provisional government, and D takes the opportunity she's been given. She occupies and takes charge of the National Museum of the Worker, hoping that proximity to the ruins of the mysterious Society of Psykical Research will help her uncover the secrets behind her brother's death and a possible afterlife. But everything is much more complicated than it seems. New mannequins appear in the exhibits. The cats of the city are restless. And a ghost ship is seemingly abducting people even on land. D and her loved ones will have to fight to survive through the rapidly approaching reckoning. King's (Sleeping Beauties, 2017, with Stephen King) strange, terrifying novel is part gothic thriller and part absurd, Bulgakovesque government satire. Wildly creative, this novel weaves and dips into class struggle and resentment, dark comedy, bittersweet romance, and the specters of body horror. While the book does have one sour note--the primary romance's longevity is unconvincing--King has still crafted an absurd, frightening novel that will delight fans of twisty dark fantasies.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
December 1, 2022
The elite have fled, the revolution has succeeded, and Dora now finds herself the new curator of the National Museum of the Worker. Next door are the ruins of the Society of Psykical Research, the mysterious place where her brother worked, and where she hoped to find out where he went after his death from cholera. But the Society is not what it appears to be, nor is the City in which she now lives. There are strange happenings going on: a Morgue Ship picking up lost souls; people disappearing at the neighboring embassy; and the congregating of cats. As Dora seeks out answers, she will unravel a monstrous secret and bring two worlds to the brink. A fantastical panorama of twists and turns where what is seen is not always true, and sleight of hand is more powerful than power itself. A Dickensian cast of characters and the tumultuous world in which they live are brought to life with wonderful language; it all feels familiar but also new. VERDICT King's (Double Feature) latest is a masterpiece of storytelling to be enjoyed by readers who love language and the fantastical.--Laura Hiatt
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.