The Familiar is the latest adult novel by Leigh Bardugo. Like Ninth House, The Familiar is magical realism, but it is also historical fiction as it is set in 16^th century Spain. I enjoyed The Familiar and at this point I think that Bardugo cannot fail to write a novel that I find interesting.

The Familiar is about a scullion named Luzia Cotado who can conjure little bits of magic to make her work easier. One day, her mistress catches her in the act of using magic and then orders her to perform magic tricks for nobility. Luzia attracts the attention of a wealthy and extremely lucky man named Victor de Paredes, who is also the patron of Luzia’s aunt, and Don Victor pays to have Luzia trained up so that she can enter a competition against other people with magical talents that is being organized by the disgraced secretary of King Phillip II, Antonio Perez. Perez is looking for a “champion” who can help the King defeat England’s Queen Elizabeth so that he can get back in the King’s favour. Don Victor’s servant, Guillen Santangel, an immortal familiar whose life is tied to the de Paredes family, is enlisted to help Luzia hone her magical abilities.

The Familiar is set during a period of history when superstition rather than reason governed man, and when the Spanish lived in fear of the Inquisition. The Inquisition was established by the Catholic Church, and its purpose was to root out heresy in Spain. This included the persecution of Jewish and Muslim people, and other individuals who did not subscribe to Catholicism, as well as people who could do magic and witchcraft, because it was assumed to be a gift from the devil. Luzia is in a dangerous and precarious position, not only because of her magical abilities, which must be considered a gift from God in order for her to avoid imprisonment and torture by the Inquisition, but because she is also secretly Jewish.

I am not very familiar with this period of Spanish history, but I think Bardugo did an excellent job in recreating the tension and horror of the Inquisition of her novel, and the constant fear that people lived with knowing that at any moment they could be falsely accused of heresy and imprisoned or put to death. Luzia reminds me of Alex Stern from Ninth House as she is also a capable young woman who risks her own life to help others, and who has a bit of snark in her. The Familiar also has a bit of spice as Luzia and Santangel’s relationship intensifies over the course of the story (I mention this because it seems like all anyone talks about these days is spicy books).

I definitely recommend The Familiar if you like a bit of magic in your historical fiction. Just a warning, though, if you are a fan of Bardugo, this novel appears to be a standalone, which is not a bad thing because I found the ending to be perfectly satisfying.