Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
I am back once again with a new Spooky Season review. Say it with me. Spooky Season! Spooky Season! Spooky Season! And what am I reviewing this fine fall day? It’s a lovely little book about 20th century Spiritualism and has nothing to do with witches. No more Witchy Wednesdays for a while, I promise.
Please give a warm welcome to Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam!
It’s synopsis time now. As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve ever read any other post on this blog then you know I love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. Now let’s get to that synopsis.
It’s the 1920’s, World War One is over and has affected everyone’s lives. Everyone knows someone who died in the war. But with the end of World War One came the rise of 20th century Spiritualism. Many people, most who just wanted to make some money, were quick to claim they were able to speak with the dead and prey on grieving families desperate to speak with a deceased loved one one last time. Thankfully that’s not the case for our main characters.
Robert Hazard may have an otherworldly ability but he isn’t using it to make a quick buck. He’s one of the good ones. He wants to help grieving families by giving them the opportunity to say goodbye; much to his wife’s chagrin. Evelyn Hazard believes her husband has lost his mind. She believes Robert’s so called abilities will be the end of her marriage and social standing. Robert can’t be known as a medium, he just can’t!
Someone could claim Robert is a sham medium and everyone would hate the Hazards and they’d be ostracized by society. Or people may think Robert’s gone mad. Or even worse, if he’s actually a real medium, he may find out secrets from Evelyn’s past. Secrets she’s fought long and hard to keep buried. Secrets that would ruin her, her husband, and her family; they must stay buried, but some spirits may have other plans for her.
Book Nerds, there’s no plot. Everything above is lowkey made up. Most of this novel is Evelyn worrying about her husband and their societal standing, the ghosties really aren’t there; save for Evelyn’s sister Dolly who’s memory haunts Evelyn every single day. But that’s still not a plot. I kept waiting for something to happen and nothing ever happened. I had a glimmer of hope every time the author brought up a missing child by the name of Wee Charlie, but Wee Charlie was forgotten about more often than not and is a character readers never meet. There’s no action, there’s no inciting incident, no tension, no conflict; there’s nothing, zip, zero, ziltch! For as much as this book bored me, I did not fall asleep while reading it. I’ll give credit where credit is due.
Hazardous Spirits has so many interesting ideas it could have explored. It could have explored Evelyn’s past, her family dynamics, how she and Robert met and fell in love and how her feelings toward him have changed. It could have also explored fraud in the spiritualism community more than it did. Anbara Salam, the author, could have dived into Robert’s abilities instead of leaving it ambiguous for the vast majority of the novel. Evelyn’s social standing could have been ruined thanks to Robert’s abilities and the book could have focused on either Evelyn rebuilding her social standing or accepting what occurred and finding a new friend group. Anything would have been better than what this book is. There’s no plot and the author leaves literally everything ambiguous. It doesn’t work and the book is boring!
And don’t get me started on Dolly and Evelyn’s past. From my understanding, Evelyn either had a child out of wedlock and/or she had an abortion that now prevents her from having children. Once again, nothing is ever explicitly stated but the author spends so much time alluding to events that happened in the past without offering any payoff. If you want readers to sympathize with a character actually stating what occurred in the past helps a lot. As for Dolly, I don’t think she and Evelyn got along too well. Dolly also may have had an affair with Robert…? Again, nothing is explicitly stated. And Dolly’s memory plays a large role in this novel as she basically haunts Evelyn the entire time. Some exposition about her was desperately needed.
I wish I could say the characters were fantastic and make up for the lack of plot at least somewhat, but Evelyn and Robert aren’t amazing characters. Robert only cares about his new found abilities. He’s a pretty greedy character who doesn’t change throughout the course of the novel, which is the point, but he doesn’t anything for the story. He’s there to be a man child and that’s it. Then you have Evelyn who spends too much time freaking out over nothing. Honestly it’s kinda draining. Her character arc is her getting worse. I feel her character development should have been her learning not to care what people think, but in the end she still cares too much about society. There’s no plot and no character development. What am I supposed to get out of this novel?
I did not have a fun time. I wanted to have a fun time. I love historical fiction and spooky vibes, but this book ain’t it. I wanted more spiritualism, more ghosts, literally any plot, and just more than what this book gave me. Hazardous Spirits was not for me.
With that, I shall bid you all adieu. I will see you all again next week with another great review. If you can’t wait that long then you can always check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. I have lots of episodes to really get you in the Spooky Season mood. I’ve talked haunted houses, cryptids, vampires, and ghosts just to name a few things.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
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