As Nina runs across an alternate Philadelphia balanced on a knife's edge between celebration and catastrophe, through parades, worship houses, museums, hidden mansions, and the place she once called home, she's forced to confront her past in order to take charge of her own-and perhaps everyone's-future. for me - the British-ism seems a bit out of place in a book set in ancient Rome. Before it's over, she will discover secret societies battling for power in an increasingly precarious world and become custodian of a horrifying secret-and the target of a mysterious hunter. Cast in the form of a dialogue, it treats diverse topics while showcasing Virgil as master of all human knowledge, from diction to religion. Tonight, Nina will put on a dress of blackest black, and attend the biggest party of the year. Macrobiuss Saturnalia, an encyclopedic celebration of Roman culture written in the early fifth century CE, has been prized since the Renaissance as a treasure trove of otherwise unattested lore. He was a Native American who was taken from his home by Puritans after his family had been massacred. Tense and suspenseful, Saturnalia features strong world building and a fully realized heroine. Saturnalia being only 113 pages long could be overlooked by many people that think a good book is a longer book. But when she gets a chance call from Max, one of the Saturn Club's best-connected members and her last remaining friend, the favor he asks will plunge her back into the Club's wild solstice masquerade, on a mysterious errand she cannot say no to. Saturnalia is both dazzlingly inventive and full of spine-tingling menace. Like Thanksgiving or Halloween, Saturnalia has become a purely American holiday despite its pagan roots and nearly everyone, rich or poor, forgets their troubles for a moment.įor Nina, Saturnalia is simply a cruel reminder of the night that changed everything for her. Those of you who are interested in astrology may know Saturn (the planet) as the Greater Malefic, and indeed he is associated with harsh lessons such as limitations, karma, structure, discipline, and sometimes decay or destruction. Since then, she's eked out a living by telling fortunes with her Saturn Club tarot deck, a solemn initiation gift that Nina always considered a gag but has turned out to be more useful than she could have ever imagined.įor most, the Saturnalia carnival marks a brief winter reprieve for the beleaguered people of the historic city, which is being eroded by extreme weather, a collapsing economy, and feverish summers-whose disease carrying mosquitos are perhaps the only thing one can count on. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival held on December 17th in honor of the god Saturn. In doing so, she abandoned her closest friends and her chance to climb the social ladder. The Saturnalia carnival marks three years since Nina walked away from Philadelphia's elite Saturn Club-with its genteel debauchery, arcane pecking order, and winking interest in alchemy and the occult. "A heady mix of the most terrifying elements of our troubled past and inevitable future an eerie, propulsive novel." -Carmen Maria Machado
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