Bingo 11: Scandal
A Strange and Stubborn Endurance opens with a scandal of sorts (or at least the inciting incident that gets the plot going does), and there’s a fear and use of gossip that gets brought up and/or used off and on throughout the story. There is a content warning at the beginning about the scandal which involves on-page sexual violence as well as self-harm and suicidal ideation; side note, I’m a little surprised that the one murder that does succeed before the final confrontation isn’t part of that warning because of how graphic it is as well as who dies. These all relate to the initial scandal, but the scandal also goes further. Part of that is third son Velasin is surprised to be called home and told by his father that he (Velasin) is going to be married off to a foreign noble; the initial plan was to have him marry a foreign princess, but there are circumstances, and that plan changes to Velasin getting married to said princess’s older brother. In Ralia, Velasin’s homeland, queer relationships are scandalous and not publicly acceptable. In Tithena, Caethari’s homeland (Velasin’s fiancée, then husband), nearly everyone is some sort of queer (although their labeling is a tad bit different than ours), and no thinks anything of it. This means that besides the shock of the scandal and being suddenly in an arranged marriage, Velasin has to go from very closeted to adjusting to a world where that’s actually the scandal (the not being open about being gay).
The relationship side is obviously inevitable and it’s a slow romance, which I think works well for no other reason that it allows the mystery of who is attacking Velasin and those around him, and for what purpose. There’s also the question of who the actual target is because Velasin’s father in law is also attacked, and there are a handful of other political and personal issues, not least of which is the very real problem of one of Velasin’s ex-boyfriend’s suddenly showing up at what’s basically the marriage reception, although it takes place a week or so after he wedding (I think; keeping track of time is hard in this story). The disruption causes concern for gossip although in this case it’s not quite as much a problem as some of the other issues that are affecting Velasin and Caethari.
This is a rare thing for me, to find a romance that balances the mystery (or other genre elements) well; personally, too much emphasis on the romance is not my favorite genre, but it works pretty well here even if it is somewhat predictable. The one problem I have is uneven character development. Part of this is in the narration; Velasin’s parts are told in first person, while Caethari’s are third person. Granted, Velasin is the one who has a lot of character challenges to work through, but as his other half and the one helping him learn to navigate Tithena society, Caethari gets considerably less development, in fact he’s pretty flat, as are a lot of the Tithena folk; even the worlds of Ralia and Tithena aren’t all that detailed, and I’d actually appreciate a little more world-building to help explain some of the political and social dynamics that are apparently pretty important to some of the characters. The existence of magic for example is brough up briefly later in the story but turns out to be kind of important to certain aspects of the end of the story, both for Velasin and for the villain behind it all. However, there’s virtually no explanation of the magic system, how it works, how it’s considered, in either Ralia or Tithena; all we get a rea few mentions. I get that too much detail wouldn’t leave room for the relationship or mystery, but at least a little more information or hinting would help give some more meaning to some things that happen and get brought up in the climax of the story; that’s not the place for being vague .