Hi bookish friends!
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen me mention how excited I was to be chosen to take part in the TBR and Beyond Book Tour for A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe. This is my first time taking part in a book tour, and it’s been really exciting to see everyone else’s content over the last 6 days! Please head on over to the tour schedule on TBR and Beyond Tours to see who else is participating and give them some love.
Today is the final day of the tour, and I’ve been asked to share my review as well as some of my favourite quotes. Please note that I was provided with an eARC in exchange for an honest review, and the wording of the quotes in this post might be a little bit different to the finished book.
There’s also a chance to win a finished copy of A Golden Fury at the end of this post!
Before we get into that, let’s take a look at the book itself…
About A Golden Fury
Published: 13th October 2020
Genre: Fantasy; Historical
Audience: Young Adult (YA)
Length: 320 pages
Content warnings: violence, blood/gore, torture, death, allusions to rape, self harm, attempted suicide, hallucinations, mental illness, emotional abuse, sexism, terminal illness
Synopsis
In her debut novel A Golden Fury, Samantha Cohoe weaves a story of magic and danger, where the streets of Oxford and London come to life, and the curse of the Philosopher’s Stone will haunt you long after the final chapter. Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness. While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists. But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.
My Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3.5/5 stars)
I was drawn to A Golden Fury by a few things:
I love the mix of science and fantasy that comes along with any book about alchemy
Female alchemists!
It’s mostly set in England – I’ve spent time in Oxford and London, so it’s interesting to see them in fictional works! (Don’t worry fellow British readers, the author is American but doesn’t write about our rainy little island in a jarringly inaccurate or cringey way)
This seemed like an excellent choice for a book to read in the run-up to spooky season
The cover is pretty eyecatching, isn’t it?
I really liked the point of view of the main character, Thea, when it came to thinking about the nature of alchemy and what it should(n’t) be used for. She insists throughout that it is seen as a true science and not (as others in this universe insist) “charlatanry or magic”. There are references throughout to the reality of being an alchemist which I think many scientists will recognise: the difficulties in securing funding and legitimacy, the dangers of working with hazardous materials, the time and energy it requires to be so precise and methodical. It’s so nice to see representation of a young female scientist, particularly in YA – I can imagine teenage girls reading this and feeling inspired to pursue chemistry or other STEAM subjects!
She also gives us an insight into the moral dilemmas that come with alchemy. Her world is full of alchemists seeking money, eternal youth, and fame – just like in many of the other stories you might be able to think of with similar themes. However, Thea recognises this flaw and instead sees alchemy as a way to improve the world and the lives of the many rather than the few.
If we could turn pewter and lead into silver, then we didn’t simply have to take the world as it was given to us. We could change it. A Golden Fury Samantha Cohoe
Thea is intelligent, skilled, and confident in her own abilities. However, that doesn’t stop her from feeling anxious when she has good reason to be, or from making mistakes. She makes morally questionable decisions at times, but she doesn’t do so thoughtlessly or without consequence.
The professor’s obvious discomfort had a strangely calming effect on me. He was afraid of me, and that meant I had some kind of power A Golden Fury Samantha Cohoe
Pretty much all of the characters in A Golden Fury are developed into complex, 3D beings by the end of the book. I think that the complicated family dynamics between Thea and her parents are handled well, too. The relationship between Thea and her mother is not exactly a healthy or supportive one, but this is addressed and made clear within the book. Thea’s mother isn’t turned into a one-dimensional antagonist, which could have been easy given her circumstances; her motivations are explored and become clearer as the book progresses. The relationship between Thea and her father is complex, too, and develops quite naturally considering that her father didn’t know she existed at the start of the story!
Let the right people feel shame. I wouldn’t bear it for them. A Golden Fury Samantha Cohoe
I can’t review this book without talking about Thea’s romantic subplot(s). I liked that this book showed why Thea was attracted to certain characters, instead of just taking it for granted that it was inevitable. I’m sure that I’m not the only person who finds it annoying when a romance feels forced, like it only exists because the writer thinks that the book needs a romance and not because it makes sense for the characters – I didn’t feel that way with A Golden Fury. I also liked that having romantic feelings didn’t get in the way of Thea from pursuing her own ambitions; and Thea is definitely an ambitious character! She is drawn to characters who she feels help to imrove her: “his admiration was as intoxicating as wine, but unlike wine it sharpened my wits instead of dulling them.”
And when he was done laughing, he would look at me like no one else ever had. Like he saw only me, not as an accessory to my mother, but as myself. And not as an odd girl whose sharp edges would need to be softened. Will liked the edges. The sharper they cut, the more they delighted him. A Golden Fury Samantha Cohoe
The one thing I wasn’t sure about when I first read the blurb is how I felt about the focus on characters “losing their sanity” as a result of the curse of the Philosopher’s Stone. What is the curse, you ask?
Alchemistam ultimam lapis elegit. Vae illi, qui non accipit. The Stone chooses the last alchemist, but woe to whom it does not accept. A Golden Fury Samantha Cohoe
(Sidenote: I love that the author put her knowledge of Latin to good use in this book – it felt very appropriate!)
I can’t truthfully say that reading the book completely cleared my misgivings from my perspective as a mental health advocate (and as somebody with mental illnesses of my own), but I think that the context given later on in the book for what exactly the curse is and why it causes behaviour changes helps. I think that the language used by the characters to explain what is happening – e.g. the use of the word “sanity” – is appropriate for the time period it is set in, too. Perhaps I would have felt more comfortable if the idea that mental illness is a bad thing had been challenged just a little bit more.
Overall I enjoyed reading A Golden Fury, and would recommend it if you’re looking for some YA historical fantasy with an empowered female lead. Congratulations to Samantha Cohoe on its publication – I’ll be keeping an eye out for her future work!
Do you want to read A Golden Fury? Click here for the TBR & Beyond giveaway – one person will win one finished copy of the book! This giveaway is open until 20th October 2020 (US only – sorry!)
Happy reading,
Maisie Rose x
About Samantha Cohoe
Samantha Cohoe was raised in San Luis Obispo, California, where she enjoyed an idyllic childhood of beach trips, omnivorous reading, and writing stories brimming with adverbs. She attended Thomas Aquinas College, a Great Books college in California, and graduated with a BA in liberal arts. After studying Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School, she decided academia wasn’t for her.
In the midst of marriage, child-bearing, and the identity crisis that followed, she rediscovered her early love of writing and adverbs. In 2011, she moved with her family to Denver, where she currently divides her time between teaching Latin, mothering, writing, reading, and deleting adverbs.
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