so i just finished Gemma Files'
A Book of Tongues and it is such a book. genuinely. i don't know that i can recommend it outright, but i definitely need to
talk about it, and i also think that overall people will probably like it. i mean i
liked it, i'm absolutely going to be reading the sequel, but it was a surprisingly slow start for a book that's literally just "queer supernatural western," which is ticking so many boxes for me, and yet.
should start off by mentioning that overall Files writes
really well. she apparently wrote poetry before she moved onto prose and you can tell; her descriptive imagery and diction are SO GOOD. there's a few things she does that i kind of had issue with, phonetic accents being chief among these, which i'll come back to in a bit, but there's nothing major that kept me from finishing the book.
some things she does outstandingly well tho, aside from the stuff mentioned above: period-specific terminology and dialogue, shit felt genuine even if it wasn't; understated characters; comedy (this one is so big for me and the main reason i'd actually like to rec this book!!!).
as i said, however, the first chapter was kind of a slog; this is mostly because i initially found two of the three main characters, Chess and Rook, so insufferable i ended up rooting for the third main character, a
Pinkerton spy. there's a real sort of "original character do not steal" over-the-top feel to their introduction which is THANKFULLY tempered later as they're rounded out more so they stop coming across as caricatures, but at the start i spent a lot of time putting the book down going OOF out loud.
conversely, Morrow (the Pinkerton spy) is a breath of fresh air. he's one of maybe two genuinely decent characters in the entire novel and is very nicely down-to-earth, just a bonafide Normal Guy, who spends most of the duration of all the weird shit that happens alternating between an understandable WHAT IN TARNATION and a resigned HO-HUM sort of attitude to multiple near-death experiences. he is a gem of a character and the main draw for me for this book. Files also uses him as a sort of straight-man character (in more than one way) for occasional comedic moments which are the highlights of the novel for me.
conversely, Rook and Chess are much less engaging; in fact they're at their most engaging for me when they're interacting with Morrow, which is kind of a shame because their story is what the novel is centered around:
the two meet during the Civil War and Rook hangs for a crime Chess committed, which is what awakens his latent magical abilities, revealing him to be a hex (basically just a witch) and sets him and Chess down a path of what turns out to be mutually assured destruction.
the two are lovers, we're told from the get-go, in brutally accurate period-specific homophobic detail. they're also outlaws, leaders of a gang, and murderers, which is made clear in the most outlandish fashion possible in that first chapter. Morrow has been sent by the Pinkertons to spy on them and to get readings of Rook's magical ability (Files introduces the concept of
chi only to seemingly forget about it once she leans a bit more into Aztec mythology; one of those things i took issue with).
the book is divided into three parts, with the first and last largely being told from Morrow's point of view (the second is a large chunk that flashes back to when Rook and Chess first met and is told from Rook's pov). and one of the problems i had is that i didn't particularly care as much for the non-Morrow parts of the novel and, despite that being where most of the meat and potatoes of the story actually is, i found myself rushing through it just so i could get back to Morrow.
the novel also jumps around in terms of chronology in a way that feels more style over substance, almost cinematic: more concern is placed on the visual "feel" of how scenes are presented than in an interior logic. so, for example, the climax of the novel is sterilely summarized in a debriefing scene before we actually get to "see" it, with this emphasis placed on the drama of the retelling; the displacement of the reader from the narrative and a sort of delayed tension that is simultaneously deflated in the frame telling.
this is also part of why the first chapter is such a slog: the pov is unfixed, shifting from character to character like a slow pan; presenting the scene visually rather than anchoring it viscerally to a single pov. it FEELS very much like the opening scene of a western; you can hear the echoes of the filmic genre throughout but you're not actually attached to any one character as a reader because it is completely unclear
who you should be following, something which isn't helped by Rook and Chess, two of the most main character syndrome individuals you can imagine, just being unpleasant.
it's not even that they're outlandishly evil, they're just incredibly flat. and they stay that way until much later, which is a severe drawback for me. thankfully Morrow is there to carry the novel.
( some pretty mild spoilers while i ramble a bit about characterizations and motive + internalized homophobia )anyway i feel like i'm way out here in the weeds. suffice to say: despite the lackluster start, Files does actually do a great job of fleshing these characters out as the novel progresses. even the central Rook pov section has some really interesting character work. like it's frustrating as all hell, because he's a frustrating character, and what that section represents is effectively negative character development (Rook gets astoundingly, increasingly,
worse), but it's still nice writing.
the world-building itself is also fairly interesting, even though it felt kind of determinedly vague to me. considering this is the first book in a trilogy i'm hopeful this will be expanded on in the other novels though. but basically: the novel is set in an alternative 19th century American West (immediately following the Civil War) where everything is the same only some people are witches (hexes) with real magical powers. it's clear how hexes' powers work, what their limitations are, and a general sense of how the public sees them, but what isn't clear is if their existence has had any effect on the world at all, beyond the Pinkertons being interested in them and a failed attempt by the Union army to make a regiment of hexes to fight the Confederates.
Rook's powers are also pretty interesting, though we don't see enough of other hexes to genuinely know how strong he actually is, just that we're told
he's damn strong. there's also the problem with the one Chinese hex in the novel. well, there's several problems there, to be honest.
back to the phonetic accent gripe: the chapter where the main characters go to Chinatown is Bad. most of this is from the phonetic accent shit, which is like pretty much always a horrid writing decision. it's even worse when Files decided to keep all the period-specific racism. this in-and-of-itself isn't bad, i don't think, because it's clear that she's very dedicated to being as period-accurate as possible, and the period-specific homophobia is even more strongly centered. there are even parts where it's clear she's highlighting racism against Native Americans, where she points to the US government-sanctioned genocide of Native Americans, but then you also have every single main character using a racial slur against Chinese people at least once and me throwing my hands up at the apparent necessity of it. especially because Files doesn't seem to be making a point about
that. (to be clear: no she didn't need to include all that when she's not actually making a point, she's simply being period accurate by making her characters casually racist.)
the novel was also published in 2010, so like 14 years ago, so i'm willing to give Files the benefit of the doubt here, especially because she does seem to be aware of the racism itself. i just also think that maybe it wouldn't have been half as fucking bad if she hadn't used phonetic accents.
overall tho i'd say read it if you're a fan of the genre. it's actually much more well written than many other similar genre books with queer characters, even considering its flaws.
also, to be clear: is the novel queer? resoundingly YES. Rook and Chess' relationship is THE central focus of the novel, even during the Morrow sections, and it is also what sets the events of the world-damning overarching plot in motion. is Chess and Rook's relationship engaging? personally speaking i found it much less so. there's a tragedy inherent to it that's pretty engaging, but like i said i spent most of the novel just kind of hoping someone would off Rook lol. i think that Morrow and Chess' relationship is much more interesting, and am genuinely excited to see how it develops in the second book.
but as i said, i found Morrow infinitely more engaging in general. if you read the novel for any reason read it for him. there are so many fucking hilarious scenes with him, and then there's also that good good Ethan draw of: it's just some dude Really Going Through It.
the genre aspects are also great, like if you're a fan of westerns and supernatural nonsense you'll most likely enjoy the book. so like, i'd rec it with reservations i guess? feel a little like doing a very spoiler-heavy post on it but we'll see.
anyway
here's some content warnings for anyone who needs them: period-accurate homophobia, sexism, and racism; internalized homophobia (with a resounding Christian/religious flavor); extreme violence and gore; rape that occurs off screen (happens twice); magic that counts as mind control. there might be more but this is what's sticking out at me rn. feel free to ask if there's anything specific you'd like to know before reading.
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