Genre: Historical Fiction, Paranormal
Series: Book 1 of The Chronicles of Diana Furnaval
Publisher: JournalStone
Date of Publication: January 10, 2014
Author Information: Website
Mogsy's Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars - "Enjoyable, with moments of ingenuity; though overall the story's pacing felt disorganized and inconsistent"
The fascinating concept behind this book was what first drew me in
and made me decide to take a chance on it. Featuring a kickass
nineteenth-century female demon hunter on a journey across the globe to
track down and kill some very unconventional monsters, Netherworld
appeared to have everything I was looking for and sounded very
promising.
The book follows Lady Diana Furnaval, a young widow who has inherited much more than her husband's estates after his death. Lord William Furnaval turns out to have been one of the last guardians of the mysterious gateways that lead into Netherworld, the place where demons and other malevolent spirits make their homes. With him gone, it is up to Diana to take up the mantle to secure these portals, though she is determined to take things one step further and close them forever.
Diana's personal mission takes her to gateways located in faraway
places. In China, she meets and befriends a young Cantonese sailor named
Yi-kin, who accompanies her and her cat on their demon hunting
adventures. Retracing her husband's final journey, she also uncovers
some disturbing information about his death which leads her to believe
there is much more to the story.
After reading this book, my general impression is that Lisa Morton
is definitely familiar with the ingredients which make up an effective
and compelling tale. And yet, while all the elements were in place, the
actual storytelling felt disorganized and inconsistent, with the pacing
feeling very rushed in certain places. For instance, I had a hard time
getting into this book because the several of the opening chapters felt
so disconnected and unfeeling, especially with the quick play-by-play
explanation of the circumstances behind Lord William Furnaval's death,
as well as the portion taken from his journal.
To its credit, the book falls back into an easier groove after
this point, though the ending once again runs into issues with uneven
pacing. The climax and conclusion felt glossed over, and overall the
story had so many plot points and ideas that it was difficult not to
wish for things to slow down a little, just to catch my breath and enjoy
the different places and people Diana encounters. The book isn't that
long to begin with, and yet we go from Transylvania to India to China to
America to England and to Ireland, and in each place we only get to
stay long enough for the characters to kill a few demons and close a
gateway.
There's just so much more that could have been explored, and given
how the author seems quite fond of providing historical details of the
different locales Diana visits, I don't know why she didn't seize the
opportunity to flesh them out. After all, I love how the story delves
into legends and lore outside of the Western tradition. In particular, I
enjoyed the inclusion of Chinese vampires or jiangshi (called goong-si
in this novel because it uses the Cantonese dialect) and it's clear Lisa
Morton did a lot of research into them to ensure her descriptions and
translations are as accurate as possible. It's always interesting
whenever I see an unconventional take on supernatural monsters, and in
this case we're looking at them through the lens of other cultures.
Overall,
I think I expected more from this book. The story itself was admittedly
quite enjoyable, though the haphazard pacing and execution of ideas
took a lot of the fun out of it. Here and there, I have to give it major
points for moments of ingenuity, but in the end this just wasn't my cup
of tea.
2.5 of 5 stars
A review copy of this book
was provided to me by the publisher via LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review.
