2019/92: Under the Pendulum Sun -- Jeannette Ng

"If the Christ Our Lord was made wholly human in order to bear human sin, does that mean he must also have been wholly fae to bear our sins?" [loc. 512]

The novel opens with the arrival of Miss Catherine Helstone in Arcadia, land of the Fae, a realm that can only be found by the lost. She has come in search of her brother, missionary Laon Helstone, and has also been tasked with retrieving (but not, under any circumstances, reading) the journals of Laon's predecessor, the Reverend Roche, whose fate is unknown.

Catherine is met by Ariel Davenport, a changeling, and conveyed to the gloomy manor house Gethsemane, where she meets the Faelands' only Christian convert, Mr Benjamin. He asks a plethora of theological questions that Catherine's ill-equipped to answer: but neither he nor Ariel will tell her what has happened to her brother, or to the Reverend Roche. Instead, she is warned not to venture beyond the walls; not to look portraits in the eye; and not to trust the Salamander (whom she has not met). The house is full of shadows and strange noises, and a door in Catherine's bedroom opens onto empty air -- and cannot be kept locked.

Then Laon reappears, and tells Catherine that the Pale Queen and her court are on their way ...

Under the Pendulum Sun has a Gothic sensibility -- I was especially reminded of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre -- and a sedate pace: it took a while for me to warm to it, but I was fascinated by the theology, the oddities (the sun really is a pendulum; the moon is a fish) and the looming sense of menace. The Fae Court, when they arrive, are classic Fae, icy and beautiful and amoral. Catherine, her brother, Mr Benjamin and Ariel Davenport all discuss the Fae's relations to God, their natures, their souls: this element is emphasised by the reworkings of classic philosophical and scientific texts that preface each chapter.

The relationship between Catherine and her brother is strongly reminiscent of Cathy and Heathcliff's: it's uncomfortable to read -- especially given the series of revelations (not all of them truthful) that Catherine experiences -- but it is a key element in the resolution of the novel.

There are some errors that should have been picked up before publication, mostly words misordered or missing ('discovered that he been sent', 'now I here I was'). I'm not sure if the name of Catherine's former employer was deliberately misspelt throughout as Lousia, rather than Louisa, March.

Reading this novel sent me in search of more Gothic ...