“A Marvellous Light” by Freya Marske
Pinning and Penrose steps
By: Erica Bouska
Freya Marske’s debut novel is an Edwardian stunner filled with equal parts danger and geeking out about the Dewey Decimal System. The first in a trilogy, the book is run by two men, out-of-control tension, and easy-to-follow magic. With prose gorgeous enough to sculpt estates and break hearts, Marske plunges into a love story that could’ve happened yesterday or a hundred years ago.
The two main characters are diametrically opposed but perfectly complement each other. Robin Blyth is a newly orphaned charmer who’s running out of money. Through a misplaced revenge plot, he’s plopped into a government job that runs him into trouble in two ways: an underground magic community and his cold new co-worker, Edwin Courcey.
Edwin just wants to do his job and continue to use London as an escape from his powerful and terrifyingly careless family. Since magic is genetic, Edwin’s low magic levels are embarrassing for him and his relatives. Besides a loving mother wracked with disease, Edwin’s family includes an uncaring father, physically abusive older brother, and vapid older sister. Throw in the fact that his last relationship burned itself to the ground and lost him his best friend, and he has no interest in the unfairly handsome Robin.
But after strange men ink a curse onto blissfully naive Robin, he is struck with increasingly frequent excruciating pain and confusing visions. Edwin, academic that he is, can’t resist the tempting puzzle, even if he plans to erase Robin’s mind once he’s done.
Instead of giving into easy cliches, Marske uses them to her advantage, mixing both originality and classically heartstopping tropes. Forget wands and complicated words. Magic, also called cradling, is all finger patterns and gentle light in her world. It can achieve anything from apple-sized snowflakes to deadly explosions, and in his introductory two weeks, Robin experiences both.
His curse coincides with his predecessor’s disappearance, and Edwin, needing to do research and begrudgingly protect Robin, takes them both to his family’s home in the English countryside. Filled with longing looks across a library and a strange protective nature that descends on both of them, the pining and tentative trust are exquisite. And that’s not to mention that they have to figure out how to come out to each other, ten years after Oscar Wilde was thrown in prison.
Marske wields her enchanting prose like a literary weapon. Balancing words like “extraneous” with a healthy dose of modern curse words, she builds a world fantastically out of reach and yet totally fathomable. The description of the library alone is enough to make the reader want to live out their cottagecore dreams in a windswept Scottish village.
The book switches perspectives every chapter, providing a delicious dichotomy when they begin to notice “a delicate, turbulent, Turner-sketch attractiveness that hit … like a clean hook to the jaw” in the other. But don’t be fooled. Robin and Edwin dodge peril every step of the way. From a boat outing gone wrong to a pissed-off hedge maze, magic plays a lovely but viperous role. And Edwin has enough trouble just being around Robin.
Marske’s first novel is delightful. It’s a historical romance drenched in danger with just enough magic to captivate a reader. With unpretentious prose and breathtaking world-building, she announces her presence with a lovely roar. Fall in love with falling in love while exploring the English countryside.