Faeries, Gods, and Rakes: A Review of Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

Have you ever picked up a novel, glossed over a few pages with the undeniable frisson of fun new read energy, and found five chapters in that the cake, so to speak was a lie? Yeah, me too fam. Me too.

It's a letdown when a book you initially fancied leaves you high and dry and feeling like you're about to take a high school essay test on a novel your teacher insists is "relatable," and Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall brought me back to those days of tedium and frustrated queer alienation, and while I did exactly what I did back in the day--namely I dragged my heels on finishing the damn book--I am also old enough to be able to admit that sometimes the book may be good while not being good for me.

And that's the thing with Mortal Follies, it should have been Lorcan crack. It has so many things going for it: humor, fantasy, literary allusions, an arch narrator, mischief from humans and gods alike. The narrator is one Robin Goodfellow and Alexis Hall did an objectively great job capturing Regency dialect and capturing the sly humor of Shakespeare's Robin without getting bogged down. It's a tricky needle to thread and impressively done.

We have a cast of characters that could have easily stepped out of a Jane Austin novel in an alternate timeline where the authoress had more access to the queer community and more liberty to write freely about queer lives and loves. Lysistrata Bickle in particular feels like she stepped whole cloth out of Northanger Abbey and I for one was thoroughly delighted.

If you like slow-burn, born to yearn sapphic stories with kinkey elements, this novel also checks that box while subverting the common tropes of the "I can fix her" emotionally unavailable rake and the odious trauma bang. The Duke of Annadale, Lady Georgianna, is emotionally unavailable, but we find out later that she's that way because she's literally being cursed and doesn't want to drag anyone else into that steaming hot pile of guano. Thank the gods for a Byronic protagonist who isn't a narcissist. I especially like when, at the midpoint of the novel our heel's plans are thwarted and our protagonist Maelys Mitchelmore wants to go to sapphic bonetown afterwards, Lady Georgianna refuses because she doesn't want Maelys's first time to be trauma bonding. She wants Maelys to be both physically and emotionally good. Mostly. It's complicated, but so are humans.

So why didn't I like the novel? I can cite a lot of quibbles. The plot feels a bit bogged down by supernatural machinations. I don't know how to say more without serious spoilers, so the fault is mine. It's just a bit full. I didn't feel like I got enough of Lady Georgianna's perspective to connect with her, but also that's justifiable in light of the plot. We'd lose the element of surprise, and that's a valid literary choice. Some of it might have just been due to the youth of the characters. It's been a long time since I saw my twenties, and some of the choices young people make leave me screaming, "just make a friend with a fucking Auntie for fucksake. You don't need to make all the mistakes!!!!"

But again, that's a firm me problem.

At the end of the day, I suspect the real reason I didn't connect with Mortal Follies has to do with timing or just with the way I move through the world. Not every book is for every person at every time. Mortal Follies has enough to recommend it that I won't be yeeting it out a window or even putting it in a little free library. I'd like to give it another chance later. Maybe in a year or two, I will have enough bandwidth to delight in Mortal Follies. Maybe I'll just make a friend who will love the book the way it deserves. Either way, today's verdict is it might just be your perfect cuppa, but it's just not for me.

Rank: Three Stale petits fours

Four Glasses of decent sherry.Mortal Follies Review

Have you ever picked up a novel, glossed over a few pages with the undeniable frisson of fun new read energy, and found five chapters in that the cake, so to speak was a lie? Yeah, me too fam. Me too.

It's a letdown when a book you initially fancied leaves you high and dry and feeling like you're about to take a high school essay test on a novel your teacher insists is "relatable," and Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall brought me back to those days of tedium and frustrated queer alienation, and while I did exactly what I did back in the day--namely I dragged my heels on finishing the damn book--I am also old enough to be able to admit that sometimes the book may be good while not being good for me.

And that's the thing with Mortal Follies, it should have been Lorcan crack. It has so many things going for it: humor, fantasy, literary allusions, an arch narrator, mischief from humans and gods alike. The narrator is one Robin Goodfellow and Alexis Hall did an objectively great job capturing Regency dialect and capturing the sly humor of Shakespeare's Robin without getting bogged down. It's a tricky needle to thread and impressively done.

We have a cast of characters that could have easily stepped out of a Jane Austin novel in an alternate timeline where the authoress had more access to the queer community and more liberty to write freely about queer lives and loves. Lysistrata Bickle in particular feels like she stepped whole cloth out of Northanger Abbey and I for one was thoroughly delighted.

If you like slow-burn, born to yearn sapphic stories with kinkey elements, this novel also checks that box while subverting the common tropes of the "I can fix her" emotionally unavailable rake and the odious trauma bang. The Duke of Annadale, Lady Georgianna, is emotionally unavailable, but we find out later that she's that way because she's literally being cursed and doesn't want to drag anyone else into that steaming hot pile of guano. Thank the gods for a Byronic protagonist who isn't a narcissist. I especially like when, at the midpoint of the novel our heel's plans are thwarted and our protagonist Maelys Mitchelmore wants to go to sapphic bonetown afterwards, Lady Georgianna refuses because she doesn't want Maelys's first time to be trauma bonding. She wants Maelys to be both physically and emotionally good. Mostly. It's complicated, but so are humans.

So why didn't I like the novel? I can cite a lot of quibbles. The plot feels a bit bogged down by supernatural machinations. I don't know how to say more without serious spoilers, so the fault is mine. It's just a bit full. I didn't feel like I got enough of Lady Georgianna's perspective to connect with her, but also that's justifiable in light of the plot. We'd lose the element of surprise, and that's a valid literary choice. Some of it might have just been due to the youth of the characters. It's been a long time since I saw my twenties, and some of the choices young people make leave me screaming, "just make a friend with a fucking Auntie for fucksake. You don't need to make all the mistakes!!!!"

But again, that's a firm me problem.

At the end of the day, I suspect the real reason I didn't connect with Mortal Follies has to do with timing or just with the way I move through the world. Not every book is for every person at every time. Mortal Follies has enough to recommend it that I won't be yeeting it out a window or even putting it in a little free library. I'd like to give it another chance later. Maybe in a year or two, I will have enough bandwidth to delight in Mortal Follies. Maybe I'll just make a friend who will love the book the way it deserves. Either way, today's verdict is it might just be your perfect cuppa, but it's just not for me.

Rank: Three Stale petits fours

Four Glasses of decent sherry.