The Conjured Woman: Emerald Scarab
In 1808, Napoleon is looking to conquer Spain. Adelaide Lenormand, France’s preeminent fortune-teller, has a plan to aid Napoleon by conjuring a golem to be his trustworthy manservant. At the dinner party ritual, however, something goes wrong. During a struggle, the golem yanks an emerald scarab necklace off Napoleon’s neck and mysteriously disappears. While the police search for the emerald, Adelaide seeks the golem. Yet what she’s conjured is a 21st-century nurse named Elise Dubois, who is found unconscious outside a London public house. When Elise wakes up, she finds herself 200 years in the past with no idea how she got there.
Despite a couple of interesting historical tidbits, overall the book’s setting is not strong and mostly describes how things smell (i.e., like urine), with scenes of men urinating on outdoor walls (where else would the smell come from?). By the end, nothing is resolved, and there’s a cliffhanger. How is a modern woman conjured instead of a golem? How can French people hear Elise speaking French when she does not understand French words spoken to her? How does Elise portal-jump from France to London? What was the secret society’s true plan, La Société d’Isis (obviously referencing ancient Egypt’s goddess, Isis)? Why is the emerald scarab so important to them?
I didn’t like Elise at all. Readers are introduced to her as she sneaks out on a guy “the morning after” (and she despises the thought of having to talk to him after sex). Elise is self-centered, disrespectful, and ungrateful, and she undergoes no character development. Her constant use of modern idioms (“wouldn’t it be cool,” “are you okay”) made me cringe. The story reads like it’s about a petulant teenager lost in a 19th century-themed Renaissance festival.
