The Familiar is an atmospheric historical fantasy set in the late 1500s Spain, when the Inquisition was up and running at full power. Our heroine is Luzia Cotado, a scullion in the house of a poor noble family who uses small ancestral magics taught to her by her secretly Jewish family to get through the day: unburning burnt bread, multiplying the potatoes when there wasn’t enough coin at market, heating water, fixing a seam. The plot kicks off when Luzia’s mistress, Doña Valentina, catches her at it and decides to take advantage of her servant’s talents and desires to bring her own household up in the world. But both of them are soon in over their heads when powerful people take notice, one of whom has uncanny luck and a mysterious and threatening manservant who follows in his shadow.
The one-two punch of the setting and the prose really got me in this one. I don’t think I’ve read a book set in this time period and place before. You hear a lot about the Inquisition in popular culture and history, but there’s something extra chilling about seeing it in action on characters you have come to care for, and see what they are seeing with this huge violent hypocritical thing a constant fear for everyone.
I could probably say a lot more about this book and what it’s doing with its themes of desire and religion, among others, but it’s too fresh of a reading experience and also I’m tired.