Miserere: An Autumn Tale is Teresa Frohock’s debut novel, published in 2012 amidst a swarm of impressive debuts from Night Shade Books, and a book that has been on my radar since then. I’ve had a copy and it slowly edged its way up Mount Toberead (© Fred Kiesche) but having recently joining audible.com, I decided to go with the audio version of the book, and I’m very pleased I did.
Lucian Negru, a Katharoi, is a disgraced (or fallen) exorcist in Woerld; one of four parallel worlds and specifically, Heaven’s primary “defensive line” between Earth and Hell. He is living on the proverbial leash of his twin sister Catarina, a dark sorceress looking to help the demon Mastema take over the known worlds. When she was at the gates of Hell years prior to the events of the novel, Lucian forsook his oaths as a man of god and to Rachel, the women he loved, in the hope that he could save his sister’s life and bring salvation to her soul. That didn’t quite work out completely, because although Catarina’s life was saved, her soul was tainted. For sixteen years, Catarina has continued to ask Lucian to open the Hellgates, despite his continued refusal. She begs him to constantly heal her wounds, which he does, but she mentally abuses him, and with some help, physically abuses him over those years leaving him a cripple with an unhealed leg.
Finally, after years of abuse, both mental and physical, at the hands of Catarina and her demon dog Cerberus, Lucian escapes. His goal is to reach the Citadel where Rachel and her peers will judge him for his sins, for he seeks an end. That plan doesn’t quite work out and Frohock surprised me with the next layer in her world. Earlier, I indicated that Earth was part of the cosmology Frohock has built, but she shows a young girl named Lindsay Richardson, and her brother, Pete on Earth as we know it today. I was not expecting such a direct connection to “reality” in Miserere and it isn’t long after being introduced to the Richardson siblings that they magically cross the Crimson Veil and appears before Lucian. As we learn, the Katharoi are people who once lived on Earth but have passed through the Crimson Veil between Earth and Woerld because of their ability to become the equivalent of Clerics or Paladins (to borrow some Advanced Dungeons and Dragons nomenclature); warrior priests with specific powers: healing, opening hellgates, etc. With the siblings separated, Lucian and Lindsay (the Foundling) are forced together as they try to meet up with Rachel, find Lindsay’s brother Pete, and evade Catarina’s forces.
Frohock plays a great balancing act in relaying this haunting tale through a tight cast of points of view: Lucian, the fallen (I doubt coincidence is involved with Lucian and Lucifer having a similar name); Rachel Boucher, the spurned lover who has been possessed by a demon known as the Wyrm; Lucian’s sister Catarina; and young Lindsey.
Miserere is a novel of devotion, faith, god, demons, angels, and love. The novel utilizes Christian imagery and myth, but throughout the novel, it does not proselytize. Christian myth and biblical imagery provide the backdrop/world-building and it is handled beautifully through the characters, their actions, and the affect of the world(s) on the characters. One other thing I appreciated was the gender flip Frohock employed in the novel. When there is an abusive relationship between man and woman, the default dichotomy is for the man to be the abuser, the woman the victim. With Lucian and Catarina, Catarina is most definitely the abuser and Lucian the broken one who struggles to both remain in the relationship (for 16 years) and finally, with great difficulty and little outside assistance leaves the relationship. As the remainder of the narrative demonstrates, Lucian has a great deal of internal strength; he is saved as much by Rachel and Lindsay as he saves them both.
A couple of elements of the novel, I thought, could have been explored a bit more. At times, Catarina comes across with less depth than the other characters. I wouldn’t say she is a typical cackling Evil Overlord, but of the four primary character POVs, we get the least from her. Catarina yearns or power and she is virtually irredeemable. On the other hand, I think any more narrative devoted to her may have made her more sympathetic a character than she deserved to be. Additionally, there were points in the story, despite how great I thought the wider cosmology of Frohock’s universe came across, some of the details of the lands of Woerld were a bit indistinct from each other.
Of the handful of audio books I’ve consumed, this is the first where the narrator (Eileen Stevens) didn’t enhance the story in a positive way. Throughout, there were times when she sounded as if she was straining through a whisper as she was telling the story. When the narrator, a female, spoke in the voice of male characters, it felt/sounded forced and not nuanced enough. However, when speaking as Catarina and Lindsey, the narrator was perfect.
Miserere is a dark tale filled with regret and balanced with the hope of redemption. A novel of misunderstandings, of angels and demons, that from the start, feels very grand and a story with a great deal of Weight. In many ways, I was reminded of Stephen King’s masterwork The Dark Tower saga; the parallel worlds, people being pulled across the barriers between those worlds and being unable to return. Frohock, like King, blends a perfect alchemical mixture of horror and fantasy elements and, unlike King, manages to tell a sweeping, romantic epic tale in one volume.
With the characters where Frohock left them (Lindsay, after all is only twelve years old), and the grand cosmology of her universe, I would love to see more of anything Frohock revealed in Miserere. As it stands now, Miserere is a stunning, haunting, and ultimately, hopeful epic tale in one volume.
Highly Recommended.
© 2015 Rob H. Bedford
Audible Studios, November 2013 / Read by Eileen Stevens
Review copy purchased from audible.com
Lovely cover to this one as well. Makes me want to try it!
It truly is an excellent read.