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The Betrayals is a deeply subjective experience: to all readers of my review, it’s a personal conclusion as to whether the pay off is worth the work. For this reader, the payoff was most certainly worth the wait. The distant and slow pace is a necessary evil to appreciate this clever story that is a true masterclass of unwrapping a beguiling mystery. I never saw the twists, which was thoroughly delightful and made the book entirely worthwhile. Although, the sorrowful ending sadly took the jubilant feel from the climax, which was disappointing as I felt a more upbeat feel was needed after the leaden bleak weight throughout. It's so hard to write this review without any spoilers. One of the many reasons the synopsis is so confusing if it had even the tiniest bit more detail you would be spoiled. Claire is Carfax or maybe Carfax is Claire. Claire did have a brother and he did die of suicide (at a plot convenient time I might add) but he was never at the school nor knew Leo, it was Claire pretending to be her brother to go to an all-boys school. Normally, this twist wouldn't bother me, however this one did. I think because I felt so strongly for Carfax and what they went through and their tragic ending and to find out that I had been hoodwinked and played with felt...hollow, perhaps cheapening the earlier chapters somewhat. Granted, Claire still suffered but when we are with here she doesn’t seem to be impacted by these experiences as Carfax had been.
I think the book that inspired me to start writing novels (although I’ve always written poems and short stories, as most kids do, I think) was Going For Stone, by Philip Gross. He’s mainly known as a poet and you can tell, because it’s a beautifully written, incredibly evocative YA thriller about a kid learning to be a ‘living statue’. There are overtones of a cult as well as drama school, and it’s incredibly gripping – but at the same time it has this wonderful metaphor at its heart. It made me feel that I wanted to write a coming-of-age story with the same visceral power. Hmm, you’ve reminded me to reread it! Do you have any advice for aspiring authors about the publishing process or about writing in general? Grand jeu: what a cop out to say you can’t describe the game and then say it isn’t music, math etc but never really paint what it is
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In essence the book turned from a deeply compelling character exploration of both Claire and Leo, both of whom full of anger, guilt, pride and possibly more guilt as they begin to develop feelings for the other and all those complexities within that, to a sort of slightly darker rom-com plot. But for those of you who have already read it – let’s get into details! WARNING – MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK YET AND DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!! I so agree with you on the Emile hatred. Seeing him die was so satisfying. I also thought he was going to be revealed as the Rat’s father, but I kind of ended up liking that he wasn’t. I think it proves a point about how he wasn’t the only one to be such a jerk and take advantage of the servants (and women). Like his behavior is almost standardized in this kind of horrible society. Also, I imagined the Rat as an actual rat for most of the first chapter and still had doubts about it after so don’t feel bad 😂 Overall I was expecting more from this book. In terms of plot regarding the grand jeu there's not much going on since everything is abstract and we see that the characters are occupied with it, but in the end we don't really know what they are actually doing. It was a bit frustrating for me and I didn't really enjoy it. And I’m actually rather proud of myself for suspecting that Carfax and Claire were one and the same person pretty much from the get-go! There was just way too much familiarity and tension from Claire towards Léo to be explained away by her simply having heard of him.
The Betrayals by Bridget Collins was my first read-a-long with Tandem Collective Global and I really enjoyed the interaction with my fellow readers. It was great to talk about what was happening and try to figure out the plot with others. We had a great group and some insightful conversations. The decision to have Claire BE Carfax sat very strangely with me. The way it was handled felt very off. The trope of 'woman disguises herself as a man to attend something she wouldn't be able to as a woman' is as old as time, and in this scenario felt extremely trite and uninspired. Perhaps if there had been any nuance whatsoever in regards to how the narrative interacted with gender, instead of the heavy-handed mess that we got, this plot line could have worked better. Bob Mortimer wins 2023 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with The Satsuma Complex There are some smaller criticisms that I should also mention before going into my main problem with is book too, because the more time I spend writing this review I find that I have more and more questions than answers: There are some twists in the story that genuinely surprised me. I was so spellbound that I didn’t see them coming! Overall, if you enjoyed The Binding, then The Betrayals is guaranteed to please.Review may contain spoilers, so stop reading now if you haven’t read the book yet… or continue reading if you’re a rebel! When the pieces started to be put together, the image the reader has for a while is that Claire is the sister of Carfax, Léo's schooltime love. The ever-constant comparisons between Claire and Carfax in these scenes felt extremely uncomfortable on a first read through. It seemed very... odd, to have a bisexual protagonist fall for a female character on the basis that they heavily resemble their male sibling. I don't necessarily think that a plot with that premise is inherently an issue, but the way it was handled in this narrative left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt questionable. There comes a point when I feel like there are some books that are published with a vision of what the reader’s experience is imagined to be, versus what they’ll actually experience. It’s very difficult because it’s all very subjective, until it isn’t. Until it’s something like The Betrayals. The Betrayals, not to be too grandiose, betrays it’s reader in its difficult readability. It shouldn’t be so hard to connect to a story that has so much in its meat... but yet it is. In fact, there’s arguably too much, with the Rat’s perspective really not needed other than to pull off a plot move. Other than that, the Rat was redundant. At the end of the novel, Bridget Collins notes that the story, and particularly her Grand Jeu, was influenced by Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game. Now if I'd remembered my university reading of that book, this one would have made a hell of a lot more sense. My Latin did, finally, come in handy when deciphering 'Magister Ludi' (Master/Teacher of the Game), but that's where my sense of accomplishment ended. The 'grand game' is a complex mix of music and math, philosophy, religion, and life itself, understood by the reader only in the abstract. Unlike us, the students and teachers at Montverre feel the power of the game, working to create the most intricate or clever version in competition with each other. So central is this process of creation that the game becomes more important than any character in the novel.
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