Alternate History Fantasy. [The Peculiarities by David Liss]

All of his life, Thomas Thresher has been free of obligation and responsibility. But that is all over now. He is a twenty-three-year-old man whose best days are behind him. Thomas’s older brother Walter has trapped him in a tedious clerical job at the family bank in London, and Thomas is expected to wed a wealthy young woman in whom he has no interest.

But Thomas has more serious problems than those of a disaffected young man. There are irregularities at the bank he cannot explain. His childhood friend has mysteriously turned up dead. Worse, a verdant skin malady has infected him: leaves have begun sprouting on his skin. Thomas must conclude that it is due to the long-rumored Peculiarities. London’s famous grey fog has been concealing a rash of unnatural afflictions—and worse, the murderous Elegants.

As Thomas grows leafier, the conspiracies surrounding him become more apparent. He cannot determine whom to trust: his own family; his banking co-workers and superiors; the beautiful widow of his companion; the woman he is to marry. Perhaps a lycanthropic medium and the members of a secret occult society . . . including a strange man named Aleister Crowley.

Why is it that so much of fantasy set in an alternate history is against a backdrop of the United Kingdom? More specifically, England. Most specifically, London. Not all, but most. And it's always with a very light critical view. The colonies are mentioned, but always imaged on the fringes. Africans and Orientals exist, but always outside of England. If they are acknowledged locally, wow, the ostracization! You will never forget that they are in the worst position socially. Now,  with respect to David Liss' The Peculiarities, you might say, "but that's historically accurate" To which I'd reiterate, this is fantasy. 

All of that to say that being routinely reminded how poorly, in what low esteem our protagonist, Thomas, held the most prominent female character, Esther, in didn't make for the most compelling build to romance. He finds her ugly from the onset. She is a Jewess, lest you forget! She is a socially anathematic. She has thoughts of her own, perish the though! And despite myself, I found myself objectively rooting for her as Thomas' better option to the other romantic possibility. But subjectively, the man does not deserve her. He'd been rude. Objectively, he looks down on her for her station, despite his change of feelings. Again, realism aside, because this is fantasy, Thomas came off as a toxic and needy partner. One who would need repeated demands for respect of autonomy to, by today's standards, because I'm reading it today, be amenable.  

Historically accurate, but absolutely uncomfortable interpersonal relationships aside, the pacing was weird. Suddenly, after 35 chapters, we're on the brink of summoning an old god? Sure. I mean, nothing was hinting at anything of that magnitude of hubris, but sure. I did suspect the hidden genetic relationship earlier on, and I do always appreciate well-telegraphed plot points, so that's a plus. The outline of the magic system was weak and the convenient simplification to math was annoyingly simple. 

For me, it took a while to catch some of the historical references. I'm not an Anglophile. But I did enjoy what tidbits I learned as I Googled throughout my read. All in all, not a terrible story. I was intrigued as I read on, but I did find the ending ambiguous and thereby somewhat unsatisfactory. 3 stars from me.

The Peculiarities (ISBN:9781616963583) was published September 2021.