Genevieve Cogman

Well, well, well, the Scarlet Revolution series, so we meet again! When I challenged Scarlet last year - or when the first novel challenged me - I swore our paths would never cross, but here we are. Even though I fell into your cunning trap once again, at least I came prepared - a free trial on Audible! I expected another battle royale over the (mis)use of my favourite characters and refused to pay full price, but could not resist the fight. The victor, however, is undecided.

Okay, the joke has worn thin, but in all seriousness, I was expecting to hate read my way through the sequel - or hate listen in this case, and I'm hopeless with audiobooks - but Elusive didn't annoy me quite as much as Scarlet. Too long, too complicated, too many historical infodumps, but could it be that the author has finally read the original Scarlet Pimpernel novels, instead of cribbing from the films? Sir Percy and Marguerite are on their way to becoming the complex, fleshed out characters from Orczy's series, although Sir Percy is dispatched at the start of the book (Eleanor just couldn't compete with even a shadow of the Pimpernel, let's face it) but makes up for his absence with a powerful speech in the final chapter. Marguerite - and the author is still calling her Lady Marguerite, which grinds my gears - gets to play her usual role of HQ counsellor, while being praised by Eleanor, as she deserves: 'Bright, vivid, vital, bewitching, beautiful', with 'a will that could cut diamonds'. Yas, queen!

What exactly is going on here, anyhow? A question which none of the League could fully answer.

I don't honestly think I could give a precis of the plot, and not only because I was listening to the audiobook version on double speed. Like Eleanor's beloved embroidery, there were far too many threads being worked at the same time - Sir Percy and the vampire plot with Talleyrand in Paris, Eleanor being directed to Mont St Michel by her ancient mage 'Anima', who is running out of time in her host body, the rescue of Fleurette, the vampires including Marie Antoinette - and a hot air balloon. I liked the vampires in the last book and love that they ever power hungry in the sequel, whereas Anima has more personality than her wet and whinging host (Fleurette has more personality than Eleanor, let's be real), but pick a lane! One subplot per book would have worked better.

My key focus as ever was the treatment of the characters from the original series, and I felt like Cogman was working with and not against Sir Percy, Marguerite and even Chauvelin this time around. In fact, I enjoyed reading about the OG League so much that I could have done without wasting time on Eleanor. There are a few 'nods' to Orczy's novels, including a replay of the opera scene from TSP and a twist on Armand's betrayal in Eldorado that actually had me feeling sorry for him instead of wanting to kill him. The detour to Mont St Michel is no doubt based on the 1982 film, too. The League flail around without Percy's leadership and blindly follow the disastrous instruction of Eleanor, who does have more agency, although mostly taken from Anima, while she bemoans every imagined slight and dreams of becoming a modiste with her own little shop.

Ah yes, Eleanor.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SACRED, WOMAN, PLEASE STFU! She's still moaning! If the League include her, then they're obviously content to risk her worthless little life, but if they leave her out, then she's being patronised as a little sister or it's because she's but a lowly maid. She will use her peasant status - poor clothes and rough hands - to gain access and information on behalf of the League, but then complain that she will never be on an equal footing with Sir Percy's men because they are aristocrats (which, no, they are not all nobility at all). 'We may have allowed you into the League, but you will never be one of us,' she thinks, based entirely on one word or look from Marguerite. She wants to have her say and play a role in the League, but resents being put into dangerous situations when all she ever wanted was - here we go - was to be a modiste and open her own little shop. 'It's not fair!' she once again wails, like a sulky teenager. Quite unlike Marie Antoinette, she wants to have her cake and eat it, and the whole act gets old FAST. Even Fleurette, Chauvelin's Disney princess daughter, tells her to get a grip at one point. She honestly ruins the whole series. I wanted Anima to take her over completely and destroy her in the process. But no, Everybody Loves Eleanor and Eleanor saves the day.

No idea what was going on, still can't stand Eleanor, but Sir Percy and Marguerite are treated with something approaching the respect they deserve after nearly 120 years in print, so my Audible free trial was not wasted. Onto book three!… (altro)

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
This book contains scenes of violence, death, blood, gore, gun violence, bloodletting, abduction, forced captivity, drugged against will, attempted abduction of a woman, prejudice, racism, misogyny, ableism and discussions of executions.

Vampires have toxic views of humans, viewing them as their property

Elusive by Genevieve Cogman continues the story of maid Eleanor and her involvement with the Scarlet Pimpernel. Now working as a maid in the Blakeney household when not accompanying Sir Percy and his friends on missions, Eleanor’s perspective of the world and her place in it has started to change since the events of her first mission to France. She has been back there several times since, and can’t help comparing the ways that the English aristocracy while away their time drinking as people die in France.

It’s not just Eleanor’s world view that has grown; she’s recognising the way that her friends, especially the noblemen, treat her. When they need a woman, especially someone who can pose as a servant, they are happy to have her along on their missions, but when she tries to act on her own she is told it is too dangerous. Those feelings grow even stronger when Sir Percy goes missing in France while on the hunt for the notorious French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyran.

For safety, the Chief likes to keep things close to the vest, meaning that if a member of the League is caught, they only so know much. It’s a good tactic until he’s the one that’s missing, leaving the rest of the League struggling to put the pieces together with little intel to go on. Determined to be of use and not made to sit on the sidelines, Eleanor starts to make her own plans alongside those of the League with the help of Anima, the mage spirit inhabiting her body.

But things in France are getting more dangerous, and as Eleanor and the League try to find Sir Percy and their other missing friends, they stumble across more than they bargained for.

After finishing the first book, I had hoped to see more development of Eleanor in this book, and Cogman certainly delivered on that front! I felt that the way her thoughts and awareness changed were very on point with her experiences as well as the period she lived in. It was particularly startling to start the novel with her as a maid, to be honest, rather than living as a peer to the Blakeneys or running a modiste as discussed at the end of the last book. There are also multiple times during Elusive when Cogman steers the point back to Eleanor’s low social status, as Eleanor herself reminds us of the harsh reality of living in Georgian England.

That didn’t get tedious, however, at the start of the book Eleanor’s constant back and forth about whether the nobles considered her part of the team or even cared for her was beginning to wear on me. While a maid might find it difficult to accept, members of the aristocracy could act honourably or accept her as family, the situation Eleanor finds herself in isn’t a normal situation. She has, by this point, been on several missions and in incredible danger alongside these men. The bond between them is beyond social classes.

What it isn’t, is beyond gender, and Cogman does a fine job of showing the disparity between how they treat Eleanor compared to Marguerite. Whether it is Lady Blakeney’s history, experience with age or that she is the Chief’s wife, she is treated with much more respect and while they protect her, they would never dream of telling her she couldn’t go somewhere if she put her mind to it. Unlike Eleanor, who they treat as a little sister rather than one of them.

A lot happens in Elusive, and Cogman has done a wonderful job of spinning a conspiracy. A character who I expected never to see again (and wrote off as a nobody) is suddenly very much in the thick of it, and I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes. There is also a scene between Eleanor and someone else which was my favourite part of the book, and I’m very happy with the way that Cogman chose to handle that character.

I would have liked to have learned a bit more about some things, but I can also see why Cogman chose to only reveal so much in this book. Book three is going to be an absolute cracker, that’s for sure!

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… (altro)