The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks (Montague Siblings, 3)
Lee completes her award-winning trilogy about the fascinating upper-class Montague family, whose adventures take them across early 18th-century Europe and beyond. The third volume is told by the youngest Montague, Adrian, last seen as a toddler called the Goblin by his two estranged older siblings. The previous novels were fan and critic favorites due to their breezy, modern dialogue and brilliant, self-aware protagonists. Lee also manages to infuse the characters in her traditional “campy adventure tales” with modern concerns: charismatic Henry combats addiction and depression with the help of his life partner Percy; genius scientist Felicity overcomes sexism and what today we would call Asperger’s Syndrome to win the loyalty and respect of a pirate nation in Algiers; and Adrian, as the third novel begins, is a privileged, well-educated peer with a supportive fiancée who struggles to function despite crippling anxiety and obsessive thoughts. His recently deceased mother and abusive father never told him about his siblings, and the shock of discovering them initiates a journey to locate the legendary Flying Dutchman, the source, Adrian believes, of his mother’s fatal mental illness and the only hope he can imagine of curing his own.
Lee has been praised for her realistic and honest depictions of neuro-atypicality and LGBTQ identity in a historical setting, but the novels are also entertaining and full of well-chosen details. Because the narrator of this one is prone to constant self-criticism and frequent self-harm even as he approaches his adventures on the road with an open heart and a liberal mind, some readers who suffer from anxiety may find themselves triggered by the vivid depiction of Adrian’s own obsessive thoughts, while readers who don’t may become impatient with their repetition. But the touching emotional bond formed among the three siblings reflects Lee’s skill in characterization, and the message of the series is ultimately hopeful and healing.
