A book review: Bacchanal
Title of the book: Bacchanal
Author: Veronica G. Henry
Publisher: 47North
Publication Date: 1st of June 2021
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Why I picked up this book:
Whenever the weather turns even remotely sunny here in the UK, it is almost immediately accompanied by oppressive humidity. (Yes I realize I complain about the weather more than anything, consider it part of my integration into English society).
However, it was exactly this muggy, oppressive heat is that drew me to the Carnival trudging through swampy Baton Rouge. Throw in some magic and religion from the cradle of civilization, a demon here and there and an orphaned girl at the heart of it all, and there’s little more that I can ask for.
About the author:
Veronica Henry was born in Brooklyn, New York, and has been a bit of a rolling stone ever since. Her work has appeared in various online publications. She is a graduate of the Viable Paradise Workshop and a member of SFWA.
Veronica is proud to be of Sierra Leonean ancestry and counts her trip home as the most important of her life. She now writes from North Carolina, where she eschews rollerballs for fountain pens and fine paper. Other untreated addictions include chocolate and cupcakes.
Synopsis:
Abandoned by her family, alone on the wrong side of the colour line with little to call her own, Eliza Meeks is coming to terms with what she does have. It’s a gift for communicating with animals. To some, she’s a magical tender. To others, a she-devil. To a talent prospector, she’s a crowd-drawing oddity. And the Bacchanal Carnival is Eliza’s ticket out of the swamp trap of Baton Rouge.
Among fortune-tellers, carnies, barkers, and folks even stranger than herself, Eliza finds a new home. But the Bacchanal is no ordinary carnival. An ancient demon has a home there too. She hides behind an iridescent disguise. She feeds on innocent souls. And she’s met her match in Eliza, who’s only beginning to understand the purpose of her own burgeoning powers.
Only then can Eliza save her friends, find her family, and fight the sway of a primordial demon preying upon the human world. Rolling across a consuming dustbowl landscape, Eliza may have found her destiny.
Review of the book:
If I could only use two words to describe Bacchanal it would have to be slow and superficial. A book that is just over 300 pages long shouldn’t take well over a third to build up the story, introduce our characters and get us familiar with the backstory. Which, if we’re being blunt here, wasn’t all that interesting.
This wasn’t helped by the fact that the book seemed to switch between points of view every couple of chapters. Delving deeper into the backstory of side characters who were ultimately quite inconsequential to the plot. That’s not to say they would never make an appearance again. Of course, they did, but they would have served their purpose just as well without being bogged down by their personal histories. We didn’t need them and personally, I could have cared less.
In fact, in the case of two side characters, Hope and Bombadier, all we had learned about them, the motivations we had begun to understand were completely thrown out of the window to make the grand finale fit neater in the overarching plot. Highly unsatisfying and a waste of what up until that point, had been two of the few interesting personalities.
There was also far too much time spent following Eliza around during everyday occurrences at the carnival. Let’s be perfectly frank here, that’s not what we paid for. We came to see the carnies, we came to learn about the demons, we came for the magic supposedly oozing from Eliza, we came to figure out the mystery of her missing parents. We didn’t need to learn about the cook tent and the trailers moving from city to city. Yes, it helps move the plot along but if something is merely there as filler material, you’re significantly better off leaving it out.
The story itself felt like a perfect allegory for the Carnivals of 1930’s America. All flash and façade but when you peek behind the curtain you’re sorely disappointed. All you’ll find is some rigged up puppets, a shaved bear advertised as a bearded lady, a cat skull glued to the body of a fish hailed as a mermaid. The substance is sorely lacking.
Which perfectly leads us to the second word to describe Bacchanal, superficial. It’s perfectly fine to have your main character not be in the know when it comes to their magic, their ancestry, their religion, their culture. It can in fact make for a powerful reading experience. Following along with the main character as they go on this path of self-exploration.
To achieve this, however, the author does need to understand this backstory, the author needs to have worked out the internal logic of this magic system. The author needs to have some semblance of an idea of the history, the culture, the religion. You can’t just include a sentence that effectively tells us: ‘Oh you silly humans, you could never understand the spirit world,’ and have that be enough. It’s lazy writing at best.
You can’t just say: “oh, by the way, you are definitely a descendant of Oya, but we’re never explaining how or why that is important.’ It’s too thin of a premise. Yes, I appreciate that Oya and Ahiku are meant to be nemeses, fine. Give me a reason why though! Something beyond just you know, good versus evil.
Explain how this spirit exactly manages to create descendants, did she inhabit a human body once? Does she take corporeal form as demons frequently do? Apparently, there are thousands of these half spirit children running free in the world which Ahiku gobbled up without so much as a ‘how do you do’. Eliza however, oh no Eliza has all the power she needs to take down this ancient force. WHY?
It just feels like this book is the embodiment of appearance over substance. There is a good story hidden in there somewhere, one I would love to read. Bacchanal just isn’t it in the current form. To use a quote from one of my fellow reviewers: ‘This book reads like a first draft rather than a fully fleshed out, edited copy.”
What are your thoughts? We’re you ready to join the Bacchanal carnival and try your luck as a carnie? Where you enamoured by the gloomy feel of the 1930’s Americas, or where you like me? Disappointed and disillusioned. Let me know in the comment section below, and until then - just one more page!