Review: The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley 

Release Date: August 1^st, 2017 

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA 

Type: Adult Fiction 

Pages: 336 

Summary: In 1859, ex-East India Company smuggler Merrick Tremayne is trapped at home in Cornwall after sustaining an injury that almost cost him his leg and something is wrong; a statue moves, his grandfather’s pines explode, and his brother accuses him of madness.

When the India Office recruits Merrick for an expedition to fetch quinine—essential for the treatment of malaria—from deep within Peru, he knows it’s a terrible idea. Nearly every able-bodied expeditionary who’s made the attempt has died, and he can barely walk. But Merrick is desperate to escape everything at home, so he sets off, against his better judgment, for a tiny mission colony on the edge of the Amazon where a salt line on the ground separates town from forest. Anyone who crosses is killed by something that watches from the trees, but somewhere beyond the salt are the quinine woods, and the way around is blocked.

Surrounded by local stories of lost time, cursed woods, and living rock, Merrick must separate truth from fairytale and find out what befell the last expeditions; why the villagers are forbidden to go into the forest; and what is happening to Raphael, the young priest who seems to have known Merrick’s grandfather, who visited Peru many decades before. The Bedlam Stacks is the story of a profound friendship that grows in a place that seems just this side of magical.

My Review:

While Natasha Pulley's first novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street will remain my favorite of her two books, The Bedlam Stacks is in a pretty close second. And just like my review of that book this review will also contain spoilers because it is hard to gush about this without them.

The Bedlam Stacks took me a little while to read because it is a slow paced book. This is not a bad thing. By taking her time with the plot Pulley makes sure that the reader is paying attention. As I went along with Merrick from his time at home in Cornwall to his time with Raphael in Peru and understood more and more of what was happening in the Bedlam Stacks the more I realized how well Pulley writes. Tiny clues, given slowly once understood make this book start reading faster and faster until I couldn’t go read quickly enough.

Like the characters of Watchmaker the characters of this novel are stand out. (SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD) And much like Mori the Watchmaker in her first novel Raphael is also a special kind of magical. (Mori, by the way, makes a small appearance in this book confirming that these books are in the same version of our world. One in which I would like to live in, honestly). This novel seamlessly blends historical fiction with the slight fantasy. Raphael is a bit of a mystery for most of the novel, but his unique magical talent makes him one of the most interesting characters I have ever read, just like Mori.

What I liked most about this novel is how Merrick interacts with the setting of Peru, the culture, and his own family's history there. Like I said earlier, this novel is a slow burn and it is as such because the novel is from Merrick's perspective and as he pieces it together so does the reader. As he learns more the more interesting the novel becomes. For me, I think another thing I liked is that Merrick is learning Spanish while in Peru. I, too, am learning the language and while the dialogue of this book is in English they are actually using Spanish some of the time. When they do Merrick points in out, whether the speaker is talking slowly or clearly enough for his skills. And when he brings it up I try to translate the sentences into Spanish, just to see if I can! (I mostly could get about half, which I felt was pretty good!)

I am not sure if this review has made much sense, but I hope it made you want to pick up Natasha Pulley's second novel (and her first actually. You can find my review for that one here)! 

 ~Laura!