Excuse me while I do a happy dance, because this isn’t the final book in the series! I was absolutely expecting the series to come to an end at the conclusion of Escaping from Houdini, but I was wrong. According to Goodreads, book four will be the last, so we’re getting one more instalment, people!
Check out my review of Hunting Prince Dracula to find out what I thought of the previous two books in the series (I realised I never reviewed Stalking Jack the Ripper whilst writing my review for book two, but you can see how many stars I gave it!).
Also, spoilers ahead for books one and two, so stop right here if you haven’t read them yet. Seriously, don’t read any further.
You rebel.
TL;DR Audrey Rose and Thomas jump on a cruise liner to New York and their next case, but as per usual, murder and mystery follow them at every step. Entertained each evening by the Moonlight Carnival, guests begin dropping like flies in increasingly gruesome and theatrical ways. Can Wadsworth and Cresswell solve the murders before the killer’s grand finale?
This book had one of my biggest pet peeve tropes as a central plot point, but as you can see, that didn’t stop me loving it. (I won’t say which trope for spoilers’ sake, but if you feel the same, let me know in the comments!)
It starts off with Audrey Rose and Thomas completely smitten with each other, looking forward to a pleasant transatlantic cruise, chaperoned by Audrey’s uncle Dr. Jonathan Wadsworth and Mrs Harvey (and her notorious “travelling tonic”). Well, if you’ve been paying attention to this series so far, you won’t be surprised to hear that almost immediately people start being murdered.
Entertaining the guests every evening on board the ship is the Moonlight Carnival, a rag tag crew of contortionists, cartomancers, knife-throwers and fire-eaters, lead by a mysterious, masked man who calls himself Mephistopheles. If you weren’t lucky enough to read Faust at school, Mephistopheles is the name of the devil in the classic German novel. The ringmaster is a charming, manipulative and arrogant man with designs on our Audrey Rose, much to Thomas’s chagrin.
Only one member of the carnival doesn’t wear a mask at all times, and that’s the eponymous Harry Houdini. Unlike the rest of the performers who all seem to be hiding from someone or something, Houdini comes across as a fame-hungry young man. Does that make him a murderer, though? Or could one of his travelling carnival companions be hiding a dark past behind their glittery facade?
Like in the previous books, the stakes are pretty high for our leading lady, drawing her family and friends into the heart of the danger yet again. But none more so than herself, and in the end Audrey Rose goes through something that will change her forever.
I loved this book. I whipped through it at breakneck speed and it’s my new favourite of the series (I know I said that about Hunting Prince Dracula, because boarding school setting! But that’s been trumped by cruise ship setting. Sorry not sorry). Book four, you’ve got a lot to live up to!
I gave Escaping from Houdini 4.5 stars, there’s room for improvement – that flipping annoying trope, to be precise – but it’s such an enjoyable romp on the high seas. I still love Audrey Rose, she’s not perfect, but who of us is? And Thomas is just a dreamboat, flirting shamelessly with her one minute, and telling her he’ll never hold her back the next.
If you’ve enjoyed books one and two, or you’re just a fan of YA historical fiction, you’ll love this book. It’s full of illusions, romance, murder and kissing. What more could you want?
Hi folks! I’m a little late with my post this month, but as it’s the last one of the year (anyone else doing NaNoWriMo?), it’s better late than never!
This month I wanted to look at one of the most important parts of any novel, because as we all know, first impressions last. Lots of writers spend hours (days, weeks, etc.) agonising over their story’s first line, usually after the rest of the novel is written and edited – first drafts are always messy, and if your original opening line survives the cut then you’re some kind of writing legend.
There are a few ways to tackle the first line, but whichever way you decide to come at it it needs to be gripping and compelling. You want the reader to immediately need to know more so they continue reading. The stronger the first sentence – the more intriguing the introduction to your story and characters – the longer your readers will stick around. And ultimately, we want them to stick around until THE END.
Meet and greet
Possibly the most common way to start a novel, especially if you’re writing in first person, is to introduce the reader to your protagonist. Rather than a bog standard “Mary was sixteen with blonde hair and blue eyes”, you need to give us a detail about your protag that makes them unique and leaves us with some questions so we’ll keep reading.
“Mary was sixteen with blonde hair and blue eyes, according to the wanted posters”, makes us wonder what Mary could have done to make her a wanted criminal, especially at such a young age. It also gives some clues as to setting – wanted posters are a pretty rare sight in this day and age, so we might be travelling to the wild west in this (very rough) example.
Examples of the Meet and greet opening:
“After a year of slavery in the Salt Mines of Endovier, Celaena Sardothien was accustomed to being escorted everywhere in shackles and at sword-point.” – Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
“Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister premonitions about the day.” – Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Flash forward
Flash forward openings give us a sneak peek into the future, turning the rest of the book into a sort of flashback, e.g. “Looking back, I can pinpoint the moment when everything went wrong for me, but if I had to go back, I’d do it all again.”
We’re used to the protagonist of a book surviving to the end, so this kind of opening isn’t much of a spoiler for their survival (alternatively, if your MC dies at some point in the story, you could spoil that here to instantly grip your readers, e.g. “It was an unseasonably warm day in January when I died.”).
However, one tip I’d recommend is to actually hint at the story’s climax, which comes towards the end of Act Two, rather than its conclusion. Throw your readers in at the deep end, and then drag them back to the beginning, but leave yourself enough room to tie the loose ends up neatly after your flash forward.
Examples of the Flash forward opening:
“I like to imagine there were more of us in the beginning. Not many I suppose. But more than there are now.” – The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
“I shouldn’t have come to this party.” The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
There’s a time and a place
Another popular way to open your novel is to ground your reader in its setting. You could do this easily if you’re using a diary or letter format, just write the date and location at the top right and get on with it. Or you can introduce your setting in a smoother way, such as, “July in Scotland wasn’t unlike February in Scotland, wet and grey.”
If your setting is a different country, or a fictional place with its own language you’ve created, you might throw in a word of the foreign language to let your readers know immediately they’re being transported to a far off land.
Examples of the Time and place opening:
“On the second Sabbat of Twelfthmoon, in the city of Weep, a girl fell from the sky.” – Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
“The servants called them malenchki, little ghosts, because they were the smallest and youngest, and because they haunted the Duke’s house like giggling phantoms, darting in and out of rooms, hiding in cupboards to eavesdrop, sneaking into the kitchen to steal the last of the summer peaches.” – Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Shock and awe
Is there anything more gripping than a first line that throws you straight into the action? Some readers aren’t fans of this kind of opening, but when done right, we can learn a lot about our protagonist by being thrown into the middle of the action, at the same time as launching the story full throttle. Something like, “Lia sprinted through the trees, thanking whatever deity was watching over her she’d worn her running shoes this morning instead of her heels.” We know Lia’s a runner, probably agnostic, and she’s either running late or being chased – but we’ll have to keep reading to find out which it is!
Examples of the Shock and awe opening:
“It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.” – Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
“He was an easy mark.” – City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Misdirection
Some openings deliberately mislead the reader, allowing us to believe something about the protagonist or their situation that is later revealed to be not quite true, or that is put in a new context that gives it a different meaning. This can be a fun way to start your story, especially if you love a good plot twist and have a mind-blowing revelation in mind. (I’ll point you in the direction of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn for an A* example of misdirection, despite it not featuring in the first line.)
I wouldn’t recommend outright lying to your readers, or tricking them to the point they feel deceived. Ideally you want the revelation to be a good, credible surprise rather than feeling like a plot hole or a mistake. Your readers have dedicated a lot of their personal time to reading your story, and (hopefully) they’re invested in your characters, so you don’t want to anger them with any deus ex machina style explanations or about-face turns. The art of misdirection is a delicate one, so beta readers are a must with this style of writing!
Examples of the Misdirection opening:
“I’d never given much thought to how I would die – though I’d had reason enough in the last few months – but even if I had, I wouldn’t have imagined it like this.” – Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
“I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves.” – Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Open a dialogue
Another common opening, albeit controversial, is the use of dialogue as the first line. Some readers prefer to feel anchored in context before any dialogue is introduced, at the very least so they know who’s speaking and why they should care about this person. But, like with every style of opening, when done right it can be used to devastating effect.
This method works well if you’ve included a prologue, or some kind of introduction before the main story begins, so your readers already have an idea of what they’re getting themselves into.
Examples of the Dialogue opening:
“You all know why you’re here.” – Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
“Beware the goblin men,” Constanze said. “And the wares they sell.” – Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
Ultimately, there are a hundred different ways to start your novel, and only one that is right for your story. There are several opening styles that have fallen out of favour, such as opening with a dream or having your protagonist looking into a mirror, but trends come and go, and new twists on an old theme are always fun.
If you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo this year, leave your username in the comments and I’ll add you as a writing buddy! (I’m lyndleloo, by the way.) Best of luck with your WIP, I hope you smash your goal, whether that’s to hit 50k and win Nano, or your own personal target (with a six month old and a day job I’ll be happy to hit 20k!).
I’d heard so many good things about the Red Rising Saga from other book bloggers and readers online, so when I saw it was on offer on Audible a few months ago, I had to buy it!
TL;DR Darrow is a Red, one of the miners living in a colony on Mars, tasked with the job of making the planet inhabitable for the rest of mankind when Earth dies. Treated as second class citizens by the ruling class, the Golds, there’s a rebellion slowly building beneath the surface, until a shock event thrusts Darrow into the centre of a revolution and exposes the dark secret that Mars may not be all that uninhabitable after all…
Darrow lives in a slum, works in a mine and dreams of a future where Mars is safe and inhabitable for the millions of people left living on a dying Earth. He knows he won’t live long enough to see the day his and his fellow miners’ efforts come to fruition, and he’s OK with that. His kids, or his grandkids, or his great grandkids will enjoy the freedom and safety he works so hard for, day in, day out.
He’s pretty damn good at his job – the best, you might say – and well respected in his community. He’s also married to the love of his life, Eo, at the ripe old age of sixteen. Life under the surface is short and explosive (sometimes literally), so there’s no time to waste when it comes to true love.
Unfortunately though, things aren’t quite what they seem. (Are they ever?) The Golds, a race of “superior” humans that rules over the Reds and other colours, have been keeping a dark secret for decades – the surface has been inhabitable for years and is now covered with a stunning metropolis overflowing with wealth, decadence, and indulgence whilst the Reds suffer and struggle for survival in the mines.
But a rebellion has been brewing for a while, and the rebels believe they’ve found their front-man in Darrow. He’s not convinced though, until a series of shocking and heartbreaking events forces him to accept his new fate.
Disguised as a Gold (think the residents of the Capitol in The Hunger Games), he’s thrown into a competition that pits young members of the Gold caste against each other in a battle of mental and physical fortitude to select the next group of leaders. If he survives, he’ll never be the same again.
I enjoyed Red Rising, I gave it 3.5 stars, but I had incredibly high hopes after everything I’d heard and it didn’t quite meet them. I wonder whether I might have enjoyed the paperback more, but there was nothing I could pinpoint about the narrator that bothered me, I just can’t put my finger on why this didn’t do it for me like it did for so many others.
One of the reasons I think is because of the other books I was comparing it to, for me it had really strong similarities to The Hunger Games (the segregated castes and deadly competition) and Nevernight (the Ancient Roman influence), two of my absolute favourite books, and it wasn’t quite as good as those two, in my opinion. I still enjoyed it, and would consider continuing to read the rest of the series when I’m caught up on my TBR. Especially as so many people who’s tastes I share, and who’s opinions I respect recommend it.
Have you read Red Rising? Did you love it? Tell me if you think I should read book two!
Lyndsey Hall | Author 