{"id":3388,"date":"2012-12-21T11:50:18","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T16:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=3388"},"modified":"2012-12-21T11:50:18","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T16:50:18","slug":"darker-still-a-novel-of-magic-most-foul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3388","title":{"rendered":"Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul<\/a><\/em> (2011) Leanna Renee Hieber<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Darker<\/a>This is a YA\/Historical\/Fantasy\/Romance (got all that?).<\/p>\n

We are reading the journal of Miss Natalie Stewart, who recently left the Connecticut Asylum, where she spent several years, not because she is a lunatic, but because she has been mute since the age of four when her mother died.<\/p>\n

When she returns home to her father, who works a the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she immediately becomes fascinated by the uproar over a painting of Lord Denbury–a striking young man who disappeared and is presumed dead. The uproar over the painting leads her to meet Mrs. Northe, a spiritualist, who believes there is something untoward–perhaps even evil–with the painting.<\/p>\n

There was much to like about this story: the plucky (MUTE!) heroine, the mysterious, missing English Lord, the eccentric spiritualist, yet something felt lacking in the execution. I wanted to care about the characters, but instead I read solely to find out what happened. I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters. <\/p>\n

I was curious to see what happened, but instead of being sucked into the story, my mind kept creating possibilities that (this being a romance) I knew wouldn’t happen.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I only paid $1.99 for this story, so it wasn’t a horrible escape for that price.
\nRating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Sourcebooks Fire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul (2011) Leanna Renee Hieber This is a YA\/Historical\/Fantasy\/Romance (got all that?). We are reading the journal of Miss Natalie Stewart, who recently left the Connecticut Asylum, where she spent several years, not because she is a lunatic, but because she has been mute since the age of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,33,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-SE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2862,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2862","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":0},"title":"The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland–for a Little While","author":"Michelle","date":"March 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland--for a Little While (2011) Catherynne M. Valente Mallow is content to live with her cast iron ducks doing the occasional magic for those in need, but mostly she prefers to be left alone. But then the King of Fairy calls a for a Foul in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Girl-Who-Ruled-Fairyland.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":203,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/203","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":1},"title":"Memory & Dream","author":"Michelle","date":"March 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Memory & Dream (1995) Charles de Lint Memory & Dream is not my favorite Charles de Lint book. Partially, because I keep forgetting that it's a novel and not a short story collection, so I pick up the book, start reading, and then think, \"boy, this is a really long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/memory-and-dream.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13516,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13516","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":2},"title":"Passing Strange","author":"Michelle","date":"October 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Passing Strange (2017) Ellen Klages Set in San Francisco in 1940. Haskel is an artist who makes her living doing pulp covers. She and her friends live on the edge of polite society, either because they aren't white or because of their sexuality, but they are found family. \u201cAh, Jack.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "eBook"","block_context":{"text":"eBook","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/ebook"},"img":{"alt_text":"Passing Strange","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Passing-Strange.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2005,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2005","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":3},"title":"Masques","author":"Michelle","date":"October 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Masques (1993\/2010) Patricia Briggs This is a revised version of Patricia Brigg's first published book, and unlike some of her more recent works, is not urban\/supernatural fantasy but straight up fantasy. Luckily for me, it's not high fantasy that takes 30k pages to resolve the story, but a fun story\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/masques.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17365,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/17365","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":4},"title":"Flight of Magpies","author":"Michelle","date":"June 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Flight of Magpies (2014) KJ Charles Stephen stuffed his hands in the pockets of the topcoat that Crane had insisted on buying him for this chilly winter. It had been a great deal more expensive than Stephen, who accepted gifts with startling gracelessness, had wanted; a great deal cheaper than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"flight of magpies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/flight-of-magpies-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5467,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5467","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":5},"title":"A Matter of Magic","author":"Michelle","date":"October 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A Matter of Magic: Mairelon the Magician and The Magician\u2019s Ward (1991\/1997) Patricia C. Wrede This is a reissue of two lovely YA novels, Mairelon the Magician and The Magician\u2019s Ward. Kim is a thief in London, who hopes that this job will help her get off the streets for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A-Matter-of-Magic","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/A-Matter-of-Magic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}