Review | The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo: a captivating blend of fantasy and history

Review of ‘The Familiar’ by Leigh Bardugo. Discover the magical world of ‘The Familiar’ by Leigh Bardugo, where young Luzia Cotado uses her powers to survive in 16th-century Madrid. As she navigates intrigues and dangerous alliances, the boundaries between magic, science, and deception blur.

“But let it be my ambition and not my fear that seals my fate.”

– The Familiar
Leigh Bardugo

‘The Familiar’ by Leigh Bardugo is a richly layered historical fantasy book with intriguing characters, but a (very) slow beginning

Synopsis

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 line between magic, science, and fraud is 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.

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Review

I received a free copy from publishers Boekerij and Uitgeverij Lannoo in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to Boekerij and Uitgeverij Lannoo for this review copy.

Let’s start, as always, with the book cover, because it’s truly beautiful. Boekerij has done a fantastic job again. What a cover, and those endpapers are gorgeous.

Now, about the content. It took me a long time to get into this book. Or at least it felt that way. ‘The Familiar’ by Leigh Bardugo starts quite slowly. I found the beginning a bit boring, and it was hard to really get into the story. But once Guillén Santángel came into the picture, I became more interested. Not only because I found him a fantastic character, but also because his presence added an extra layer to the story and gave meaning to the other characters. I really thought his presence made the story so much more interesting.

Although I was never really interested in history during my studies, I love learning through books. This is something I really appreciated about ‘The Familiar’. It is set in the Spanish Golden Age and explores themes such as colonization, forced labor, religious oppression, and cultural assimilation. We follow Luzia, a Jewish woman who has to pretend to be Catholic. The mix of fantasy with underlying historical themes was a fantastic way to gain knowledge and made the plot even more engaging. The book also inspired me to look up more information about the Spanish Golden Age and the different rulers of that time. Thank you, Leigh Bardugo.

‘The Familiar’ is written from multiple perspectives, which sometimes made it difficult to follow the story. There are no clear indications at the beginning of the page about who is speaking and whose perspective you are reading, so you have to keep reading to find out. This made some scenes confusing and hard to follow. I often found myself thinking: “Wait, who is talking now? What’s happening?” So you really need to stay focused while reading this book.

The characters themselves were fun and interesting. Luzia is portrayed as a simple kitchen maid, but she is so clever, and I loved that about her. Santángel, the dark and moody man who opens up and shows a different side of himself as the book progresses, is exactly my type. So I loved him. The other characters, like Valentina, were also well-developed and added depth to the story. However, Hualit didn’t make a strong impression on me; I expected more from her as a character. I understand she was important for Luzia’s development, but she wasn’t a favorite of mine.

Would I recommend it?

Yes! ‘The Familiar’ is a rich and layered story that combines fantasy and history in an engaging way. Despite a slow start, the pace picks up and delivers a unique story with interesting characters and a captivating plot.

Rating

8/10

Details

• Trigger warnings / Alcohol consumption, antisemitism, blood, animal death, animal abuse (squirrel), drug use, discussions of torture, discussions of infertility, imprisonment, forced nudity, violence, gore and injury descriptions including body horror and vomiting, colonialism, colonization, torture (including waterboarding), abuse, murder, vomiting, period-specific sexism, antisemitism and religious intolerance, grief, scorpions, sexism, sexual abuse (forced touching), sexual abuse (insinuation), sexual content (mostly off-page), slavery, spiders, suicide, loss of a loved one, loss of parents in the past, abandonment, fire
• Representation / Jewish main character
• Genre / Fantasy
• Pages / 387
• Publication date / April 9th, 2024
• Publisher / Flatiron Books
• About the author / Leigh Bardugo is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House and the creator of the Grishaverse (now a Netflix original series) which spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, the King of Scars duology—and much more. Her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Los Angeles and is an associate fellow of Pauli Murray College at Yale University.

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With love,