OYENTE

Kit Trzebunia

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The Onyx Door: A Gaslamp Trinkets Novel Audiolibro Por Kenneth Baldwin arte de portada

Deep themes of what it is to be human.

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-08-24

Luella Winthrop is consistent in her flaws. Though an intelligent and thinking woman, she continually makes reactive decisions based on her emotional perceptions of her situation. This, I suppose, makes her very human. In fact, the book has a running theme concerning what it means to be human, and the sorts of magic unique to humanity.

Luella’s self deprecation over her misguided choices unfortunately perpetuates the blind spot that allows her to continue making them. “This is my mess,” she claims yet again in Chapter 25. When another character disputes this statement, Luella cries, “Enough! This is your whole routine, it always is!… You’re the one who doesn’t understand… What’s worse, I think you purposely misunderstand to get what you want!” Only a few minutes after this ironic outburst, she notes, “I didn’t need a [magical trinket] to tell me my own heart.” Um, I beg to differ. I think a magically inescapable look at her own heart, minus all the self-deceptions she has been spinning in order to cope, might be just the right prescription for Luella.

The beginning of this story picks up right where The Silver Currant left off, which comes as a relief after the cliffhanger ending of Book Two. While The Onyx Door is a fitting conclusion to the entire trilogy, it lacks some of the magic of the second book. Book One set the stage and piqued my interest, although imperfectly, and then Book Two hit the real high note. In Book Three, the stakes balance on the edge of a knife, but the action simultaneously grinds to a halt as our friends become mired in a court case. This drags on miserably, as only a legal proceeding can, and it’s a testament to Baldwin’s writing that the reader isn’t screaming against the tedium of sequential failed attempts to escape (quite literally) from a jail cell. Somehow the story still manages to be, er… what is the audio equivalent of a page turner? Of course, the stakes are actually much higher than whether someone will or will not hang for an alleged crime, and we do push past all this red tape to get at the crux of the matter.

My main disappointment with the story is that the Onyx Door does not figure in the story to a satisfying degree. While I can accept the hinted-at metaphorical answers surrounding its existence and nature, the story still leaves me with unanswered questions I won’t discuss here. Suffice it to say that though there is a lovely symmetry in the three titles (The Crimson Inkwell, The Silver Currant, and The Onyx Door), I feel the first two delivered on the promise of their titles, while the third did not.

The book has several foibles suggesting more editing would have been a good idea. In Chapter 13, it is stated that Luella does not know how to ride a horse, which I find absolutely believable, except for the (more questionable) fact that she was certainly doing just that at the end of Book One. Specific to the audiobook, there is more than one place when Rose-Mock slips back into Luella’s voice, disrupting the sense of a tale told from a male character’s perspective. Also, the musical theme from Book Two returns, this time with a completely different melody and added lyrics. No explanation for this is offered, other than the arguably sufficient fact of the song’s magical source.

In the end, Luella does find herself, though she paid a dear price for such understanding. The question remaining is whether she can find redemption. Littering her wake is an upchurn of missed potential, bleeding wounds (figurative and literal), and broken relationships. Baldwin does a fantastic job of letting the reader wonder if certain of those relationships can ever be salvaged. Despite all this, Luella has friends willing to accept the maxim brought forth in Chapter Two: “We are not the choices of our past, not even the sum of them. We are tomorrow and today.” It’s just possible that list of friends is longer than Luella is inclined to believe—but it all hinges on her ability to forgive herself.

/ I had the privilege of receiving a complimentary copy of the audiobook, and this review reflects my honest opinion. Look for my reviews of the remaining two books to complete my reflections on the series as a whole. /

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The Silver Currant Audiolibro Por Kenneth A. Baldwin arte de portada

This second-in-the series hits a high note!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-08-24

I came into The Silver Currant with a touch of dread. At the end of The Crimson Inkwell, I could see that Luella was in something of a fix, and that things were probably going to get worse before they got better (presumably in Book Three). Well, forget Second Book Syndrome: It turns out The Silver Currant is far more charming and riveting than its predecessor!

It’s not that Book One wasn’t good. It had me intrigued and wanting to hear what happened, but… well, you can read my thoughts in that review. But Book Two is whimsical and magical, full of surprises and plot twists.

Ignoring her own comment from book one that “the true weight of secrets is borne by our loved ones,” Luella continues a pattern of hiding things from people in whom she should, by all rights, be confiding. I find this an irritating personal flaw, because it seems clear that this is going to bite her—is perhaps already biting her—in her flannel petticoats. On the other hand, she ends up having reason to question whether the very closest of her companions might have caused her harm, intended or accidental. She continues to make odd, emotional choices about whom to trust and whom to keep at arms’ length (and sometimes those are the same people)…. But then, is any of us truly logical in the face of our own crises? As Luella comments in Ch. 5, “Desperation causes many people to do many things they would never normally consider.”

Naomi Rose-Mock continues to do a great job with the narration—and she can sing, too. There is a song woven through the book, a key component to the plot. It first appears in Ch. 18, where it is described as “something like a lullaby, haunting and moody,” but the first rendition left me dissatisfied. However, it comes back in Ch. 23, and again several more times throughout the book. Each time the melody varies slightly, and I found it grew into itself. The fact that initially Rose-Mock is singing an octave lower to emulate a man’s voice might have something to do with my disappointment; subsequent versions are all in a female voice. But in going back to Ch. 18 to analyze my reaction to the first presentation, I noticed there was a whole step in the melody, where later iterations use a half step, lending a more hauntingly minor-key feel. Yet the mere fact that the song is changeable, with a personality of its own, adds further charm to the reading of the story and is in keeping with the nature and purpose of the song.

There are only a couple of minor editing issues. In one place a phrase is immediately repeated, suggesting a retake that was not seamlessly integrated. And early in Chapter 27 there is a mixup where Rebecca is referred to as Luella and Mrs. Crowe is referred to as Mrs. Barker. (I wonder if this is a flaw in the original source rather than a mistake on the part of Rose-Mock.) Other than that the book flows beautifully, and Baldwin continues to showcase occasional word gems through Luella’s musing narrative.: “A widower’s love,” she observes, “lives suspended in mid-air, like clothes on a line.”

As with Book One, the last couple of sentences are riveting, though this time in a more ominous way. I absolutely want to dive right into The Onyx Door—a title that has been beckoning seductively ever since a foreshadowing event early in this book. The entire story was well played, so on to the resolution!

/ I had the privilege of receiving a complimentary copy of the audiobook, and this review reflects my honest opinion. Look for my reviews of the remaining two books to complete my reflections on the series as a whole. /

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The Crimson Inkwell: A Gaslamp Trinkets Novel Audiolibro Por Kenneth A. Baldwin arte de portada

Beautifully narrated with believable protagonist.

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-08-24

This audiobook was my first introduction to the Luella Winthrop trilogy, and Naomi Rose-Mock’s voice is therefore synonymous for me with Luella’s narrative. It took me a little while to warm up to that voice ,and I don’t know if that is the character or the narrator. While every book needs a good plot and a compelling narrative voice, the actual voice of the narrator tends to make or break an audiobook experience, so let me go ahead and state that Rose-Mock is a phenomenal voice actor. I don’t love her male voices—she can only go so deep, through no fault of her own—but I could definitely tell they were male. And later in the book, in the space of a single chapter (ch. 26), she voices four distinct female characters back and forth in quick succession, and I knew exactly whom she was reading each time. I even correctly guessed who was banging on the door by the way Rose-Mock voiced the character. So my hat goes off to her skills.

As for the story itself, it kept me engaged and wanting to hear more. I even did some extra house cleaning so I had a productive excuse to listen! Yet I have mixed feelings. I like Luella; I find her interesting and believable. But the pace of each scene tends to be slow, because Luella’s narrative voice tends to pause for introspective analysis. This is justified, because as the story goes on, you begin to understand that this character, who is naturally cool-headed, conservative, caring and decorous, is under the influence of—well, a powerful influence. While you believe her capable of passion, you’re also convinced her passions are out of character.

As events unfold, Luella makes one odd, impulsive decision after another, leading her down a path littered with mistakes and boxing her into something of a corner. It happens so gradually, almost naturally, that you never find yourself at that unenviable point as a reader where you want to shout at her to stop being so stupid. Actually, Baldwin does a masterful job of portraying the inside of a woman’s head and heart with insight and honesty. Yet the fact remains that Luella’s situation goes from bad to worse, and though I did not blame her for her choices, I did sort of get tired of watching her head reel repeatedly as she discovered the consequences.

It’s not all dust and ashes, of course. There is some beauty in the book, and a couple of particularly gratifying friendships develop along the way. Yet I feel Luella’s journey is succinctly summed up by this pensive line from chapter 20: “The true weight of secrets is borne by our loved ones.” And again in this wistful reflection from chapter 35: “It’s so easy to pine after the roads we pass as destiny whisks us along.”

I was surprised to find I really liked the ending .The last two lines of the book were quite satisfying. I will definitely keep going with the series, but I confess I sort of dread Book Two. I suspect things will have to get a whole lot darker, and I may not love where Luella ends up by the end of the second book. Will Book Three redeem it all? I certainly hope so. And my first experience with Baldwin (which was Drops of Glass, book one of The Shards of Lafayette series) leads me to believe in him as a storyteller.

/ I had the privilege of receiving a complimentary copy of the audiobook, and this review reflects my honest opinion. Look for my reviews of the remaining two books to complete my reflections on the series as a whole. /

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