Monday, February 7, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T.L. Huchu

 




Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on April 5, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.    


Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is the second book in T.L. Huchu's new urban fantasy noir series, Edinburgh Nights, which began with last year's "The Library of the Dead" (my review is here).  I very much liked the first book in this series, which featured an alternate/slightly-futuristic Scotland, where there's an undercurrent of magic (regulated and unregulated), and some dystopian elements in a land ruled by a King whose reign is openly praised by all.  Into this world came a remarkable heroine - teenage Zimbabwean-Scottish dropout Ropa, who tries to earn money passing on messages of the dead to their loved ones via her ghosttalking magic, only to get roped up in more regulated and "proper" European magic as well as a street-level mystery of missing children.  It was an easy book to enjoy, even as it was at times clearly setting up a larger plot, so I was excited to try out the second book in the series.  

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is very similar to the first book, with a street-level adventure forcing Ropa again between various needs and forces - her need to earn money for the sake of her grandma and sister, her want to learn proper magic and to prove herself to the magician who has trusted her (and the ones who discriminate against her for her background), the street gangs who she owes debts to, and more.  There's some strong themes here to go with a mystery that works generally pretty well, although the solution comes a bit out of thin air, but still - it's highly enjoyable all the way thanks to Ropa's narration and viewpoint, even as it hits serious themes.  Again there's a lot of building of a longer myth-arc going on here, which prevents this from hitting a really big high, but I remain very curious where it's all going.  

------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Ropa's ghosttalking business may have fallen apart, but to her mind things seem to be looking up - after all, Sir Ian Callander, Scotland's leading magician and Secretary of the Society of Sceptical Enquirers, has taken her under his wing and seems about ready to give her an apprenticeship, which will surely give her enough money to support her grandma and sister.  

But when a stuck up politician in the Society ensures that her apprenticeship is instead an unpaid internship, Ropa once again finds herself needing a source of cash.  And so when her friend Priya, a  wheelchair bound girl who works at a magical hospital, asks her to come to said hospital to investigate a strange illness afflicting a comatose boy from a prestigious all-boy magic school, Ropa reluctantly takes the job.  

Ropa's investigation leads her to a secret society at the school, which seemed to have been investigating forbidden magics.  And at the same time, she's approached by a Canadian man searching for a fortune stolen from his family generations ago by the society, which could solve all her problems....or get her banned from the Society and ruin her chance of solving the mystery all for nothing if she's not careful.....
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Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is carried once again by the narration of Ropa, which is just delightful.  This is a poor black girl who faces a classist/racist/sexist society and reacts to the latest discriminatory disappointment with another scheme to get what she needs, who genuinely cares for her family and friends (a subplot in this book of Ropa trying to help a neighbor who's interested in dating her grandma is an absolute delight), and who is aware a good deal of how shitty the world is and how to react, and yet at the same time is overly eager when she does get scraps of the white/proper man's magic - after all, she could never quite figure out how to make her grandmother's traditional magic work, and her intelligence has always been drawn to books and formulas, so why shouldn't she jump full on into that type of magic when she somehow gets the opportunity.  It's a combination of experience and yet-still-naivete that feels very real and makes Ropa just so easy to care for.  Of course it helps that she's sardonic and hilarious in how she reacts to certain things.  

And so it shouldn't be a surprise that Ropa once again finds herself caught between multiple forces, peoples and magic-wielders as she winds up involved in multiple mysteries that only she can solve - in this case, student-age boys going comatose with a strange malady that is causing them to burn up, eventually fatally.  Then she also winds up trying to help a Canadian man hunt down a historical fortune, which leads her to conflicting feelings - after all she's got loyalty to Sir Ian for taking her under his wing and giving her opportunities, and this would seem to sabotage that...on the other hand she really needs the money.  And then there's the chance for her sister to go off to magical boarding school again thanks to Sir Ian, which Ropa knows would be great for her but would force her to go away, and well, Ropa finds herself torn in all directions (and I haven't even gotten into the Street Gang which says she owes a debt and wants her to stay out of town till she pays it)!

And again this story is very fun, especially as Ropa deals with more and more people and crazy situations.  Priya, Ropa's Indian wheelchair-bound friend (who has slightly different perspectives from Ropa because she grew up more well off and properly schooled, if at the lowest-considered in prestige school) is again a ton of fun, especially as she throws herself into adventure at times to the point even Ropa notices her recklessness.  And then there's Ropa's best friend Jomo, whose father is the head Librarian and who just wants to prove himself to his dad as well.  Again the plot and narrative is wildly creative and fun, even as Ropa winds up dealing with so much bullshit along the way.  

It doesn't all fully work - again the final antagonist seems to come from nowhere (or I missed the clues), and again this book is very much setting up longer plot arcs involving Ropa's gran having a connection to the Society's magical world, as well as bigger bads who are involved behind the scene who are hinted at here but don't come fully into play.  But everything else is so fun that it's hard to complain, so I will be back to see if Huchu can make those payoff.  

In short, if you're looking for urban fantasy, this is definitely proving to be a series worth checking out, in case you were having any doubts after seeing the reviews for book 1.  Give it a try. 

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