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A review by screamdogreads
Palace of Shadows by Ray Celestin
3.0
"I am of the opinion that religion's defining feature is the apocalypse story, the account of how the world will end. For a universe that continues on eternally, adding ever more souls to creation, diminishes the worth of every soul. And so religions provide meaning by providing an end. They fix themselves to a future inferno, and from it build back the scaffold of their belief into the past."
Palace of Shadows is a dark and decadent gothic novel that's cast against a grim, grimy and desolate Yorkshire Moors backdrop. Overshadowing that, however, is the house in which this story is set, which becomes the novel's most important character, even more so than the characters themselves. It's left me really rather torn, on the one hand, this is an excellent gothic tale that flings us into some fascinating topics, it allows us to latch onto, and delve into the nature of madness and grief, and it feels so vivid and captivating. At times, however, it also feels so very... Standard, so regular. It's absolutely buzzing with the most tantalizing of ideas, it just, doesn't fully execute them all.
Celestin's writing, as always, is brilliant, it's beautiful and sublime and so very evocative. He's an author that's so clearly flowing with talent, and he's created a labyrinthine story, one that sprawls outwards and unfurls before us. It's all so very Piranesi, and it's utterly drenched in this dread that just settles over everything, it's page after page of sophisticated text and poetic prose and gothic charm. It ticks every single box that a gothic historical fiction novel should, and it's so rich in decadent, gorgeous scares... I just wish that it had expanded itself into something more surreal.
Palace of Shadows is a dark and decadent gothic novel that's cast against a grim, grimy and desolate Yorkshire Moors backdrop. Overshadowing that, however, is the house in which this story is set, which becomes the novel's most important character, even more so than the characters themselves. It's left me really rather torn, on the one hand, this is an excellent gothic tale that flings us into some fascinating topics, it allows us to latch onto, and delve into the nature of madness and grief, and it feels so vivid and captivating. At times, however, it also feels so very... Standard, so regular. It's absolutely buzzing with the most tantalizing of ideas, it just, doesn't fully execute them all.
Celestin's writing, as always, is brilliant, it's beautiful and sublime and so very evocative. He's an author that's so clearly flowing with talent, and he's created a labyrinthine story, one that sprawls outwards and unfurls before us. It's all so very Piranesi, and it's utterly drenched in this dread that just settles over everything, it's page after page of sophisticated text and poetic prose and gothic charm. It ticks every single box that a gothic historical fiction novel should, and it's so rich in decadent, gorgeous scares... I just wish that it had expanded itself into something more surreal.
"A sense of revulsion shivered through me as I saw that the driver was right, it was a house. Not a grouping of separate buildings as I had initially thought, but a single, coagulated structure. Monstrous and abhorrent, it rippled haphazardly across the moor in an unbroken wave. It flowed over depressions, crested hills and ran madly all the way to the cliffs, where it disappeared in a mist of fog and sea spray that hit its full extent."
This is as much a story of tortured ghosts that haunt a colossal house as it is a story of the deeply flawed and traumatized characters that populate it. Every character, every single one, feels so vulnerable, and expressive and real. At it's core, this is, really, a historical fiction novel with tints of gothic wonder. It's all so chaotic and desperate, it's a sinister thing, acting as a spine-chilling ghost story, and a light gothic tragedy with splashings of magical realism. Palace of Shadows is the perfect sort of novel for those that like things unsettling and creepy, but don't like their scares too intense or gory.
"I see them all, crawling over the moors in their thousands. A legion of the mutilated and maimed. I see them scratching through the dark, scaling walls, trying to rip down the house. They scream in a hundred foreign tongues. They want their revenge, but they will be denied."