Review -- The House on Durrow Street

[alfreda89]

The House on Durrow Street by Galen M. Beckett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




This book is recommended for folk who like their fantasy subtle, thick, and intricate. Think Charlotte Bronte with magic, only this is a novel in that spirit, not a pastiche. Beckett wondered what would happen if a fantastical cause lay under the social constraints and limited choices of Bronte and Austen’s heroines? This world is the result, a British/European-flavored stew with a varying planet rotation that causes long days and nights peppered with short ones – sleep cycles clearly not in tune with the people forced to live that way.

What if magic was somehow behind that? We see the continuation of using familiar Gothic tropes from The Magicians and Mrs. Quent – impoverished sons of noble houses struggling to support the remains of their family, jaded young aristocrats forced to pick up the family burden when a strong father falters, young women living idle lives in the upper classes seeking a place for their intellect and talents.

In The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, sensible, intelligent Ivy Quent used her courage and intellect to help save her country, though most know it not, and earned the love of a solid and dependable hero of the realm. Now, she would be delighted to spend her time turning her family inheritance – a sprawling, mysterious magician’s house – into a proper home for herself, her husband and her sisters (and, hopefully, her mentally ill father, currently in a hospital.) It’s a strange and wondrous house, with magical eyes that observe everyone who passes. Ivy’s mother hated the house, which is partly why they moved out, but now it is home, and Ivy is enjoying the transformation.

It becomes a greater transformation when her husband’s years of service are finally recognized with rank and income. This catapults her into fashionable society, among the great and powerful – a world vital to her family’s future, but rife with temptations and danger.

In the end, it is the secrets of the old house that must be unraveled, as Ivy must race to find answers before rogue magicians and an ancient ravening force overwhelm her tiny country. Once again she will need the help of young Lord Rafferdy, a magician despite his own desires, and Eldyn Garritt, impoverished gentry with many, many secrets of his own to protect.

This book moved more swiftly and smoothly for me than the first, with still more interesting pockets of arcane knowledge to be revealed. We find that those who kept magic alive mostly used it for ill, whether for or against the interests of the nation. There are dangers to some of these magics – fatal dangers. The corruption nibbling at the government has spread to the church, and the underground. Now Lady Quent, Ivy cannot know who to trust, and the others have similar dilemmas.

If you like a lyrical journey where even the language slows you down to another time and pace, give this one a try. You might like Beckett’s world and heroes!




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