A Quick Note On This Review: This article includes affiliate links to Bookshop.org as a way of supporting both local bookshops and my own ability to write.
Luzi Cotado is a scullery maid working for a Madrid noble family whose fortunes have begun to dwindle. She finds she has the ability to perform “little miracles” that allow her to ease the burden of her chores, but when her employer catches Luzi at it one day, she gets thrust into a competition designed to search for a holy magic user and grant the king’s favor to the one who brings them to the king. As a contestant, Luzi gets a patron with an immortal familiar, Guillén Santángel, who agrees to teach her magic, but soon finds that the life she has escaped into is far darker and more complicated than she had thought.
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo is a historical fantasy novel that does a phenomenal job of grounding the reader in the details of the Spanish Golden Age. The novel blends several different kinds of stories – such as a “rags-to-riches”, a bildungsroman, a romance, and more – quite effectively, balancing each so that no one story dominates, which was fascinating to walk through as a reader.
Bardugo’s use of magic in the story was an interesting divergence from the typical tropes associated with such stories. Rather than fleshing out an entire magical system, Bardugo focused on a handful of people and the unique ways magic manifested for them. While many fantasy novels that rely on magic usually outline clear costs associated with the use of magic, such as energy storage or tearing away parts of the soul, The Familiar leans more into the social costs of being a magic user rather than the physical costs of wielding forces that are beyond the pale of normal human experience. This creates an interesting commentary that threads itself throughout the novel where the real issue with any kind of magic or extraordinary ability isn’t so much the physical existence of those abilities, but the barriers and judgments society imposes on them, even during a time when the country is supposedly in a “Golden Age.”
For casual readers, The Familiar will likely be a story best suited to those who are interested in stories about magic, witchcraft, ghosts, and the like. There are also elements of the story that would appeal to those who are looking more for a historical novel, specifically if someone is curious about exploring some of the more mundane details of the world, since Bardugo’s novel doesn’t center on a single event in Spain’s history that might be easily recognized. Finally, Bardugo has an interesting ability to portray romance in a way that doesn’t rely on as many stereotypes or overt depictions, so those who enjoy more subtle representations of a budding relationship may find some value in picking up a copy.
For writers, The Familiar provides an interesting study in how to wield some of the more overlooked aspects of a history – the setting, government structures, and social expectations – without relying on a single event to anchor them. Further, Bardugo’s novel would likely fit among the corpus of work that relies on a strong female protagonist who defies the odds to get what she wants, so it’s worth reading to get additional perspectives on what precisely that may look like. Additionally, The Familiar deals with relationships and love in a way that simultaneously highlights its importance, but doesn’t lean on tropes that are overwhelming or on-the-nose, so it’s worth reading if you want to include some discussion of romance between characters subtly in your story without necessarily making it the main focus of the whole.
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What’s Next?
I am an avid reader and have quite a few thoughts on how some books could benefit both people that want to be entertained and those looking to sharpen their literary skills.
If you’re interested in finding out more about what I’ve been reading – and how it could benefit you – I will be publishing those thoughts on Fridays on a weekly basis. Check back next week for a discussion of V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue!
The Writerly Review 