The Familiar Book Review and World Building Analysis
Table of Contents
In terms of genres, historical fantasy isn’t often one that I’ll opt to pick up. However, when I read the synopsis of The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, I found myself really interested in what the story had to offer. Beyond that, I loved Six of Crows and thought I’d give another Bardugo work a chance. The hardcover edition was also too nice to pass up, so I picked up a copy and I’ve definitely got a lot to say about this story. There’s certainly some good and some bad elements to The Familiar, and I’ll be sure to cover all of that as well as what my overall thoughts are on the book. I’ll be sure to also break down some of the thoughts I had on the worldbuilding in the story to see if it’s a solid fantasy or if it could’ve been improved in some ways. So, let’s get into my review of The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo as well as my worldbuilding analysis.
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Spoiler-Free Review of The Familiar
What is The Familiar About?
The Familiar is a historical fantasy that I’ve debated constantly on whether or not it could be classified as a romantasy. In a way, I decided that it is a romantasy because the romantic plot of the story is basically central to the conclusion of the book. So, genre classification aside, The Familiar is about a young scullion named Luzia. Set in Inquisition-era Spain, Luzia has a hidden power that allows her to reverse injuries, make things grow, and also destroy things.
Her employer, Valentina, decides that she wants a bit more from life than her current position. So, she invites some very popular and powerful people to see Luzia’s magic in action. The position they take is that Luzia’s magic is a divine gift from God, so as to make the Inquisition believe it’s not devil-related.
As a result of these shows, Luzia is noticed by Don Victor and Antonio Perez. Perez, a disgraced former advisor of the King, wants to secure his glory again. He believes that by presenting someone with a divine miracle, it will secure the King’s favor again. Don Victor wants a champion to be at the tournament for Perez, hoping that it will increase his position in the country.
Luzia is taken to be trained by Victor’s right-hand, Guillen Santangel. He’s a mysterious, strange, powerful man that strikes fear in people’s hearts and is known as El Aracran (the Scorpion).
The book most revolves around Luzia’s journey in training with Santangel and the torneo that she must win, as well as the blossoming relationship with Santangel and her internal growth.
The Worldbuilding
The Familiar, being a fantasy book, has a lot of world building involved in it as well. However, this is a historical fantasy, so it doesn’t take place on a second world like a lot of other fantasy books do. The story mostly takes place in one area in Spain during the era of the Spanish Inquisition. Even though this does take place in our world, there are elements of worldbuilding that do affect the story.
Religion
Firstly, Luzia is Jewish but has to hide her faith because the Inquisition would brand her a heretic and execute her. Santangel doesn’t really have a set religion, but it appears to me as the reader that he’s agnostic in some capacity. He knows a lot about many religions aside from Catholicism, but he doesn’t seem to subscribe to any set faith.
Most of the characters appear to be Catholic. Luzia herself knows a lot about Catholicism and even sometimes says Catholic prayers, but we also get evidence of her knowing some Hebrew prayers as well. We know that her family hides their Jewish faith in secret from the government, and so we see evidence of religious persecution.
Society and Hierarchies
There is also evidence of the high society of Spain, as well as a government. The country is under a monarchy, there are nobles that serve the king, and there is also a hierarchy within the nobility. Valentina is not a high-ranking noble compared to Victor. Furthermore, the country has a religious authority and places a lot of power in the religious leadership. The Inquisition is a terrifying force that can effectively disappear people and have them executed without much thought. They clearly are higher positions in the society as well.
Magic
We also have a magic system in The Familiar, which is something that I want to highlight a bit because I did have some issues with this. Luzia is capable of doing things like reverse injuries, heat up water, make vines grow from seeds, etc… Her magic seems very strong and very powerful. However, we aren’t really given much information on the following:
- Where did the magic come from?
- Why does Luzia have this magic?
- What is the origin of the magic?
- What are the limits/costs of the magic?
I personally felt like there was a lot missing from this. It appears to me that it was more of a soft magic system, and not a hard magic system. Which is fine, and you can incorporate more mystique and less rigidity in a soft magic system. However, the magic system also felt fleshed out but it was just missing something to really make it understandable.
I think that if the magic system would’ve been explained more, then it would’ve enhanced the worldbuilding of the story.
If you want some resources to help you learn how to create magic systems, check out these:
The Characters
For the most part, one of the things that I really liked about this book were the characters and their dynamics with each other. I think that Santangel was a very interesting character that had a lot of mystery around him. I also really enjoyed the romance between him and Luzia and I felt like they were a good match. He’s well-educated, encourages Luzia, cares for her, and doesn’t pull her down. To him, she’s important, and it’s clear in his actions that that’s the case. Everyone mistrusts him, though, I feel bad hahaha.
Luzia as a character was fine. I saw some other reviewers say they found her boring, but I think that considering her character and how she grew by the end of the story, it made sense for her to be written in this way. She was a good lens for us to follow the story with. She wasn’t the only perspective offered, but she was the majority of the scenes.
Valentina was also an interesting character, but I personally found myself skimming her scenes a little more than the other characters. She wasn’t a bad character, but I just personally didn’t find her as interesting as some of the other characters and scenes in the book.
The other side characters were also interesting and they did contribute to the story quite a lot. However, I think that there are some characters that could’ve used more page time if that makes sense. There was potential for a lot of them, but the potential fell just a bit flat for me at times.
Overall Thoughts
I think The Familiar is a good story, but I also think that it fell short in many places for me. I can’t really say it’s a 5-star read for me. I love Bardugo’s writing style, and that does help my review out here, but something about this story felt like it was a bit lacking.
First off, a lot of the training sequences between Santangel and Luzia were off-page, meaning a lot of their relationship’s development was also off-page. While I loved the romance between them, I felt like it needed more time on page to actually get a proper amount of development and to make it more interesting for us as readers.
Additionally, I was personally not the biggest fan of the way the conflict and the ending was resolved. I felt like there could’ve been some better directions for the ending that would’ve been more satisfying for the story and wrapped things up nicely. However, as a standalone historical romantic fantasy book, I was pretty happy with it.
I’d say if I were to rate the book out of 5, I’d give it a 3 just for those issues that I felt were present. However, the overall book was a fast and interesting read. I did like the writing style as well, and it wasn’t too difficult to follow. I would definitely recommend you check out The Familiar if you’re looking for an interesting read!
You can pick up a copy of The Familiar on Amazon!
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