Book Reviews: Lamplighter
Monster-Blood Tattoo by D. M. Cornish. Book 2.
I know I only just set up my 30-second-reviews-for-book-2 rule but I’m making an exception for Lamplighter because, well, I make the rules in my little corner of the internet. And I have an excellent reason for breaking my own rule. Lamplighter warrants its own full review.
As Rossamünd has changed, so has the tone of the book. He (Rossamünd) has lost that occasionally frustrating inability to believe anyone might be less than honest with him which got him in such hot water when dealing with Poundinch in Foundling but has held on to enough of his naivety to still be charming. He is an increasingly good judge of character — much better at picking the good nuts from the bad. In other words, he’s growing up.
The intensity of the book has increased as well, with theroscades (monster attacks) happening ever more frequently. During Foundling there was very little death, leaving me wondering a little how dangerous these monsters could really be. Well, in Lamplighter I found out. Yet at the same time the monsters were still not all evil. In fact, the most vicious, deliberate cruelties were perpetrated by humans again. We also got a far closer look at gudgeons, the man-made monsters cobbled together from bits of the dead, and met a man who had been saved from death by gudgeon by a kindly monster.
We also got to spend a little more time with Europe, by far my favourite character. She’s part heroine, part villainess, an indiscriminate killer of good monsters and bad. In spite of that, she’s always there to help Rossamund out of scrapes when she’s truly needed without coming across as a handy deus ex machina.
The sense of whimsy and the quaint use of language which so engaged me in Foundling were still present, as were the delightful names. (Tremendus Twörp springs to mind.) Lamplighter, though darker than Foundling was a fun read all round. I highly recommend it.