It’s taken
me a few days to gather my thoughts about the latest book I had up for review
on my list, The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff. I thought it would be easy.
The author was one of those that I read and re-read constantly in high school.
When The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff was released a few years back I
really wanted to pick it up immediately. However, for reasons I can’t remember,
I never procured a copy of my own. At a Half-Price Books here in my new hometown I finally bought
a mass market paperback edition and spent 3 days devoted to reading the book.
And
then re-reading the book.
Not because the book was so brilliant. I had to read it again but because I needed to go back and
try to garner as much information as possible in order to understand the story.
Other reviews have it right; there is some major backstory plot points missing
in this book.
So rather
than your average review, I have a list. I’ll start at the top, numero uno, at
what I liked best about the book and work my way down. Fun times, right?
NUMBER ONE!!
Our lead, Alysha Gale, is pretty good as a main character. Once she gets out
from under her family’s thumb, she has the power and frame of mind to take
charge, investigate and adapt to her surroundings. She shows that she has a
kind heart when she basically adopts a leprechaun named Joe, who appears to be
in his late teens but may be older than he looks. She proves that she has a
good sense of humor when she deals with the many questionable items her wild grandmother left behind. And her
relationships with her cousin Charlie and the new man in her life, Graham, are
interesting. However, once she’s back with all the family, all bets are off. Get to
that in a moment.
2. Joe – I liked
Joe. Poor guy has had it rough being left behind in our world as a changeling
years ago. He’s tough to get through to and a bit difficult to gain the trust
of, but he’s loyal. Kudos to the fact that he understands that being a
changeling means his real family abandoned him in our world for the amusement
of keeping a human child with them in his place. Once said child grew up and
passed away, Joe received the call to return home. And then said screw them. After
all, they didn’t want him to begin with and he’s perfectly content to remain in
Calgary, the only home he’s ever known. He’s the perfect new companion to help
Alysha gain her footing in her Gran’s junk shop. He understands the goings-on
that Gran has kept on the side and while it takes some persuading, he
eventually accepts a place in the junk shop alongside Alysha. Thank goodness he
did because other characters aren’t as likable as he is.
3. Charlie –
Charlotte “Charlie” Gale is Alysha’s favorite cousin. She’s known as a “wild
power”, one of those members of the family who doesn’t have the urge to settle
down. These wild powers mostly choose to wander around unconcerned with the
familial obligations of being chosen by a “Gale boy” (more on that later) and
producing the children that make up the numbers in their family all in the name
of pursuing their own calling. But Charlie always returns to one person, her favorite
cousin Alysha. Charlie comes in and out of the story at various points,
providing either the comfort that Alysha needs or swift kick to the ass to get
her moving again. Sidekick doesn't do Charlie justice, but she's the kind of character most would like to have standing behind them. That
makes her pretty good in the long run as far as these characters come and go.
4. Graham
Buchanan – Our main romantic interest is provided for by the appearance of Graham, a man with a
questionable job and not so kind motivations in getting to know Alysha when she
moves into her Gran’s junk shop. He presents himself as an investigative
reporter for a tabloid magazine of sorts but that’s only one facet to him.
There are other interesting aspects to Graham but unfortunately it’d be SPOILERS to give more details on that but his relationship with Alysha is solid
enough with it’s necessary ups and downs as they navigate their way around a
new romance. He has some redeeming qualities and just one fatal flaw. Take from
that what you will.
And now for
the not so good stuff. My first main problem with the book is only at the top
of the list because it’s what opened the novel.
1. Where’s
the backstory? I’m heading into this book thinking I’m going to get just a bit
of info to explain Alysha and her MANY cousins and I get bupkes. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. I get the word "Aunties" thrown in at one point and I end up confused because
guess what? “Cousins” and “Aunts” were part of the world Huff created in The
Keeper’s Chronicles, whose lead character Claire Hansen kicked major ass. But
the terms I knew there don’t apply here. In The Enchantment Emporium Huff quite
literally means Aunts and cousins the way everyone does, which is as terms of
familial relationships and not titles of power like they were in say for
example, Summon the Keeper. (Sidenote: Claire was known as Aunt Claire, and her
position and title meant that she had the power to mend holes in the fabric of
the universe that allowed for metaphysical entities, i.e. ghosts, goblins, hellhounds,
etc., to bleed through. Awesome, right? And if you’re anything like me, that
little tidbit about that book has piqued your interest enough to find a copy of your own.)
Instead, I
end up with Aunties and cousins, and mentions of rituals and charms and the
idea that these Gales have the power to change lives and do so when necessary.
But I don’t get any info on why they were given these powers or even if their
rituals are meant to do anything that actually benefits anyone or if they’re
just a matter of being flashy in the book. Which leads to…
2. Gale
Boys. Big whoop, in my opinion. Over-indulged frat boys on one hand (at least when they're young) and serious
holders of the Gale family power on the other. Because it’s not common for boys
to be born to the Gale family, as they are mostly girls, hence the Aunties, when a
boy is born in the Gale family it’s a big freakin’ deal. These boys need to be kept
an eye on and the Aunties ensure that these Gale boys learn to harness their
magic. They are doted on constantly, no jokes about it, and to tell you the
truth, because of the lack of backstory, I really couldn’t care why. I just
thought they were a bit…ugh really. David, Alysha’s brother, is the major Gale
boy in question during the events of this novel and the Aunties are as desperate to
keep him in line as Alysha is to keep her brother safe and happy. But thanks to
a lack of backstory, I didn’t really get the whole devoted sibling vibe out of
Alysha and David. Alysha and Charlie, sure, but the relationship with the
supposed big kahuna, over-protective brother? Not so much. And Gale boys lead
to…
3. Slightly
icky sexual relationships between family members. I’m not kidding. If you’ve
read other reviews about this book, and I mean the ones that gave 3 stars or
less, they’ve mentioned the ick factor concerning the sex between cousins. If
you’ve stuck with me this far you’ll remember how I mentioned that the Gale
Aunties like to keep their power close. You’ll also remember how it’s rare for
boys to be born in this family and how their females dote on them. Which all
adds up to the fact that the Gale boys choose a Gale girl to settle down and eventually
procreate with but not until after they’ve worked through their list of the Gale girls they want to “try
out” first.
Ugh.
I tried,
believe me, I tried to get past it and yeah, the book does mention that the
Aunties try to make sure that family lines are never too closely crossed when
their Gale boys settle down with the Gale girl cousin of their choosing. But
the fact that there is a list for each of these over-indulged boys just seems
squicky. It’s like these boys are little emperors and their list equates the Gale
girls on that list to essentially a harem. And some of these girls are willing
to do whatever it takes to secure themselves a Gale boy. Even Alysha takes part in all this bed-hopping, which doesn't limit itself between guys and gals, so maybe there's power there for these poor Gale girls in that sometimes they choose another Gale girl to settle down with. But back to Alysha, this is why I say she's better off without all the family interference as all bets are off when she's under their immediate influence. It’s all just a matter
of family to them and while I was willing to overlook that, since the family
lines are monitored, I started to wonder if maybe they weren’t always so
careful. Charlie and David were supposedly considered too close at one point in
the book to "join
together", supposedly, but then Charlie makes a squick comment on page 376 of the mass market
paperback edition that just made me go “blegh” and begin to question the
logistics of this family’s intermingling yet again. Once more, a more inclusive
backstory could have helped here. Actually, scratch that, it would definitely
have helped here. And just another note, there is something seriously wrong if
yet another mention of icky sexual relations between cousins in this book has
me starting to roll my eyes in response. Seriously. Very wrong. In the back of my head Invader Zim's Gir is saying, "I know, I'm scared too." That's how wrong.
After all
that, the main conflict to this novel just never really took off for me. I got
that there was an imminent threat that Alysha was dealing with but that didn’t
start to take center stage until about half way through the book. There was
more time spent dealing with family issues than the big bad which just made it
all anti-climactic by the end. And then there’s some serious dealings with
Alysha and her commitment to her big brother David’s happiness that I just didn’t
feel invested in emotionally. By the end I just thought, “okay, oh well” and finished
the book.
So would I
recommend it? Maybe, but I send you towards the book with my list in mind.
Maybe it’ll float your boat. Maybe you’ll hate it. I’m basically sitting on the
fence leaning precariously over towards the side of the not so keen on this
book. Which sucks since I bought the sequel The Wild Ways, which focuses on
Charlie, and realized that I was just getting even more of the same ho-hum, oh well, kinda okay, maybe not so much, kind of story.
Rating: 5 Stars
Rating: 5 Stars
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