The Seeds of Desire

A Review of The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

Close up of the endpapers for The Familiar (Flatiron Books, 2024).

Picking up The Familiar was such an easy decision because the premise immediately hooked me: a scullion in Inquisition-era Spain with a touch for magic is recruited to compete in a tournament of miracle workers (“milagreros”) in a winner-takes-all effort to better her fortunes. The last thing I think any of us were expecting from Leigh Bardugo was a stand-alone historical fantasy novel. I’m a big fan of her Alex Stern series, which began with Ninth House, so I’m on board to give anything she writes a try.

The Familiar is a novel about desire, ambition, and temptation. A pomegranate features as an embossing on the front cover and in the endpaper design for the hardback edition. While most of us carefully de-seed a pomegranate to eat it, Luzia bites straight into the heart of the fruit and lets the juices run down her chin. The central image of the pomegranate calls to mind Eve in the garden—a woman hungry for power above her station.

“She would force her world to bloom as she’d made the pomegranate tree grow, and Santángel would help her do it. Even if blood watered the soil.” (p. 128)

The narrative alternates between the perspectives of Luzia and Santángel, her sponsor’s magical friend/servant/colleague (the nature of that relationship gets teased out in an engaging way as the novel progresses, so I don’t want to pin it down for you in a review if you plan on reading it). Both perspectives, however, tell Luzia’s story.

Luzia’s raw hunger endangers her in a world where much is forbidden: magic, sex, feminine ambition, her own faith. We follow her as she navigates a rich man’s game of court intrigue, politicized piety, and deals with the devil. When faced with the difference between a mattress and sleeping on the larder floor, Luzia is prepared to face the consequences for being a little too magical, a little too sinful. Even if that price is her life.

The embossed pomegranate on the cover of The Familiar (Flatiron Books, 2024).

Jody Blanchette on Instagram (@redreadreviews) called this book “a bedtime story for adults,” which I think is a perfect description. Bardugo’s lush imagery of tailored court gowns, basketing eggs at market, and scorpions hiding in hair brushes creates the dark, moody atmosphere that wrapped itself around me like warm bath water. Like a bedtime story, it might not have much critical “meaning,” but the evocative imagery and the narrative itself linger like the flavor of a rich dessert on your tongue.

I think I expected the Inquisition to play a larger role in the story, or maybe I expected the story to be about the Inquisition (neither is the case). Really the threat of the Inquisition provides the historical backdrop and narrative tension, making personal stakes life-and-death.

I think this novel concludes in a very satisfying way and works well as a stand-alone. As much as I love these characters, I don’t want more because the ending we get is so great. It’s very Maggie-O’Farrell-writes-fantasy. I’m looking forward to the next installment of the Alex Stern series, but in the meantime, I’m very satisfied with this historical interlude.