Sarah's Reviews > City of Masks
City of Masks (Stravaganza, #1)
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Sarah's review
bookshelves: all-ages-admitted, as-it-began, awkward-first-novel, beware-of-mary-sue, beware-of-useless-adults, bookful-of-idiots, brown-haired-heroine, brown-haired-female-entity, dark-eyed-male-entity, dark-haired-hero, dark-haired-male-entity, fops-and-fools, historical-fantasy, because-magic, fantasy, heartthrobs-and-heroes, isn-t-that-convenient, kings-and-queens, let-s-hear-it-for-the-boy, let-s-hear-it-for-the-girl, let-s-talk-about-religion, mythical-europe, organic-fantasy, the-city, the-sea, purple-eyes-are-prettyful, let-s-talk-about-cancer, stuff-blowing-up, imported-from-britain, just-like-italy, just-like-venice, don-t-question-the-masks, young-adult
Sep 30, 2015
bookshelves: all-ages-admitted, as-it-began, awkward-first-novel, beware-of-mary-sue, beware-of-useless-adults, bookful-of-idiots, brown-haired-heroine, brown-haired-female-entity, dark-eyed-male-entity, dark-haired-hero, dark-haired-male-entity, fops-and-fools, historical-fantasy, because-magic, fantasy, heartthrobs-and-heroes, isn-t-that-convenient, kings-and-queens, let-s-hear-it-for-the-boy, let-s-hear-it-for-the-girl, let-s-talk-about-religion, mythical-europe, organic-fantasy, the-city, the-sea, purple-eyes-are-prettyful, let-s-talk-about-cancer, stuff-blowing-up, imported-from-britain, just-like-italy, just-like-venice, don-t-question-the-masks, young-adult
Lucien Mulholland has terminal cancer. He's always tired, his body is weak, his thick black hair has fallen out, and he can't play the violin anymore.
With little to cheer him up in his last days, Lucien is given an antique notebook - a very old antique, as in Renaissance Italian. Falling asleep with the notebook in his hand, he is transported to a magical place that is and yet isn't sixteenth-century Venice.
While he was terribly sick in England, Lucien is healthy and vital in this other world. In the city-on-a-marsh, Belezza, he quickly becomes a "mandolier" (gondolier) due to his good looks, an alchemist's apprentice since the alchemist recognizes him as an inter-world traveller, and a friend to Arianna, a girl with purple eyes and a hot temper. They call him Luciano there.
But when Lucien falls asleep in Belezza, he wakes up in England, and all is as it was before.
Then he falls asleep in England with the notebook and goes to Belezza again.
The Duchessa of Belezza is struggling to maintain her city's independence against the machinations of the di Chimici family from the north of the land of Talia, who have subjugated most of the other city-states.
The di Chimici, being of the villainous persuasion, want to control as much territory as they possibly can. They have heard rumors of another world with more advanced weaponry that they would love to harness. They know of travellers between the worlds called Stravagantes, and they would like to control these people and learn their secrets.
The Duchessa wants to protect the Stravagantes, for both political and personal reasons. She wants to keep their powers out of di Chimici hands, but also (view spoiler)
The di Chimici are gunning for Rudolfo, and his young apprentice, Luciano, is also a target. And Luciano is easy to find, because he casts no shadow.
While there is peril in this story, the stakes never feel terribly high, and Hoffman is fond of deus ex machina and false alarms. The synopsis of the story sounds intense, but her pacing is so off and her narration so wordy that the plot becomes fuzzy. Sylvia and Arianna are instantly recognizable easily angered Italian women, but the other characters have mere scraps of personality, and even the two mentioned above are underdeveloped. The dialogue is so bland one senses even the characters are bored of it.
Hoffman's world-building is what keeps the pages turning. Her Talia emerges as a magical place, an impossibly romanticized and cleaned-up Renaissance Italian Wonderland - all duels and masquerades without the plagues and filthy streets that went with them.
But despite its beauty, Talia never becomes more than a dream-world. Its workings are poorly explained.
There is no solid explanation given for why this world sprang up parallel to ours but became frozen in the 1500s while ours kept marching on. There is also no explanation for why the chemical properties of silver and gold are reversed in Talia, or why a goddess-cult persists there a thousand years into the Christian Era.
Hoffman explains in her notes that there is no Protestant Reformation in her parallel world, because Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Edward VII were all the children of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (!!!). Interesting, considering Catherine was well past childbearing years when Elizabeth was born and dead by the time Edward was. If she had been able to bear more healthy children than Mary, they might well have been named Elizabeth and Edward, but these would not have been interchangeable with Anne Boleyn's daughter and Jane Seymour's son. Hoffman is English; she should know this better than I.
This book is, by itself, very kid-friendly - assuming they can handle the terminal illness plotline. However, the later books in the series contain references to sex, drug abuse, bullying, and self-harm. REFERENCES. Nothing is shown. Hoffman isn't trying to glorifying bad behavior, but rather using it to illustrate an after-school special style point. I would caution parents and teachers with this. City of Masks is fine for a ten-year-old. The sequels are not.
Overall, a cute little book with an entertaining plot and a nice atmosphere, but the prose is so clumsy and the pacing so awkward that you feel like you're watching the story unfold through a foggy glass. This improves with subsequent outings in the series, which I read because I love all things Renaissance Italian. However, I can't guarantee that anyone else will want to stick around for them.
A few better similar choices:
The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner
The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud
Crown Duel and Court Duel by Sherwood Smith
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Secret Country trilogy by Pamela Dean
With little to cheer him up in his last days, Lucien is given an antique notebook - a very old antique, as in Renaissance Italian. Falling asleep with the notebook in his hand, he is transported to a magical place that is and yet isn't sixteenth-century Venice.
While he was terribly sick in England, Lucien is healthy and vital in this other world. In the city-on-a-marsh, Belezza, he quickly becomes a "mandolier" (gondolier) due to his good looks, an alchemist's apprentice since the alchemist recognizes him as an inter-world traveller, and a friend to Arianna, a girl with purple eyes and a hot temper. They call him Luciano there.
But when Lucien falls asleep in Belezza, he wakes up in England, and all is as it was before.
Then he falls asleep in England with the notebook and goes to Belezza again.
The Duchessa of Belezza is struggling to maintain her city's independence against the machinations of the di Chimici family from the north of the land of Talia, who have subjugated most of the other city-states.
The di Chimici, being of the villainous persuasion, want to control as much territory as they possibly can. They have heard rumors of another world with more advanced weaponry that they would love to harness. They know of travellers between the worlds called Stravagantes, and they would like to control these people and learn their secrets.
The Duchessa wants to protect the Stravagantes, for both political and personal reasons. She wants to keep their powers out of di Chimici hands, but also (view spoiler)
The di Chimici are gunning for Rudolfo, and his young apprentice, Luciano, is also a target. And Luciano is easy to find, because he casts no shadow.
While there is peril in this story, the stakes never feel terribly high, and Hoffman is fond of deus ex machina and false alarms. The synopsis of the story sounds intense, but her pacing is so off and her narration so wordy that the plot becomes fuzzy. Sylvia and Arianna are instantly recognizable easily angered Italian women, but the other characters have mere scraps of personality, and even the two mentioned above are underdeveloped. The dialogue is so bland one senses even the characters are bored of it.
Hoffman's world-building is what keeps the pages turning. Her Talia emerges as a magical place, an impossibly romanticized and cleaned-up Renaissance Italian Wonderland - all duels and masquerades without the plagues and filthy streets that went with them.
But despite its beauty, Talia never becomes more than a dream-world. Its workings are poorly explained.
There is no solid explanation given for why this world sprang up parallel to ours but became frozen in the 1500s while ours kept marching on. There is also no explanation for why the chemical properties of silver and gold are reversed in Talia, or why a goddess-cult persists there a thousand years into the Christian Era.
Hoffman explains in her notes that there is no Protestant Reformation in her parallel world, because Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Edward VII were all the children of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (!!!). Interesting, considering Catherine was well past childbearing years when Elizabeth was born and dead by the time Edward was. If she had been able to bear more healthy children than Mary, they might well have been named Elizabeth and Edward, but these would not have been interchangeable with Anne Boleyn's daughter and Jane Seymour's son. Hoffman is English; she should know this better than I.
This book is, by itself, very kid-friendly - assuming they can handle the terminal illness plotline. However, the later books in the series contain references to sex, drug abuse, bullying, and self-harm. REFERENCES. Nothing is shown. Hoffman isn't trying to glorifying bad behavior, but rather using it to illustrate an after-school special style point. I would caution parents and teachers with this. City of Masks is fine for a ten-year-old. The sequels are not.
Overall, a cute little book with an entertaining plot and a nice atmosphere, but the prose is so clumsy and the pacing so awkward that you feel like you're watching the story unfold through a foggy glass. This improves with subsequent outings in the series, which I read because I love all things Renaissance Italian. However, I can't guarantee that anyone else will want to stick around for them.
A few better similar choices:
The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner
The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud
Crown Duel and Court Duel by Sherwood Smith
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Secret Country trilogy by Pamela Dean
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
December 25, 2013
–
Finished Reading
September 30, 2015
– Shelved
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
all-ages-admitted
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
as-it-began
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
awkward-first-novel
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
beware-of-mary-sue
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
beware-of-useless-adults
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
bookful-of-idiots
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
brown-haired-heroine
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
brown-haired-female-entity
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
dark-eyed-male-entity
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
dark-haired-hero
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
dark-haired-male-entity
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
fops-and-fools
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
historical-fantasy
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
because-magic
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
fantasy
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
heartthrobs-and-heroes
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
isn-t-that-convenient
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
kings-and-queens
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
let-s-hear-it-for-the-boy
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
let-s-hear-it-for-the-girl
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
let-s-talk-about-religion
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
mythical-europe
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
organic-fantasy
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
the-city
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
the-sea
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
purple-eyes-are-prettyful
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
let-s-talk-about-cancer
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
stuff-blowing-up
September 30, 2015
– Shelved as:
imported-from-britain
January 27, 2016
– Shelved as:
just-like-italy
January 27, 2016
– Shelved as:
just-like-venice
February 6, 2017
– Shelved as:
don-t-question-the-masks
November 18, 2017
– Shelved as:
young-adult