Title: THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL
Author: Galen Beckett
Series: this is the third and final novel about Ivy Lockwell
Publisher: Spectra
Publication Date: March 2012
Pages: 718
Status: keeper

LibraryThing Info

The Master of Heathcrest Hall for purchase at The Book Depository

The Master of Heathcrest Hall for purchase at Kobo


THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL was my most anticipated book of 2012¹, and I had grand plans for it. I intended to begin last April with a reread of the two books that precede it (THE MAGICIANS AND MRS QUENT and THE HOUSE ON DURROW STREET), after which I would dive straight into this one, giving myself at least a week of wonderful, wallowsome reading.

Alas, my plan went awry. Early April saw me wrestling with such intense concentration issues that I failed to enjoy the first two books as I should have done. I limped through them at a pace of no more than fifty pages a day--and y’all, I’m all but incapable of loving something I read that slowly, no matter how much I’ve adored it in the past².

So I shelved THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL and determined to wait until my reading speed was back up to snuff and my mood had evened out some.

It took a while, but early this month I finally felt like yeah, okay, I could give it a shot. Given the trouble I’d had with the first two books, though, I figured it was probably best if I tackled THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL via my handy-handy 100-pages-in-between-other-books method. I stuck an assortment of bookmarks in at hundred pages intervals and got down to it.

This didn’t work out. I managed to pause long enough to read STEALING PARKER after the first hundred pages, but I couldn't have torn myself away after that. Most times, I read two hundred pages per sitting. I made bargains with myself; I’d turn my light out after another thirty pages. Or maybe sixty. Certainly, no more than sixty.

You get the picture, yeah?

In essence, I loved THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL for the same reason I loved THE MAGICIANS AND MRS QUENT and THE HOUSE ON DURROW STREET; or, for that matter, the same reason I love almost everything I love. I adored the characters. I felt for them, I bled with them, and I couldn't help but turn their struggles into my own. My feelings ran so deep that I didn't read the book so much as live it.

I could say more than that, I suppose. There's plenty I could tell you about the setting, or the book’s wonderfully Regency feel, or the way Beckett slowly turns things around so that the first volume’s villains appear in a somewhat different light here. If you want the truth, though, I don’t fancy it. 5 stars is my "I loved it to the point of incoherence" rating because I don't much care to analyze anything I love with this intensity³. I want to bask in my love for it. I want to ramble about it just long enough that y’all can tell how I feel about it, then leave it at that.

I must say, though, that one aspect of the worldbuilding tripped me up. It wasn’t enough to destroy the book in my eyes, but it certainly led to some inconclusive thoughts about loving problematic books.

THE MASTER OF HEATHCREST HALL, like THE HOUSE ON DURROW STREET before it, is an overtly queer book. Eldyn, one of the three protagonists, is gay. He also has a form of magic that allows him to shape light into illusions. In this book, we learn that all the men who possess this ability--and it’s exclusively a male talent--are gay.

This bothers me as much as if someone were to suggest that everyone with a particular talent must be hetero. Does it mean, then, that this world has no gay men who aren’t illusionists? Are some of the illusionists perhaps hetero but celibate (or particularly quiet about their activities because they're not what's expected of them)? And what about lesbians? Where do the lesbians fit in?

It also ties into the series-wide issue of there being different sorts of magic for men who’re descended from particular families (magicians), women who’re descended from particular families (witches), and men who’re sons of witches (illusionists). There’s too much gender essentialism for me to be truly comfortable with it; so much, in fact, that I feel bad for loving these books as much as I do.

But I do love them, make no mistake. The characters are so wonderful that I’m able to file the problematic elements under "important and worthy of consideration, but not enjoyment-destroying." This may change in the future, but for now I adore this whole series and will continue to recommend it to anyone who'll listen. Discussions with other readers have shown me that it's not for everyone, but those who love it love it a lot.

5 stars – loved it to the point of incoherence and/or verbosity

Other Reviews:

Fyrefly's Book Blog
Gripping Books

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Back In the Day:

• One Year Ago: The Sunday Salon: Over and Over
  
• Two Years Ago: Bloggiesta--Ole!


• Three Years Ago: Buy One Book and Read It


• Four Years Ago: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

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1. Okay, it was tied with THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES by Scott Lynch, but let’s not nitpick here.


2. I keep meaning to write something about the whole "it’s impossible to truly love something if you read it quickly; slow, deliberate sips are best, so one will read fewer books overall" mentality and how it's so, so far from the way I operate, but I haven’t managed to squeeze it out yet. My few attempts have always struck me as too judgemental, which I want to avoid. Y’all gotta do what’s best for you. If you like to sip your books, go right ahead. Me, I’m gonna keep on gulping.


3. Not after the first reading, at least. Nitpicks and deep insights are for readings two through eight.