Trigger warnings for references to sexual and physical abuse of children.
An extraordinarily hard life has caused Ariadne to become an extraordinarily tough woman. She keeps herself to herself, though she will use what she learned from the man who helped save her life to minister to sick and injured guls. That savior, Erik, went missing five years earlier, leaving Ariadne even more alone than usual. Hache Pueyo’s swift, startling novella, Cabaret in Flames, begins when a stranger knocks at her door.
Quaint is a gul. This isn’t a problem. Ariadne isn’t afraid of guls, though she does take precautions. (As we learn later, not all guls are as courteous as Quaint or the others who live in her building.) Quaint has come looking for Erik to touch up his tattoos and is deeply concerned to learn that the man has gone missing. Being a helpful sort, Quaint decides that he’s going to find out what happened. There’s a good chance Erik’s insatiable curiosity has led him into danger again. Quaint has pulled Erik’s feet out of the fire more than once.
Ariadne wants to know what happened to Erik just as much as the gul who showed up on her doorstep. Erik is one of the few people who might know what happened to our protagonist in her life before. All she has are terrible flashes of memory. Perhaps, if she knew more, if she knew who tortured her for years before almost killing her, Ariadne might be able to finally find some peace. If not peace, Ariadne is willing to accept a bit of revenge.
Pueyo’s novella creates an imaginatively rich world of vampires that doesn’t borrow anything from Dracula and its derivatives. There are no crosses or Van Helsings here. Instead, there is an age-old power struggle between guls who can live safely with humans and those who cannot. (Thankfully, Pueyo doesn’t borrow from Twilight either.) Quaint is very much one of the former. He’s also very willing to take out members of the second variety. Quaint isn’t worried about guls blowing his species’ cover with their violent appetites; he just honestly likes humans.
Cabaret in Flames, to be honest, is one of the few books that I wish had been longer. I was utterly hooked by Pueyo’s setting and characters, especially Quaint.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.