I didn’t expect to love a book set during the Spanish Inquisition. It isn’t a time period I gravitate toward, and I went in cautiously despite Leigh Bardugo’s name on the cover. But The Familiar proved quietly consuming, layered with yearning, moral tension, and a kind of magic that feels both intimate and terrifying in its consequences.

The Cover

The cover art of The Familiar is reminiscent of the art of early 1800s European portraiture, though zoomed in to focus on the subject’s hand, emerging from a daring round in period dress, holding a rosary, and revealing a scorpion. 🦂 This immediately sets the tone and setting for the story. It also suggests that a scorpion is the familiar to this person.

The ornate blackletter typeface continues to allude to the time and place while being stylized enough to look fresh and interesting. The extreme point of the F character alludes to danger and mystery.

I get the sense that the cover designer actually read the book, as it so closely ties to story elements in The Familiar.

Note that the author names are equal in size to the title and set above the title. This tells us that the publisher believed that the author’s established name would be a major selling point for The Familiar (it was for this reader)!

Interior

I read The Familiar as an ebook and found the formatting to be well done. Simple, clear formatting with no obvious flourishes keeps you in the story.

Did the design affect whether I bought the book?

It certainly caught my eye, but Leigh Bardugo’s work is a major selling point on its own for me. To purchase The Familiar was a no-brainer.

Bardugo writes wonderfully complex and layered characters, and The Familiar is no exception.

Luzia, the female main character, is a scullion in a socially reaching household in Madrid in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition. She is of “undesirable” heritage and was orphaned as a teen. Luzia, educated and intensely bright though plain looking, made herself nearly invisible among the household and community, but harbors magic and yearns for greater things. The story begins as the mistress of the household discovers and exploits Luzia’s magic.

The male main character in The Familiar is revealed at length. He also has a complex and mysterious origin, which I will not spoil here. He begins at odds with Luzia but discovers her sharp mind and depth of magic, slowly falling for her.

Side characters and sometimes antagonists receive their own minor arcs, and it is beautiful to behold.

The Familiar is written in third person. The storyline allows the reader to understand multiple points of view, which leads to a rich and nuanced understanding of individuals’ motives.

Bardugo slowly unveils the mystery around the MMC and teases a few possible tropes before revealing his true nature.

The love story unfolds with so much repressed emotion and yearning. Yes, there is spice, but the buildup is better than the main event.

The Familiar explores Madrid during the Spanish Inquisition, steeped in religion and repression (towards extermination) of undesirable groups. Race, class, religion, and political affiliation are all at play in this story.

The idea that a powerful group seeks to find and eliminate another group of people (magic users) unless that group can in some way give them the edge to become more powerful ( under the guise of being sanctioned by God) is the underlying premise of this whole endeavor.

Family connections as they pertain to loyalty and responsibility are presented in various ways. You don’t always choose your family. How much do you believe you owe to those people? How much of that is societal versus familial versus personal values?

Be careful when striking magical bargains.

Morality. What is it? Who gets the privilege to define it? Is it effective if it has to be enforced?

The Familiar delivers an impactful sense of poetic justice. Characters might not end up where you’d expect them. They do end up exactly where they should.

Themes are explored without being heavy-handed or in your face. A reader can just enjoy the story, but the questions stick with you. There is the option be challenged and to grow from a deeper, more academic look at this work.

The Familiar deals with familiar tropes and themes but in a way that feels wholly unfamiliar. This story is special.

I wasn’t sure I would like it. It’s the first book I’ve read set in the Spanish Inquisition, and I only knew a tiny bit about it from school. I loved The Familiar!

Historical fantasy lovers will eat this up! If you like magical realism in a historical setting, this book is for you. Fantasy romance and Romantasy lovers, give The Familiar a try to expand your genre palette!

What time period do you like your historical fantasy set in?

May your life be as full as your bookshelf and as long as your TBR list.

Happy Reading!