(no subject)

[skygiants]

So in Barbara Michaels's Houses of Stone, Our Heroine Karen is an academic with a focus on early nineteenth-century Gothics (oh yes I see what you did there Barbara Michaels, we all saw what you did there) who is convinced she's had the break of her career when her dashing bookseller friend finds a handwritten manuscript of a genuine! female-authored! early American Gothic novel!!!

In order to prove the manuscript's authenticity, Karen promptly drops everything -- including bailing on a pre-planned trip with one of her theroetically best friends, which soured me kind of on Karen, as Karen is deeply offended by the notion that her friend might be a little put out by this -- to skedaddle down to the house in Virginia where the manuscript was found in the hopes she can find some details that will prove the manuscript is genuine and, ideally, autobiographical.

Given that the plot of the manuscript is "TRAGIC ORPHANS arrive at a MYSTERIOUS HOUSE! ft. a SINISTER MADWOMAN!!! and POSSIBLE SURPRISE INCEST!!!!!!!!' I'm not really sure why Karen is ever convinced she's going to prove the manuscript is autobiographical -- I mean, as far as I know there's no evidence that Ann Radcliffe was ever imprisoned in an Italian castle or abducted by banditti -- but sure, this seems like legitimate academic research, I guess.

But alas, Karen has difficulty pursuing her research, because sinister events are pursuing her! Her rented room catches on fire! Someone tries to run her over! The house where the manuscript was found may well be haunted! The local DAR chapter just will not stop asking her to give them a historical lecture on the Brontes!

As usual, the book features two eligible bachelors -- Bachelor A is the cranky owner of the house where the manuscript was found, who MIGHT have a sinister secret, or MIGHT just be sinisterly attractive; Bachelor B is Karen's academic rival who's EITHER pursuing her because he wants to steal the manuscript OR because he wants to steal her heart!! -- but honestly there's probably less than 30 pages in total spent on either of them and neither Barbara Michaels nor Karen really cares all that much.

And then there is PEGGY, Karen's sidekick, a sixty-something historian who is mysteriously independently wealthy and is super enjoying the opportunity to wade up to her knees in Gothic intrigue and flirt with Karen's dashing bookseller friend. (This is why Karen's dashing bookseller friend is not Bachelor C; he's busy.) Peggy is, to be honest, significantly more interesting and likable than Karen. Karen spends most of the book very cranky, which is fine, but also, Karen is mean about all her friends (except Peggy -- well, sometimes she's even mean about Peggy, in a 'I DON'T NEED YOU, MOM!' kind of way) and she's also mean about her other academic rival, the one who is not a love interest, because she's older and intense and wears too much makeup. Karen! The whole book is centered around your ardent feminism! BE LESS MEAN TO OTHER WOMEN.

I also did not find the manuscript-within-a-manuscript particularly convincing, mostly because it's written in more close a third person than any contemporaneous Gothic novel I can remember reading, but, you know, pastiche is hard, I get it. Anyway, I can't complain too much given that a solid 2/3 of the plot is just Karen and Peggy standing around analyzing Gothic tropes and that is the sort of thing that I do love.

Comments

[percysowner]

I know I read this one, because I pretty much read ALL the Barbara Michaels books, but I can't say this one stuck with me. I know I enjoyed it, but other than that, I'm drawing a blank.

Quick note, I spent most of this review trying to figure out why fantasy/sci fi/historical fiction writer Barbara Hambly suddenly wrote a Gothic romance novel which sounded just like the title of a Barbara Michaels book. You might want to change Hambly to Michaels. Or maybe not and keep everyone on their toes.

[skygiants]

Oh my god, I do that EVERY TIME, but usually I manage to catch myself before posting. Dangit, Barbaras!

[percysowner]

Too many Barbaras!

[thistleingrey]

Agreed, Peggy is awesomesauce--and for my part I couldn't quite figure out how the parts were to come together. They're good parts, mostly, just sort of dangling near each other.

[sovay]

And then there is PEGGY, Karen's sidekick, a sixty-something historian who is mysteriously independently wealthy and is super enjoying the opportunity to wade up to her knees in Gothic intrigue and flirt with Karen's dashing bookseller friend.

So those would be my favorite characters in this thing, right?

[rmc28]

Do you not think Barbara Hambly doing a Gothic romance might be quite cool though?

[issenllo]

Agreed about the Gothic trope-ing! I liked Peggy more than Karen and I was honestly a bit annoyed that Michaels gave her a love interest, as it felt like Peggy had to get matched up somehow.

[skygiants]

I mean, I would absolutely read it, but, on the other hand, half the Benjamin January books are kind of Gothic already....

[skygiants]

Yeah, it's a book that doesn't exactly coalesce, I think. All the things that count as actual plot sort of seem tangential to each other.

[skygiants]

Without a shadow of a doubt, they would be.

[skygiants]

Ha, to be honest, I would rather have kept Peggy's romance and thrown out both of Karen's, as both of them seemed like incredibly false starts!

[sovay]

Without a shadow of a doubt, they would be.

*mental note*

You're very good at describing them so I know.

[sovay]

I mean, I would absolutely read it, but, on the other hand, half the Benjamin January books are kind of Gothic already....

Two torture attics, one leprosy attic, and a mad mythographer's hacienda is definitely Gothic.