It’s a brave new world for Dora and the other citizens of her city. The king and the old order have been overthrown. A triumvirate of revolutionaries begins to form a new government. As The Curator, by Owen King, opens everyone seems a bit bewildered by the sudden change. I was a bit bewildered by where the plot was going, too, until the hinted-at shadowy forces behind everything moved to the fore, threatening the fragile hope of a better life.
Dora—who prefers to be known as D, the nickname her beloved, deceased brother gave her—worked as a maid before the revolution and has little inclination to go back to a life of invisibly cleaning up after people. Instead, she asks her lover, Robert, to arrange for her to take over the Museum of Psykical Research. This turns out to be surprisingly easy, as no one really cares about the Museum anyway. D’s plan is to explore the Museum to find out what her brother was involved in before his untimely death. Unfortunately, the Museum has burned to the ground. Robert sets D up at the nearby Museum of the Worker instead. At least her new digs overlook her target, even if the building is packed with unsettling wax figures set up at all kinds of labor.
The Curator snuck up on me. I honestly had no idea how much of the first half of the book was subtly putting things in motion as D slowly puts her Worker’s Museum back to rights. As she does, King introduces a troop of vibrantly drawn characters. D meets the resourceful Ike, who sources missing items for D’s new Museum. There’s the sinister sergeant Robert has to work with, who views every innocent question and remark as a deeply personal insult. And, speaking of sinister, there are the violent Misses Pinter, who surprise everyone every time they pull out their pistols and commit mass murder at the drop of the hat. Two of my favorite characters, Rei and her husband Groat, maintain the popular dive where Ike lives (and fence his stolen goods for him). As King introduces and develops his characters, he introduces some distinctly weird plot elements: rumors of a morgue ship picking up tragically dead people from around the city, stories of a strange magician known as Simon the Gentle, and lots of cats that are very good at guiding people to the exact spot they need to be in at the right time.
All of this slowly coalesces into a wild, supernatural adventure that I could never predicted. I love a book that can surprise me. Further, this book, underneath all its entertaining weirdness and vivid characters, has a lot to say about power, justice, and greed—which just makes The Curator all the better. I hope other readers find this odd story and have their bookish socks similarly knocked off.
Very interesting! 📖