The Familiar

I did not expect to enjoy this after I tried reading a bit and gave it up as too slow. But as an audio book it was engrossing at the same time as it was fairly dark. Ms Bardugo has littered the prose with beautiful descriptive passages:

“Once she had seen Hualit’s patron, Víctor de Paredes, leaving her aunt’s house. He’d worn black velvet and climbed into an even blacker coach, as if he were vanishing into a well of shadow, a piece of night that refused to budge in the afternoon sun.”

This is a well fleshed-out fairy-tale about Lucia, a kitchen helper (scullion), who casts little spells ("milagritos") to help with her chores and when this is discovered, she winds up in a competition to become the King's magician. But in order to get the job she must compete with two other candidates and she must under go the scrutiny of the priests.

Lucia is of a daughter of a Jewish mother and our setting is Reconquista Spain where Jews have been exiled or forced to convert: Lucia’s aunt, her nearest relative is still secretly practicing Judaism. The priests could determine her magic is from the Devil resulting in at the very least prison also, most likely, torture, and not just for Lucia but for all of her remaining relatives.

De Paredes assigns Santángel to prepare Lucia for the competition who falls in love with Santángel, the fixer/bagman/bodyguard of her patron Victor De Paredes. It turns out Santángel has been cursed to immortality in service to the Paredes family.