midsummer moon by laura kinsale
what the fuck was this book? the first chapter was all good and well, but chapter 2 threw me off a cliff and from there I was just baffled yet entertained (like watching an oncoming car crash) until the very end.
reading midsummer moon was a very strange experience. it contained many elements I hate (rape, dubious consent, coercion, manipulation). I loathed and loved every person in this book, and at one point I wondered if perhaps this book would've been better labeled as a horror/thriller than a romance. it felt, perhaps, akin to the gone girls or the colleen hoover books of the world – toxic relationships rebranded as love... and it also felt whimsical and ridiculous, caught somewhere between reality tv and something written by diana wynne jones.
"Now, Mr. Peale. How may I serve you?" The clergyman glanced at the hedgehog. Ransom met Peale’s eyes with an absolutely neutral expression.
maybe I will begin with ransom falconer, the duke of damerell – the male love interest in this story. he's drawn as a serious surly type, with his intimidating falconer stare and his political leadership and savvy.
he's a brilliant foil to someone like merlin lambourne, a naive, absentminded inventress, tucked away in the countryside with only her two elderly uncles and a hedgehog for company.
merlin and ransom are such opposites, that their burgeoning relationship is fascinating to watch – it feels like some foreign object of study, the car crash effect I mentioned at top:
And His Grace the Duke of Damerell, the scourge of Whigs, the advisor of princes, the ambassador, minister, man-of-the world, looked down at her and found himself smiling back.
however, ransom's character is drawn almost too evocatively. there's a scene in chapter 2 that sets this whole relationship on fire – merlin accidentally drugs the duke with an aphrodisiac, which leads to, basically, rape. from then on, laura kinsale continues to reveal, with precise language, the man within...
"Come with me," was all he said. The pain of his fingers made her arms go prickling and numb. He released her as suddenly as he'd taken hold and began walking away. Merlin looked after him, dumb with terror. Her feet took her forward, puppetlike, because she could not conceive of what might happen if she did not obey.
her drawing of the duke is actually kind of terrifying. ransom loves merlin (we can see it in his internal monologue), yet he needs to be in control, and he acts on that need in alarming ways.
She was aware of glitter around her, of rich blues and golds and a bed whose canopy rose up like some giant beast from a fantasy tale. But it was Ransom she watched with unnerved fascination. He turned on her, and for an instant fear bound her as he reached for her hands. Afterward, Merlin was not sure what she had expected. Violence of some kind, a punishing rage.
ransom is an interesting character because when he's with any other character, or by himself, he seems entirely reasonable and sympathetic. but his interactions with merlin awaken some other part of him, and it makes me want to print out a PDF of lundy bancroft's why does he do that? and mail it to merlin so she can recognize the signs of abuse and gaslighting... he tries very hard to wear a mask of power and pose and control, but even he knows what lies beneath...
His jaw tightened just perceptibly, and his eyelashes swept down and up. An instant later the expression was gone, uninterpretable, vanished into a slight, practiced smile.
(isn't it absolutely chilling? is it not giving sociopath?)
and all of this is a tricky thing, because midsummer moon was written about people during the early 1800s and published in 1987 – both eras in which we held men to vastly different standards than we do today. so it feels extremely 2025 of me to be like, "dump the motherfucker ASAP!"
He gripped the back of his chair and smiled at her. "Merlin, I warn you. I am on the verge of losing my temper."
like, I personally find it kind of unreasonable to apply my modern-day values on books that were not set nor written in the modern day, but some things just grate against me, and so I can't help but hate on this particular motherfucker a little. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I want to move onto merlin next but first I need to point out this weird random thing I noticed, in which laura kinsale describes other (female) characters' relationships with the falconer brothers as dogs relating to their masters. this first one describes younger sister blythe's interaction with oldest brother ransom:
Blythe looked up at Ransom like a dog would look up at its master, chastised and eager to correct its mistake.
this one describes shelby falconer's relationship with his young twin daughters:
Augusta and Aurelia came out one by one and accepted the treats with another pair of solemn curtsies. "My," Shelby said, "but you have trained them well for me, Damerell. Do they sit up and beg?"
I think this characterization just builds on the odd tone of the book. maybe it's because I was still in my "reading this as a horror/thriller" experiment, but I found it unsettling and eerie, even if they're just throwaway lines – this book is a litany of toxic relationships; I was never fully able to buy into it as a romance.
okay now I would like to discuss merlin a bit. midsummer moon was written well before the rise of the concept of neurodivergence, but merlin is as neurodivergent as they go. she hyperfixates on things that are of interest to her (her flying machine, for starters) but her focus comes and goes, to her own detriment; she is unaware of her physical needs (lacking in interoception), not thinking to eat or drink or sleep, especially when captivated by her special interest; she has a deficit of social skills, both awareness of what's appropriate for her surroundings and also a lack of knowing/understanding the "rules"; she needs direct and literal communication (strong amelia bedelia vibes); and, most interestingly for me at least, was her need for extra time to transition from one state to the next.
this is such a small and often overlooked detail, but I liked seeing it written in a book:
He could see the slow change, the dawning of common awareness. It was a fascinating process, this transition from deep dreaming to daylight — rather like the passing of a morning’s mist into full sun. But no, he thought as he watched her, not so harsh a change as that. More like the lazy rise of a full moon to light the summer midnight.
I think merlin can be easily written off as a mechanical savant, or some whimsical creature. but such a simple characterization deliberately overlooks the depth of her, I think.
merlin is wildly neurodivergent, which makes her seem "quirky" and strange and also brilliant – but it's undeniable that her neurodivergence is also kind of disabling...? she doesn't function neurotypically, and she struggles to function well or fit into the world she finds herself in. she's privileged in that she's never had to mask (which I think makes readers feel some kinda way), but incredibly socially naive, and that can be frustrating to read because she's not always able to effectively advocate for herself.
I've never encountered someone like her in a book before, and I loved her as a character, but can also completely understand the "she's an unlikable FMC" allegations. I think it's difficult to read about seemingly smart, capable women getting stuck in bad relationships with manipulative men. we think these women should know better, but I actually do think neurodivergence makes things more challenging. you can be smart in one specific way, but completely inexperienced in others, and that is enough to change the entire dynamic of how people see and interact and expect things of you.
anyway. every so often we see a flash of precision insight from merlin about who ransom really is...
There was an expression of clear determination on her face which he had never seen before. "I suppose if my 'innocence' is on your conscience, it will just have to stay there. Perhaps I do live in a fantasy world, but I'm not going to marry you and give up my aviation machine so that you can keep your good opinion of yourself."
I only wish that we saw more moments like this, more of her own inner monologue, so that it felt like she had more agency, less like ransom was forever happening "to" her.
Like a prince in a fairy tale, he would slay all the dragons and leave none for her. She would be safe. And dull, and pointless.
somehow this book felt so much like ransom's story – all of the character development and growth was his. I would've liked for merlin to take up more space and be allowed to come into her own a bit.
ransom gave me the ick for about 85% of this book. but the tone and pace changed in the last 10-15% and began to resonate with me a little more.
(there was an amnesia plot thrown in here, to which I thought, really?! should we not be landing the plane (🤭) right about now?!)
(so much happens in this book, seriously. it's a soap opera.)
during the amnesia subplot, ransom was still the same character that he'd been thus far – aggressive, manipulative, controlling – but with merlin in a coma, there was no outlet for that anger and fear. and so, strangely, I liked this part of the story – watching him have to deal with his emotions in a different way. not always healthier, but certainly different, and illuminating.
Ransom felt his rage do subtle work on his features, felt his mouth curl and his jaw grow tight. Something vicious rose in him, an inner roar of grief and fury that swelled and swelled until it made a rushing sound in his ears. He heard his own voice through it, like ice in the maelstrom. "Burn it," he said. "Burn it, Mr. Collett."
I thought laura kinsale wrote this so well. it finally gave us a fresh lens through which to view his relationship with merlin. he's not better exactly, but he becomes perhaps less odious to the reader? you almost have to sympathize with him, just a little.
"She's been moving. She shifts her hands when someone speaks to her." It seemed to Ransom that he swept upward while he was standing still, carried on a sickening surge of hope and despair. He felt his stammer hovering behind his tongue, and remained silent for an unbearable instant to control it.
maybe part of what ultimately makes this book readable (aside from the actual plot of the story, which I did find compelling) is that ransom falconer, duke of damerell, gets what he deserves in the end – though laura kinsale manages to imbue a little levity in the writing. ransom has been a monster this whole time – he should find some degree of repentance at its conclusion. it's only right – poetic justice, divine intervention, indeed!
Ransom stared at the footpath miserably. It was only what he deserved, he thought. God had been going easy with him, lulling him, leading him inexorably to this point where he would have to pay for all the sins he'd committed in a wickedly sinful life. He could hear the celestial snicker now.
anyway, what a mess of a book. completely psychotic. I didn't even go into the forced wedding or the fountain sex (in which merlin 100% gets a UTI). midsummer moon was extremely immersive and excellently written (laura kinsale is incredible), but every character in this book is unhinged and every relationship toxic. may this love never find me. 🙏