3 out of 4 stars
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It’s the year 1894 in California of an alternate universe. Juanita, a fifteen-year-old mystic - one of the chosen few who can communicate with the dead - receives a vision of an airship whose long-deceased commander enjoins her to prevent California’s thrown-away people from boarding trains to an asylum. Further, the asylum’s head is planning murder to decrease the inmate population. Will Juanita be able to protect these innocent lives without suffering a tragedy herself? Moreover, will she be able to do so without snuffing out lives?
The Engine Woman’s Light by Laurel Anne Hill is an adventurous coming-of-age novel that starts beautifully with a lot of potential. Readers get a tantalizing teaser of magic and spirits and whatnot in an alternate universe. Sadly, this potential is not fully realized. For starters, the background information is not clearly spelled out in the text. I could not fathom what circumstances prompted banishment of weak and unwanted people to an asylum. Wasn’t there any government to prevent all of this? If no, why? Had anarchy set in? Nothing concrete was ever mentioned throughout the book.
The author creates a half-baked world of fantasy which leaves the readers frustrated. When an author is creating a whole new world, she must provide a proper structure to support it. In my opinion, it would have helped if Hill had included snippets of the asylum, the conditions of the general populace or the thought process of the asylum director himself. Creation of a fantasy world requires meticulous attention to detail which I did not observe here. Further, such type of stories lends unimaginable freedom to the author because she can create or bend the rules according to her will. Unfortunately, I could find no such grandiosity in this book.
Hill uses flowery language which is good when describing people or landscapes but falls flat on its face when used to describe action scenes. For instance, the first train wreck was not described properly. I could not even understand that a train wreck had occurred until Juanita said it out loud.
On top of this, the book has an uneven pace. It is gripping at the beginning, slacks thereafter and then at the middle, becomes captivating as Juanita, along with her accomplices, plans to carry out her mission. But as soon as the tale reaches the execution part, it becomes boring again. This is because most of the mission involves steam locomotives and the lingo used to describe them went over my head. So, it was difficult for me to visualize the scenes involving trains and the book has many such scenes. I often felt like groping in the dark when I was reading these passages. I felt that a glossary of the different terms used should have been provided to ease the transition of a novice reader into this book’s world.
There is a particularly disturbing and abusive relationship portrayed here which I found difficult to digest since the victim had acted quite bravely throughout the book. Hence, the victim’s meek endurance of this torture baffled me. Besides, so many questions remained unanswered which made the dénouement hard to accept. It has a satisfying end but not all the loose ends are tied up.
What I liked about the book were the spirits and their different antics. In addition, the vivid descriptions of the landscape, as well as the numerous persons Juanita encounters on her journey coupled with her interactions with her phantom ancestors are the highlights of this book. Another redeeming facet of this book is a strong female protagonist. After such a long time, I have had the pleasure to meet a brave girl who persevered through all odds to accomplish her mission and not for once, did she curl up in a ball at the sight of distress. She will serve as an inspiration to many. Almost all the characters are gray – good characters do bad things; despicable people do good things so that you are compelled to feel at least a bit for them. Besides, the narrative has an unhurried pace which allows for character development but will deter action buffs from liking this book.
It is not a run-of-the-mill novel since it straddles the genres of steampunk and alternate universe, an unheard-of combination. With well fleshed out characters and beautiful descriptions of the landscapes, you can check out this book provided the lack of a credible backstory does not bother you nor do you mind the excessive locomotive jargon. This book is professionally edited since I could not find a single error. In the light of the above points stated, I rate it a 3 out of 4. Young readers should be aware that it contains violence, sexual abuse, and rape as well.
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The Engine Woman's Light
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