New York, 1882. A dark, forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers. Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn’t. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon, Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive. Like her mother’s, Avery’s powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power—or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own: strange experiments are being performed on “patients”…and no one knows why.
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The Tombs
Deborah Schaumberg
One of the main things that stood out to me in The Tombs was that racism towards black people (and to a smaller degree sexism) which was prevalent in 1882 was shown in this book. I’ve read multiple books where the racism of the time is often glossed over or forgotten about. This book shows it, but also the main characters – as they are good people- do not engage with those views.
The book does make use of the word gypsy instead of romani when non-romani are talking about them. This is disclaimed at the end of the book as it is part of the time period even though some take it as a racial slur. So if you do feel uncomfortable with that word being used, I would recommend not reading the book. I personally do not have a fully informed education about the use of the word, but I have been trying to inform myself since reading as I don’t want to offend anyone. Please also let me know in the comments if you are more informed and can help me and others with this.
The antagonist is truly creepy throughout the book. He is described similar to how creepy pasta stories are. I really hope you understand what I mean by that. By the end of the book, you’re still left slightly in the dark about his intentions and also there is never a point where he’s humanised in any way. This both made the book more eerie, but also made him lack that depth as we don’t know his motivations or back story. I did enjoy the slight horror vibe the villain brought to the table.
The pacing itself is very slow, it took me too long to get through this book. We end up going to work with Avery multiple times, where it’s just really boring and I want to get to some interesting action packed scenes. The Tombs picks up its pace near the end so it is more like a sprint to the finish line. This was frustrating as the book as a whole felt tedious and then the conclusion wasn’t as wrapped up as you would want.
The main character was a typical woman in 1882 in some areas but then also very forward thinking in others. She often switches between being a scared little girl who needs to be protected to being the supportive motherly character. This felt too much at times as she really shouldn’t be picking and choosing when she’s going to be strong for herself. It also constantly fit her into a typical female role which annoyed me. Other female characters got to display typical ‘masculine’ qualities like being able to fight and being a strong leader, so I don’t know why our MC fell so flat.
There’s limited romance in the book, but it’s clearly been set up to become a love triangle/quadrangle depending on how you look at it. This is really frustrating as it’s clear the book has picked up it’s pace, but the second book will slow down again to accommodate the romance aspect. I probably will not pick up the sequel because of this as it will just disappoint me even more.
POSITIVES
+ Racism and Sexism shown and addressed
+ Creepy antagonist
NEGATIVES
– Slow pacing
– MC isn’t consistent
– Love triangle set up
– Poor conclusion
I received The Tombs by Deborah Schaumberg from the publisher via Edelweiss. This is an unbiased and honest review
