Review: The Familiars by Stacey Hall
Content Warning:
The Familiars contains topics such as childbirth, miscarriage, sexism, sexual assault, child death, imprisonment, and state-sanctioned violence.
Book Description:
The Familiars is a stand-alone historical fiction that takes place in 15th century Europe. Our heroine, Fleetwood Shuttleworth, is a noblewoman in trouble. After multiple attempts to conceive a child, she finds a hidden letter from her husband’s doctor saying that she will likely die from her current pregnancy. Desperate to survive, she hires a new midwife named Alice to care for her. Things quickly fall apart when Alice is persecuted for witchcraft and Fleetwood learns that her husband is more treacherous than she ever anticipated. An unlikely friendship forms and both women must learn to depend on each other or perish.
On the Characters::
I did not very much enjoy Fleetwood as the main character and narrator of this book. I found her very classist and, oftentimes, too focused on superficial elements when there were clearly more significant issues at hand. This is not to say she is a written poorly — her general attitude towards the world makes sense for the time period and class status in which she grew up. However, I still found myself rolling my eyes in annoyance, wishing that either (a) she would go through a significant amount of character development (which occurred, but not to the extent needed) or (b) that I would get to hear from another character’s perspective (which did not happen).
[Spoilers] I do think that Halls does a fantastic job in the development of Richard’s character arc… up until the very end of the story. We first see him through Fleetwood’s loving accounts of their early marriage: he saved her from a terrible union with another man, stayed up with her when she had nightmares, etc. Then, as the novel continues, we begin to experience a progressively uglier side of him. Some of what we learn ends up being false (i.e. that he suspected Fleetwood’s impending death and was keeping it from her), but he is still revealed to be a cruel human who is blatantly sexist, cheats on his wife, and puts his reputation before doing what is right. I grew to despise him — which makes it all the more disappointing when I consider that he does not face any consequences for his actions by the end of the book. After discovering that it was the “other woman” who’s health was in danger and not her, Fleetwood simply forgives Richard. This conclusion enraged me. Halls spends an immense amount of time villainizing him (and rightly so) only to place the blame on another, barely developed female character. Not only are the implications of this extremely anti-feminist (more on that below), but also just bad storytelling. As the reader, I was not convinced by his redemption at all. Rather, it felt like the author wanted to rush a happy ending and, in doing so, didn’t give the same attention to the relational dynamics and character development that exists in the rest of the novel.
On the Presence of Feminism in the Story [Spoilers]:
I’ve seen many reviews lauding The Familiars as a pro-feminist text and, in my opinion, it is absolutely not one. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, but I don’t want to falsely label this novel as promoting gender equality when it isn’t… at least not for all women. While Fleetwood’s and Alice’s experiences are validated by the author, many of the other female characters are tossed to the side. The Pendleton “witches” are executed and quickly forgotten. Additionally, while Richard takes no responsibility for his cruelty and unfaithfulness, Fleetwood is able to enjoy happily ever after with him by blaming the “other woman” he slept with. Instead of providing a critical reflection on the ways each of its female characters is affected by sexism, the book basically says “Our main characters are okay and that’s all that matters!” This blatant disregard of the lesser female narratives as unimportant or even deserving of their circumstances makes it impossible to suggest that this book is promoting the value of all women.
On the Magical Elements of the Story:
As the title of the book suggests, The Familiars utilizes European folklore regarding witches and their supernatural spirit guides (known as familiars). The concept of familiars is very popular in witch lore and magic-based fantasy novels. Still, I was very disappointed by the lack of information Halls gives us about them. In fact, the presence of familiars isn’t really crucial to the development of the story at all — they’re just one of many false pieces of evidence provided by the magistrate against the Pendleton family. I feel as though Halls missed an opportunity to layer on some unique world building. I would have loved to learn more about the historical context of familiar mythos, or at least get a new take on familiars’ magic works.