The Familiar

A Novel

By: Leigh Bardugo

Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang

Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * #1 INDIE BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“An immersive, sensual experience.”—The New York Times

"Essential."—The Washington Post

"Narrator Lauren Fortgang channels the currents of magic and intrigue running throughout Bardugo’s layered historical fantasy...Skillful narration combined with an enchanting storyline makes for great listening."—AudioFile

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.

“A must-read for those who are seeking a little magic in their lives.”—Deborah Harkness, #1 bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science, and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

©2024 Leigh Bardugo (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"The sharp realism mixes with a genuine feeling of enchantment to create a top tier historical fantasy."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The Familiar highlights all of the things that make Bardugo so well loved: a romance with maddening chemistry, an artfully built world, side characters with their own deep backstories, and a plot full of dark twists and spiderweb connections."—Booklist (starred review)

“Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.”—Kirkus (starred review)

The performance was superior!

I will search out this actor for more of her work. She was pitch perfect. The author has written an entertaining and engaging book!

Beautiful story

Perfection, from story to narration. I felt like I was listening to an adult fairytale!

Enchanting

Bardugo’s expert use of language creates vivid imagery and compelling characters. I was always wondering what would happen next, it was hard to put this story down. Overall a deeply satisfying read.

Leigh Bardugo is at the height of her powers

Lyrical and fully fleshed-out, Bardugo has done it again—but dare I say, even better. The entire story was inspired, and so lovingly and carefully wrought that I hated having it end, leaving this magical and treacherous place of her imagination. Her prose has never shone brighter. Her understanding of character and the decisions they make has never been more intelligent and compassionate.

To her YA fans who love her best when the story is plot-forward, have patience. You will be well rewarded at seeing this literary master at work.

Wonderful, complex and realistically drawn characters.

Between the excellent performance from the voice actor and the intriguing story line, I was riveted from start to finish

A beautifully written book

Wow! A great new book. Bardugo has done it again. I hope there are more like this to come

It just kinda fell flat?

Narrator was awesome as usual, but this story just. Kinda fell flat. Spoilers:
There were a lot of High Brow literary references that I picked up on, but didn't find necessary and felt that they took away from the story. The playwright for example like, kept being mentioned but really wasn't important except to give Valentina a nice ending and like, be some sort of stand-in as the author of the story within the story, but like overall it didn't really matter and wasn't necessary. We also kept being told the story was a tragedy not a comedy, but then it sort of had happy endings for everyone who didn't suck, anyway.

Valentine's story was a decent redemption arc, I guess, but her character just didn't feel important and I frankly didn't care at all about her.

Also, I didn't really understand why Santanel (I'm no doubt spelling this wrong since I only listened, obviously), had to die every morning and be resurrected. Like sure, there was a bit of foreshadowing about resurrection being only for God, but then it came to nothing when she actually did it.. Furthermore, why was his curse "reactivated" when he was ressurected? We kept being told dying would break the curse, but then it didn't? No thought is given to the consequences of someone being ressurected daily after burning to ash.. Is he even the same person? How does he remember everything? It just didn't sit right with me and felt forced, like wish fulfillment or just like Leigh Bardugo didn't really know what to do to end the story but wanted it to be happy.

And then there was the whole orange blossoms thing. What was that even about? Some dream they supposedly both had was mentioned, but what even was that? It didn't happen within the story, but orange blossom smell just kept being mentioned over and over and over and never came to anything other than "yo we found an orange grove that we both dreamed of once, yay!" if there was some importance there, I didn't see it at all.

To the nobodies

Overall a good book. I wish the “magic” or “miracles” were more descriptive to really get your imagination going. It was a bit predictable with the backstabbing and the ending was also a bit obvious but it was a nice read in the end. Slow paced but thats not a bad thing.

It was really good

I really liked this book. Did I love it, no. Was it a bad book? Absolutely not! I there a couple in this book? Yes! But I would not call it romantic, more like there is a couple that comes together. There is a lot to this book as in history. There is magic but it's more like small miracles. Do I recommend you read this? Yes, yes I do.

Invested right away in this book!

The book grips you from the start and you are hooked. I couldn’t put it down!