The Dark Days Club Review

Wait.  It's Friday?  What happened?  Where did my week go?  Welp, here's a late book review.

This week's novel is The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman, regency high society with monsters.

Lady Helen is a socialite in her first London season, excited for balls and dinners and keeping her uncle from getting her a horrible husband.  Her first season is dampened by the odd behavior she's exhibited lately: heightened reflexes, antsiness, the ability to see into people's souls and read their auras.  None of which is good for a lady of high society.  When Lord Carlson, with a scandalous, mysteriouslly dead wife, shows up to tell Helen that there are monsters disguised as humans and her new gifts give her the ability to fight them, Lady Helen has to balance honing her new abilities and learning to fight monsters with her social obligations without causing a scandal.

This book is unique in its commitment to its setting.  This is not fighting demons in regency costume.  It doesn't ignore the societal mores that are inconvenient or outdated.  Instead, it embraces that the need for a chaperone would create an additional obstacle for our heroine to overcome, that she has to be sneaky to send messages, and that she needs allies to have an alibi.  It makes her a smarter, stronger character.  The story also sets it up that I buy that Helen wouldn't just ditch her responsibilities to go be a monster hunter (which is what I would immediately do, because her life sounds awful and fighting monsters sounds rad).  Her culture is written into the fabric of her character, and becoming a social pariah is inconceivable.

It's usually hard for me to read period pieces (especially regency era) with my modern sensibilities, because I judge all the characters for being prudish or racist or homophobic if those topics come up, or I judge the author if they sweep these things to the side to the tune of "[Whatever group] didn't exist back then" and wear rose colored glasses about tremendous wealth gaps.  But this struck a good balance.  At one point it mentions that Helen knows there are different kinds of people out there and through her super powers knows they're honorable, but she knows her culture doesn't accept them, like her culture wouldn't accept her.  Also, her need to constantly outmaneuver all the rules, and how the rules actively detour her, makes a statement about the flaws in regency era high society.

Finally, this story is very well researched.  The historically accurate skyline and costume stand behind historically accurate events that took place over the 1812 London season.  However, I came out of descriptive sections thinking "Wow, this was well researched," instead of "Wow, what an immersive world."  Goodman takes a great deal of pride in her research and you can feel her enjoyment for it.  But for me, digging into archives for London street maps from 1812 so I could properly name the streets sounds like pulling teeth.  Different strokes for different folks.

***

Next week: The Handmaid's Tale, the classic dystopia, that I got away with not reading until now, by Margaret Atwood.