House of Marionne

• Author: J. Elle
• Genre: YA Fantasy
• Publication Date: August 29, 2023
• Publisher: Razorbill
• Series: House of Marionne #1

Thank you to Razorbill and YA Books Central for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: blood, violence, murder

From New York Times bestselling author J. Elle comes a modern-day YA romantic fantasy series opener about a glamorous magical world of social elites, forbidden love, and a dark magic that could destroy it all.

A must-read for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Stephanie Garber, and Bridgerton.

RICH IS THE BLOOD OF THE CHOSEN.

17 year-old Quell has lived her entire life on the run. She and her mother have fled from city to city, in order to hide the deadly magic that flows through Quell’s veins.

Until someone discovers her dark secret.

To hide from the assassin hunting her, and keep her mother out of harm’s way, Quell reluctantly inducts into a debutante society of magical social elites called the Order that she never knew existed. If she can pass their three rites of membership, mastering their proper form of magic, she’ll be able to secretly bury her forbidden magic forever.

If caught, she will be killed.

But becoming the perfect debutante is a lot harder than Quell imagined, especially when there’s more than tutoring happening with Jordan, her brooding mentor and— assassin in training.

When Quell uncovers the deadly lengths the Order will go to defend its wealth and power, she’s forced to choose: embrace the dark magic she’s been running from her entire life or risk losing everything, and everyone, she’s grown to love.

Still, she fears the most formidable monster she’ll have to face is the one inside.

Brimming with ballgowns and betrayal, magic and mystery, decadence and darkness, House of Marionne is perfect for readers who crave morally gray characters, irresistible romance, dark academia, and a deeply intoxicating and original world.

I read this as a buddy read with Julie @ One Book More, and thank goodness I did because this woman helped me keep it together while reading, and we had some serious fun with coming up with theories and communicating in gifs.

I was originally really excited for this, because I loved Elle’s debut duology. It wasn’t long before Julie noticed the similarities between this series and that one. While there are differences in the storyline, the bones of the story are remarkably similar—a girl is removed from her family and transported to a magical land where she suddenly encounters a family member she wasn’t in contact with and gets to know them, learning all the ugly things about their new home.

There are a lot of things I had issues with in this story. The first and biggest issue is that there are plot holes in the story that are big enough to drive a truck through. At first, the magic system and world-building isn’t well defined, but I figured that is because Quell herself doesn’t really understand much about it. But as the story went on, I found myself asking more and more questions, and getting less and less answers. I was hoping that there would be at least some resolution, but alas, there was none.

I did like how the romance between Quell and Jordan developed. The enemies to lovers dynamic between them was so much more realistic, and the connection built up slowly over a period of time where they had to work together. Although both of them weren’t characters that I especially loved, I couldn’t help but want to get more of Jordan’s perspective, and think that the story would have been more interesting if we knew what was going on in his head.

One of my personal favorite things in a book is when a character learns new skills and has to take time and practice to get good at them, just like in normal life. In this book, I was endlessly frustrated at how Quell learns new skills and is so good at them immediately without any practice. Her roommate has been at the school for 2 years to pass the three required tests, while Quell can somehow master difficult skills almost immediately. And it isn’t just magic, but also … ballroom dance? Anyone who has done any ballroom dance knows that you can’t just fake it with zero experience and manage to pull off a flawless performance simply by following your partner’s lead, but that’s how it goes in this book.

After her debut, Elle took a break to write some MG fiction, and it shows. The writing and the storyline read much more like MG than they do as YA—with the exception of the romantic subplot, this could easily be an MG book. The plot isn’t quite up to YA standards either: so much of the story is predictable, the plot twists can be seen coming a mile away, and the characters aren’t especially engaging. This could easily have been an incredible story, but it would have to do a lot more to get there. In addition, it kind of felt like Elle was trying to do too much in too short a time. There was a lot going on in the story that Elle was trying to do, but it never felt like she managed to hit all of the bases, leaving too many loose threads in the story.

As for the characters, there was only one that I really identified with, and it wasn’t Quell. She came across as entirely too naïve for someone who has basically lived most of her life on the run from people who are trying to kill her. I would have expected her to be more street smart, like she demonstrated in the beginning of the story, but it seems like once she arrives at her grandmother’s estate, she suddenly became a sheltered, innocent, and overly trusting rube.

Overall, despite the open-ended cliffhanger ending, this didn’t motivate me to want to read the sequel. While this was an ARC that I was really looking forward to, it isn’t one that left me feeling fulfilled and satisfied when I finished, aside from the fact that I was done and could move on to the next book in my TBR list.

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 14