Review – Passing Strange by Ellen Klages (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 222 pages
Publisher:Tordotcom
Release Date: January 24, 2017
ASIN: B01JZ6SJXE
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 4/5 stars
“San Francisco in 1940 is a haven for the unconventional. Tourists flock to the cities within the city: the Magic City of the World’s Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion; the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer “authentic” experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps; and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet.
Six women find their lives as tangled with each other’s as they are with the city they call home. They discover love and danger on the borders where magic, science, and art intersect.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I bought a copy of this book from my Kindle.
Thoughts: I ended up enjoying this although I would put this more in the category of magical realism than outright historical fantasy. There’s very little magic in here and it’s very subtle. This is more of a story of a group of women trying to survive San Francisco in the 1940’s. It reminded me a lot of Malinda Lo’s “Last Night at the Telegraph Club”; which was written after this book.
This book follows a group of women who are all part of the GLBTQ community in one way or another and are trying to make independent livings for themselves in San Fran in the 40’s. All these women are somehow involved in arts and entertainment (singers, dancers, artists, writers). The story ends up focusing on a female painter and the female male impersonater singer she falls in love with.
It’s an intriguing look into that era and I enjoyed watching how these women supported themselves. There is very much an attitude of doing what you have to do to make a living. The artist is amazing but she makes a living doing the covers of pulp fiction, and while she doesn’t love it, it’s steady work. Same with Helen, who is a lawyer but can’t get very many clients because she’s a woman, so she works as a dancer in clubs. These women are tough, work hard, and admirable.
There is some subtle magic here. One of the women can fold paper in Oragami fashion to make short cuts and another knows how to paint people into other places. Things come to a climax when one of the woman’s husbands (who’s been absent for many years) returns and is incredibly violent with his wife when she demands a divorce. This circle of women quickly join to help her take care of the situation.
This was well written and easy to read. The characters are easy to relate to and I enjoyed learning about the era. The magic included here is elegant and subtle and works well with the rest of the story. I would definitely consider picking up some more books by Klages in the future.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this, it’s a quick and well done story about women trying to survive on their own in 1940’s San Fran. This is well written and I enjoyed the characters and the settings and how the story was pieced together. The focus is less on magic and more on women supporting each other through their differences to survive all the change that is happening in San Fran at this time. I would recommend it if this sounds interesting to you.
