The Curator
Books | Fiction / Fantasy / Historical
3.9
Owen King
*Named a MOST ANTICIPATED Science Fiction & Fantasy Book of 2023 by Polygon, Tor, and Men's Health! *Named a MUST-READ Book of March 2023 by CrimeReads and Gizmodo! From New York Times bestselling author Owen King comes a Dickensian fantasy of illusion and charm where cats are revered as religious figures, thieves are noble, scholars are revolutionaries, and conjurers are the most wonderful criminals you can imagine. It begins in an unnamed city nicknamed "the Fairest", it is distinguished by many things from the river fair to the mountains that split the municipality in half; its theaters and many museums; the Morgue Ship; and, like all cities, but maybe especially so, by its essential unmappability. Dora, a former domestic servant at the university has a secret desire--to find where her brother went after he died, believing that the answer lies within The Museum of Psykical Research, where he worked when Dora was a child. With the city amidst a revolutionary upheaval, where citizens like Robert Barnes, her lover and a student radical, are now in positions of authority, Dora contrives to gain the curatorship of the half-forgotten museum only to find it all but burnt to the ground, with the neighboring museums oddly untouched. Robert offers her one of these, The National Museum of the Worker. However, neither this museum, nor the street it is hidden away on, nor Dora herself, are what they at first appear to be. Set against the backdrop of a nation on the verge of collapse, Dora's search for the truth behind the mystery she's long concealed will unravel a monstrous conspiracy and bring her to the edge of worlds. Praise for Owen King: "King writes with witty verve." --Entertainment Weekly "[Owen King] has a captivating energy, a precision and a fondness for people that are rare...King loves people as well as words." --The New York Times
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More Details:
Author
Owen King
Pages
480
Publisher
Simon and Schuster
Published Date
2023-03-07
ISBN
1982196807 9781982196806
Community ReviewsSee all
"It was nearly my first time reading a mystery, and, I must say, it was a decent read. I truly enjoyed the world the author built and its characters for how real they seemed, how much I'd worry for Dora and Lieutenant and Ike and others. Often things seemed bizarre, but, in the end, the veil was lifted, and most things finally made sense. I really, really love Dora, a little invisible maid who's, in fact, sharp and bright and resilient and kind - or cruel, on a very rare occasion. She is brilliant, just like Ike. Lieutenant, even with his flaws, gave me the same sort of feeling it gave to Dora, I think. I really didn't expect these characters to end up like they did in the book, but after all the horrors and deaths there was something comforting in it."
Margarita D
"If you asked me what this book was about, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Too much going on & none of it made sense. "
Charlotte Zoda
"I have to say I was disappointed with this book. I didn't feel intrigued by the story, and didn't really understand fully what was going on. I think the biggest problem is that I couldn't figure out the setting at all. Also, it was hard to follow some of the characters and understand their relationship to each other in the story. From my understanding, Dora is now the curator of the museum of the worker and has a boyfriend, Robert who is some kind of lieutenant. Dora's family has all died due to cholera, and there are people who were murdered who come back on a ghost ship. I still don't know how these two things are related. The only thing I understood was that Dora was trying to find out who killed her brother. Overall, I had a hard time with this book. Just a convoluted plot with forgettable characters."
Christopher Allen
"Ah, a nepo baby novel with all of the trimming's of his dad's work but none of the charm. And yet all the creepiness against women is still there? Though this was a fascinating premise, the execution was messy and boring. DNF."
kelsey
