2023/043: One for my Enemy — Olivie Blake

"I thought you both hated each other."
Dimitri and Marya exchanged a glance.
"'Hate' is a strong word," Dimitri said to her. "Don't you think, Masha?"
"Oh, of course, Dima," Marya agreed, "though 'vengeance' is somewhat stronger."
They smiled at each other. [loc. 4365]

New York's magical underworld is dominated by two families. Lazar Federov, known as Koschei the Deathless, runs his shadowy empire with his sons Dimitri, Roman and Lev. More wholesome is Marya Antonova, known as Baba Yaga, and her seven daughters -- the eldest is Marya (Masha), the youngest is Sasha, the others are less distinctive -- and their trade in magical intoxicants. For over a decade an uneasy detente has been in place, but one family has broken the pact, and this means ... well, if not actually war, at least a bloody feud. Except that Koschei's sons and Baba Yaga's daughters are entangled in ill-starred ways...

One for my Enemy riffs off Romeo and Juliet (the chapter headings are quotations from the play) as well as Russian folklore and American mafia tales. Add magic, and everything becomes a great deal more complex. Characters are slain; characters are resurrected. Deals are made and broken. Loyalties are tested to breaking point. And the past is never truly past: Dimitri's teenage romance with Masha, Lev's accidental affair with Sasha, both echo the mistakes of their parents.

I'd have liked this a lot more if it hadn't been quite so focussed on emotional complexity -- between lovers, between parent and child, between siblings. Blake often tells us the different layers (spoken, unspoken, implicit) of a conversation, but there's much less detail about the setting, about the characters' physical appearance (mentioning someone's berry-coloured lipstick does not suffice, even if you do it repeatedly), and about the magical mechanics. I've enjoyed Blake's 'Atlas' novels, but this feels hollower, less cohesive. And it could be set anywhere: there's nothing here that, for me, evokes New York City more than, say, fair Verona.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK publication date is 20 April 2023: it's actually been out since last year, but this is a sumptuously-illustrated new edition.