Name: Tsu 💙's review of The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Item: The Familiar
Rating: 3.5
Author: Tsu 💙

Leigh Bardugo

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age. / / / In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position. . . What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor. . . Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science, and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

The Familiar

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science, and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

Alex Landau

"Language creates possibility. Sometimes by being used. Sometimes by being kept secret."  -Santangel

bri 🍂

There are different kinds of suffering, Valentina thought. The kind that takes you by surprise and the kind you live with so long, you stop noticing it.

A life lived hungry could lead you to eat from anyone's hand. She would have fed greedily and never recognized the taste of poison.

Hualit shook her head, her face full of what might have been wonder or worry, or just disbelief. “You are still the child who thought the city wept for her. Your ambition will destroy you, Luzia.”

“Maybe,” Luzia admitted. “But let it be my ambition and not my fear that seals my fate.”

I know what it is to lower yourself, to keep your eyes downcast, to seek invisibility. It is a danger to become nothing. You hope no one will look, and so one day when you go to find yourself, only dust remains, ground down to nothing from sheer neglect.

Cole Stoots

She saw no futures in the patterns of spilled salt. If she had, she would have known to leave the bread untouched, and that it was far better to endure the discomfort of Doña Valentina’s anger than the peril of her interest.

I think I might have to reread this bc I was confused 80% of the book. The trials made no sense. That ending was rushed and too "perfect" or whatever u want to call it... idk.

Tsu 💙

Actually hilarious how this is Bardugo's second crack at "Shadow and Bone" but in a historic setting.

Really liked reading it and couldn't put it down! But I also feel like the story had potential to be longer and could've been easily a trilogy if bardugo went more into every event. Now it sometimes felt a bit rushed and superficial and the love story didn't quite sold me. Also this couldve been sooo smutty, it had soo much potential!!! 

Marie

Absorbing and well written historical fiction, with an element of fantasy.

Laura Dobie

Interesting setting, but the author doesn't write good romance. I've tried multiple of her books, and every romance is written to cause problems and develop plot rather then have two characters love each other. The two main characters have no chemistry and it's overall just a mediocre read

Max Riley

A little too drab and dark for my taste. There were some good moments of writing and great diction/descriptions. Overall, wasn’t my thing.

Floofyflower

mara henderson

i can’t pick point exactly what went wrong with this book… the premise of an historical fantasy fiction seems interesting but then again it felt like the magic elements were there just because. the synopsis promises alchemy and court intrigues and a lot of things but i think none of these themes were as present as they should be, and it’s a shame since that would surely enrich the magic system of the story. also there were inaccurate historical terms like 'the netherlands' that weren’t called that in that period of time.

the main characters seemed so archetypical and plain, the story’s of the other contestants seemed more interesting as well as their personality’s and motivations, but at the same time the 'villain' was predictable and dull. the romance also happened just because and it was weird since the description of the main love interest makes him seem like a handsome slenderman?

this book raises quite interesting topics such as the intersection of magic with religions, with ancestry… how do you manage to fuck up when there is a LOT of potential just in that

the best part? the ending, beautiful written! also i’m 50/50 if i liked or disliked the end but beautiful written

overall boring 🍅🍅 and a waste of potential

paola !

i can’t pick point exactly what went wrong with this book… the premise of an historical fantasy fiction seems interesting but then again it felt like the magic elements were there just because. the synopsis promises alchemy and court intrigues and a lot of things but i think none of these themes were as present as they should be, and it’s a shame since that would surely enrich the magic system of the story. also there were inaccurate historical terms like 'the netherlands' that weren’t called that in that period of time.

the main characters seemed so archetypical and plain, the story’s of the other contestants seemed more interesting as well as their personality’s and motivations, but at the same time the 'villain' was predictable and dull. the romance also happened just because and it was weird since the description of the main love interest makes him seem like a handsome slenderman?

this book raises quite interesting topics such as the intersection of magic with religions, with ancestry… how do you manage to fuck up when there is a LOT of potential just in that

the best part? the ending, beautiful written! also i’m 50/50 if i liked or disliked the end but beautiful written

overall boring 🍅🍅 and a waste of potential

Didn't love this one like I wanted to. The pacing was a bit odd, and all around sort of boring. Interesting premise and beautiful writing, just not my fave!! 

Jillian Roberts

“Language creates possibility. Sometimes by being used. Sometimes by being kept secret.”

I had heard a lot of conflicting opinions on this book before I started reading it, a lot of people commented on the slow pace and said it was boring but I couldn't disagree more. I really, really loved this book. I think it's perfectly understated and subtle, weaving together intricacies while also managing to not be complex at all. This is a story about men's greed, the power and danger of religion and about the people in your life and how every person you know, whether you like them or not, is also living for the first time, getting things wrong, growing and becoming better people, or letting themselves be their worst, most selfish selves for self preservation. I think this was wonderfully juxtaposed between the two main characters, Luzia, who is young and not experienced much of the world but still lived through so much heartbreak in her short life and just wants to see more of the world, and Santángel, who has seen and done a lot, been alive for hundreds of years and has grown bored and sick under a curse, both of them servants in different ways and both of them dreaming of freedom.

"You must be careful with... with Santángel."

I definitely think this story is more for the people who enjoy vibes and slow burn plots and character driven narrative, because the storyline for this book is relatively predictable, it's been done before - magical trials to become the King's champion, the underdog servant girl who is nothing remarkable to look at but is super powerful, and the extremely handsome immortal man who becomes the love interest - I can name 5 books off the top of my head right now that follow this same formula. But the difference for me is the way that Leigh Bardugo delves right into the feelings, the flaws and the arcs of her characters, exploring the way each of them interacts with each other and how they each have their own heart-breaking back story that shapes the person they come across as to other people. For example, Valentina is cruel and shallow, often surprised that a poor girl like Luzia could dream and be smart and witty, but we see that she comes from a life where she has always been overlooked for what she is capable of. I think each character, especially the women, in this book had a strong story that explored both the good and the bad parts of humanity.

"Scullions might become soldiers. Little girls could see into the future. Shadows could live and sometimes they had teeth."

The romance is one of the places where I marked this book down by half a star, and I know that romance is just a subplot of this story, but I didn't really feel the chemistry between Luzia and Santángel like I was hoping I would. I was infatuated by their backstories and rooting for them to fall in love but it just felt a little bit dry to me. I am so used to Bardugo's sweeping romance, the Kaz and Inej who have never even really touched but you 

 they are soulmates, the Zoya and Nicolai who also never really address their feelings for each other but you can still 

 it just felt a little bit one-dimensional. I get that they were attracted to each other and had a few moments of closeness and connection, but it just didn't resonate with me like I was wishing for. I also felt like the trials and time at La Casilla took up a huge chunk of this story and by the time it got to the ending, everything wrapped up really fast and I think that made the build up to the climax of the story feel a little bit lack-lustre in the end, even though the ending was satisfying.

Overall, this was a beautifully written book, but I can absolutely see how it might not be for everyone. The interwoven history and the commentary on the treatment of women and other religions during the Golden Age of Spain was fascinating. The exploration of language and song mixed together to form magic, the thin line between good and evil, God's and the Devil's hand in how magic and women can be perceived, especially when manipulated by bad people, was amazing to me. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and Leigh Bardugo remains one of my all time favourite authors.

Genevieve 

“Language creates possibility. Sometimes by being used. Sometimes by being kept secret.”

4.5 ⭐

I had heard a lot of conflicting opinions on this book before I started reading it, a lot of people commented on the slow pace and said it was boring but I couldn't disagree more. I really, really loved this book. I think it's perfectly understated and subtle, weaving together intricacies while also managing to not be complex at all. This is a story about men's greed, the power and danger of religion and about the people in your life and how every person you know, whether you like them or not, is also living for the first time, getting things wrong, growing and becoming better people, or letting themselves be their worst, most selfish selves for self preservation. I think this was wonderfully juxtaposed between the two main characters, Luzia, who is young and not experienced much of the world but still lived through so much heartbreak in her short life and just wants to see more of the world, and Santángel, who has seen and done a lot, been alive for hundreds of years and has grown bored and sick under a curse, both of them servants in different ways and both of them dreaming of freedom.

"You must be careful with... with Santángel."
"Because he made a deal with the devil?"
"Because he is a man, Luzia."

I definitely think this story is more for the people who enjoy vibes and slow burn plots and character driven narrative, because the storyline for this book is relatively predictable, it's been done before - magical trials to become the King's champion, the underdog servant girl who is nothing remarkable to look at but is super powerful, and the extremely handsome immortal man who becomes the love interest - I can name 5 books off the top of my head right now that follow this same formula. But the difference for me is the way that Leigh Bardugo delves right into the feelings, the flaws and the arcs of her characters, exploring the way each of them interacts with each other and how they each have their own heart-breaking back story that shapes the person they come across as to other people. For example, Valentina is cruel and shallow, often surprised that a poor girl like Luzia could dream and be smart and witty, but we see that she comes from a life where she has always been overlooked for what she is capable of. I think each character, especially the women, in this book had a strong story that explored both the good and the bad parts of humanity.

"Scullions might become soldiers. Little girls could see into the future. Shadows could live and sometimes they had teeth."

The romance is one of the places where I marked this book down by half a star, and I know that romance is just a subplot of this story, but I didn't really feel the chemistry between Luzia and Santángel like I was hoping I would. I was infatuated by their backstories and rooting for them to fall in love but it just felt a little bit dry to me. I am so used to Bardugo's sweeping romance, the Kaz and Inej who have never even really touched but you know they are soulmates, the Zoya and Nicolai who also never really address their feelings for each other but you can still feel how they long for each other, but in The Familiar it just felt a little bit one-dimensional. I get that they were attracted to each other and had a few moments of closeness and connection, but it just didn't resonate with me like I was wishing for. I also felt like the trials and time at La Casilla took up a huge chunk of this story and by the time it got to the ending, everything wrapped up really fast and I think that made the build up to the climax of the story feel a little bit lack-lustre in the end, even though the ending was satisfying.

Overall, this was a beautifully written book, but I can absolutely see how it might not be for everyone. The interwoven history and the commentary on the treatment of women and other religions during the Golden Age of Spain was fascinating. The exploration of language and song mixed together to form magic, the thin line between good and evil, God's and the Devil's hand in how magic and women can be perceived, especially when manipulated by bad people, was amazing to me. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and Leigh Bardugo remains one of my all time favourite authors.

This book was beautiful. There's a part of me that wishes I had waited to read it in October, because it's the perfect dark eerie book for Spooky season, but nonetheless it was very good. I thought at times that the pace was a little slow, but anything the plot was lacking the prose made up for. Leigh Bardugo has a way with words.

Emma Lechner

took a while for the pace to get going but a solid read

anya

Eva Ströberg

Leigh Bardugo - The familiar
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Bardugo is undoubtly master in magical stories, with her Ninth House and Hell Bent. This book, is somewhat different, but follow the same pattern although it’s not a part of the Yale society as those two.
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Madrid, in Spanish inquisition era, a young Jewish scullion girl, Luzia Cotado, could work up household magic, repairing broken glasses, making burnt bread fresh again. 
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Her employer Don Marius and Valentina Ordoño thought that they could use her to entertain their dinner guests that had been dwindling down due to the fact that they were no longer rich and famous among Madrid upper class society.
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It’s a matter of time, before someone spotted Luzia’s magical talent and reported to the King’s men. As everything was in the Inquisition era, it’s extremely dangerous to posses magical ability if it didn’t come from the church. The fact that Luzia was secretly Jewish didn’t help
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I enjoyed this book thoroughly, albeit it’s a bit too long for my taste.
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#leighbardugo #thefamiliar #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #2024readingchallenge #currentlyreading #2024reads

Not 5✨ only because the main love story was kinda cringe and forced BUT luckily everything else made up to it. It was beautifully written plus the historical setting (and aesthetic) was really well done (Said by a Spanish girl). Also I loved how you did not know what was going to happen next, yet everything ended "as it should be" because everything was so well connected. The magic and the historic realism co exists in a really smooth way, it doesn't take you out. 

Again, I hate that the love subplot it's so young adult Wattpad coded when it's the only thing with that tone in the book, everything else is perfect.

LIMEKI 

Not 5✨ only because the main love story was kinda cringe and forced BUT luckily everything else made up to it. It was beautifully written plus the historical setting (and aesthetic) was really well done (Said by a Spanish girl). Also I loved how you did not know what was going to happen next, yet everything ended "as it should be" because everything was so well connected. The magic and the historic realism co exists in a really smooth way, it doesn't take you out. 

I couldn't put it down.

Again, I hate that the love subplot it's so young adult Wattpad coded when it's the only thing with that tone in the book, everything else is perfect.

This was a beautifully written book with an interesting premise. I loved the love story told within and Luzia and Santángel as characters. I just felt like there could have been more - we could have dove deeper. The torneo ended up being unimportant and the ending fell a bit flat for me… I enjoyed the story but never found myself eager to read on and find out what happened next. 

Katie Allard

I struggled immensely to get into this book. It was just slow. The plot was good I guess but sometimes felt rushed and then jumping. It was just meh.

Lauren Dale

This was one of those books that seemlessly blend magic into a historic context. I thought I was gonna hate this,but as it turned out: this book was a masterpiece. I loved the characters, and the tension of the plot and setting worked so well. 

I fear it just didn't quite wow me like how I expected it to which is very disappointing considering Leigh is one of my favorite authors ever and I LOVE her other adult series. 

The pacing was not good. Nothing relevant happened for 70% of the book for all to solve way too quickly.

The characters kind of lacked depth and some voices in the story felt quite similar. The narration style (omniscient) is the kind that make the reader too detached to the characters if not exploited well. Really i just didn't care for anything in the story. So much that when something happened to a character i reacted like "oh no... 🙂 let's move on now".

Also, as a reader used to historical fiction, i am a bit sad that it was lacking relevant descriptive element i felt lost spatially and temporally as well. Like we dont even have any clues on the dates, "inquisition times" is way too large, a historical fiction would never. Historical fantasy or not. David Gemmel can show you otherwise.

Cool, awesome concept but not exploited to its full potential.

Amira BEN

Really disappointed by this one.

The pacing was not good. Nothing relevant happened for 70% of the book for all to solve way too quickly.

The characters kind of lacked depth and some voices in the story felt quite similar. The narration style (omniscient) is the kind that make the reader too detached to the characters if not exploited well. Really i just didn't care for anything in the story. So much that when something happened to a character i reacted like "oh no... 🙂 let's move on now".

Also, as a reader used to historical fiction, i am a bit sad that it was lacking relevant descriptive element i felt lost spatially and temporally as well. Like we dont even have any clues on the dates, "inquisition times" is way too large, a historical fiction would never. Historical fantasy or not. David Gemmel can show you otherwise.

Cool, awesome concept but not exploited to its full potential.

Glad I went into it blind, I happily didn't know which way the story was going.  Enjoyed the complex morally gray characters.  A little slow in the beginning, but enjoyed overall.

Jenny Engel

I think this was a case of a book that was not for me, Which for a Leigh Bardugo is a little bit of a surprise as I have enjoyed both the Six of Crows and Ninth house Series, I just found it really confusing and just not easy to follow at all – The audio book helped in some senses but  still walking away only having picked up certain bits of the book and that is about all I can say for this one, there is a lot of Characters, Spanish places and descriptions which for me just made me feel confused and lost.   

Ian Brakspear

I don’t think I can all it perfection but I can say that the writing was FOR ME with this one and a really unique tone and feel

Laura Wilson

i had big expectations and they were all let down by these plain characters, basic magic tournament, and boring storyline.

auri 🪐

DNF @ 50% - 60%

i had big expectations and they were all let down by these plain characters, basic magic tournament, and boring storyline.

i guess leigh's peak came to an end.

I really loved the world and the writing and the romance was very sweet, this reminded me vaguely of a language of thorns’ writing style which I liked while at the same time a departure from the grishaverse that I feel like her writing needed. I do think the romance, while very sweet, could’ve been more convincing in its beginning stages before the lifelong devotion, and I wish the magic and its rules were given more time. I liked it though and I would absolutely read more of this style from bardugo!

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