Are you ready for yet another story that bounces through time like a dimension-defying stress ball being hurled desperately from one historical period to another whenever the author suspects the chapter they’re presently working on might be running out of steam? And peopled with enigmatic immortal characters that are trying desperately to be unique and memorable but come off like the Halliwell sisters in an episode of Charmed set in the 18th century, where the action suddenly leaps forward to the 20th century and en route intertwines itself with a bit of dodgy Icelandic mythology?
You are? In which case, you’re going to love The Parentations.
In the closing years of the 18th century, Stefan drinks from a magical waterfall and discovers he can live forever. But he quickly learns that immortality comes at a terrible cost because, without death, true evil flourishes. In this case, true evil comes in the form of a ruthless beauty called Clovis Fowler who, together with her dodgy husband Finn and the sisters Fitzgerald, Constance and Verity, has agreed to provide safe harbour to a mysterious baby from far away. Saving the baby’s life will mean remaining undiscovered for more than two hundred years, which is probably a clue to why – in 2015 – the sisters Fitzgerald are still consumed by their wait for this boy while malevolent forces are gathering, although the real danger comes from somewhere even closer at hand. Oh, and to make matters worse the magical waters are running dry.
When you are immortal, you have no choice but to endure life. Are we mortals luckier to have the ultimate ‘get out clause’ of death?
The Parentations is problematic because it covers ground that’s been so well-trodden before that author Kate Mayfield probably needed a ladder to climb out of the trench. As a piece of historical fiction, it’s obviously very well researched but unless you’re into the history of the 18th and 19th centuries the setting itself is actually quite dull and melodramatic. In fact, with its cast of immortals trying desperately to come to terms with the vagaries of endlessness, this feels a bit like something Anne Rice would write if she was tired of vampires and wanted to get a freebie trip to Iceland to do a bit of ‘research’. But unlike anything Anne Rice would come up with, The Parentations doesn’t emotionally connect. Mayfield’s attempts to ask the big existential questions that should really make us feel empathy for her characters disintegrates into soap opera, and all the ricocheting around between time periods via a blizzard of very short chapters just becomes disorientating. On top of all that, the story seems to take a long time to get anywhere although weirdly it speeds up considerably towards the end with a finish that neatly ties everything into a bow. The Parentations occasionally manages to put an intriguing spin on its hackneyed premise but most readers will probably be left wondering exactly what the point of it all was.
THE PARENTATIONS / AUTHOR: KATE MAYFIELD / PUBLISHER: POINT BLANK / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 29TH
