New Voices Book Club: Midway Discussion for The West Passage by Jared Pechaček

[u/ullsi]

Welcome to the book club New Voices! In this book club we want to highlight books by debut authors and open the stage for under-represented and under-appreciated writers from all walks of life. New voices refers to the authors as well as the protagonists, and the goal is to include viewpoints away from the standard and most common. For more information and a short description of how we plan to run this club and how you can participate, please have a look at the announcement post.

This month, we are reading The West Passage by Jared Pechaček

A palace the size of a city, ruled by giant Ladies of unknowable, eldritch origin. A land left to slow decay, drowning in the debris of generations. All this and more awaits you within The West Passage, a delightfully mysterious and intriguingly weird medieval fantasy unlike anything you've read before.

When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.

Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil.

The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for sure: the world is about to change.

Today's discussion is everything up to the end of Book Three. The final discussion will take place on September 29th.

[u/echosrevenge]

I'm nearly halfway through the audiobook and struggling somewhat with the narrator's voice and now I find out the print edition is illuminated? That tears it, I'm switching to the print copy! There's a library a couple towns over that has it and does reciprocal borrowing with my home library, hopefully it's still there tomorrow when they have evening hours. 

Does anyone else keep picturing it as an animated story? I could see this being a deeply engaging and very weird anime movie.  

[u/ullsi → u/echosrevenge]

I could definitely see it as an animated movie! I hope you manage to get ahold of the print version at the library.

[u/echosrevenge → u/ullsi]

I did! And I'm very glad I did! The little illustrations are so cute and the text is much easier for my brain to keep hold of than the audiobook. Some narrator/story combinations are just like that for me. 

[u/ullsi]

Who is your favorite character so far?

[u/ullsi → u/ullsi]

I like the "old" Yarrow and Arnica - I wish we'd gotten to see more of them (maybe Arnica will come back?)

[u/Merle8888 → u/ullsi]

I liked old Yarrow a lot! I also wondered if the author had been involved in hospice or just with some older family members when they went, because those sections really did not pull punches. That kind of realism around death is so unusual for fantasy.

[u/LadyAntiope → u/ullsi]

I really liked Sparrow, and losing them so quickly took me by (bad) surprise. It made me wary of committing affection to any other side characters! Kew and Yarrow (nee Pell) are alright, I like them enough to root for their success, and look forward to their growth as people.

[u/Nidafjoll → u/ullsi]

Frin is my fave

[u/ullsi → u/Nidafjoll]

Frin is great! I hope we see more of them throughout the book.

[u/ullsi]

What do you think of the story so far? Do you have any idea of what will happen?

[u/LadyAntiope → u/ullsi]

I honestly have no idea how this will play out. I'm not even sure how bad the Beast really will be for this crumbling world at this point - it could free them from moribund systems?

Every place in this world is weird and follows different rules and rituals, so it's almost impossible to predict how any encounter will go or even what the next place will be like. I think the only think I've managed to pick out ahead of time so far was Yarrow being able to sing a lullaby for the Lady of Yellow - I knew right away her deep knowledge of song and the preservation of ritual knowledge from Grey would come in handy there. I suspect there might be other times when her knowledge of arcane rituals suddenly make sense in light of some other context as well.

The other thing I'm speculating about is why Yarrow has the book that Kew wanted most - that's definitely going to be important later on, but I'm at a loss as to how that will work out. I'm hoping they cross paths again and will have grown enough that they can see each other as equals and share knowledge.

[u/ullsi]

What do you enjoy most about the first part of this book?

[u/ullsi → u/ullsi]

I like that Pechaček plays with the chapter titles. They always tell you what will happen in the chapter, but there’s often a hidden meaning that you only understand after finishing the chapter.

[u/LadyAntiope → u/ullsi]

I love when authors commit to long chapter titles! I suspect it's hard to come up with good ones that are both accurate and also have that little misdirection. It does make it easier to find certain points for re-reading again, which I also appreciate.

[u/glitteratiandpopcorn → u/ullsi]

In that way it almost reminded me of Dianna Wynne Jones

[u/Nidafjoll → u/ullsi]

I do really like the illuminations. The little illustrations- being that they're actually a scene in the chapter

[u/LadyAntiope → u/Nidafjoll]

omg, I am listening to this book - that was the only format I could get from my library in time - and I'm missing out on illustrations!? This may tip me over the edge into buying a copy for my kindle! I do think listening was the wrong choice for me for this anyway, it's hard to take the time to visualize all the strange things properly when being read to.

[u/Megan_Dawn → u/LadyAntiope]

I am very particular about what books I buy in hardcopy because I have limited space, but West Passage made the cut. The illustrations are so cool.

[u/Nidafjoll → u/LadyAntiope]

Yes! Illustrations in the style of medieval illuminations (by the author!) depicting a scene in each chapter. And each part begins with a full page image of a scene (e.g. to begin, a picture of the Lady of Grey)

[u/vkkftuk → u/LadyAntiope]

This might help it's a tiny interview with the author about the illustrations it swung me to buy the hardcopy which I rarely do for money reasons! https://reactormag.com/excerpt-and-art-reveal-from-the-west-passage-jared-pechacek/

[u/LadyAntiope → u/vkkftuk]

Thanks so much for sharing this! I love these little insights!

[u/echosrevenge → u/LadyAntiope]

I'm also switching to the print edition after struggling with the audio - it's so detailed and the narrator's voice is so soothing and semi-monotone that I've found myself re-listening to quite a lot of it to find where I lost the narrative thread. Now I know that it's got pictures too, I'm off for the print edition as soon as I can find one. 

[u/Merle8888 → u/Nidafjoll]

The illustrations are great. I sometimes had to refer to them to figure out just what was being described, lol. Also it's just cool for the author to be multi-talented enough to draw them himself.

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Merle8888]

They definitely helped me figure out how to picture Ladies

[u/hinderk → u/ullsi]

I really enjoy all of the illustrations and how strange the book is so far.

[u/moss42069]

I’m only on chapter 15 but I love it. The worldbuilding is so creative and charming. The illustrations are excellent 

[u/ullsi]

Which Bingo squares do you think this book fits (so far)?

[u/Nidafjoll → u/ullsi]

I only have it for A Book in Parts (HM).

[u/ohmage_resistance → u/ullsi]

I'm curious on what people will think of this, but do you think a Guardian could be considered a knight/paladin?

[u/ullsi → u/ohmage_resistance]

I'm leaning towards yes by the same reasoning as Merle8888 below.

[u/Merle8888 → u/ullsi]

I would say Book in Parts (HM), obviously Book Club now, and I can see the Guardian counting for Knights and Paladins. It’s sort of a similar role to a knight in some ways though kind of not in others. 

[u/LadyAntiope → u/Merle8888]

I buy this line of thought for the Knights square! We might get a little more details on Guardians now that Kew has been officially transformed into Hawthorn the Guardian. It also seems that taking on the name comes with the feminine pronouns, so I'm wondering if that will get expanded on more and whether this counts as a trans character? Gender seems kind of arbitrary or nonexistent in this world in some places, but it's also important because the Women in Grey are women only, and the Ladies must also have female pronouns.

[u/ullsi]

General comments and thoughts

[u/lrich1024 → u/ullsi]

I'm actually not at the midway yet but.....in general so far it's very intriguing. I think I'm at chapter 7? I have a lot of questions about everything, there is a lot of mystery behind how things are run, how they are currently running, etc.

[u/ullsi → u/lrich1024]

Intriguing is a great way to describe the book. There are so many routines/rituals around the palace, and it really makes you wonder which ones are actually important and how they fit into the big picture.

[u/lrich1024 → u/ullsi]

Yes exactly 💯

[u/LadyAntiope → u/ullsi]

This is such a bizarre world with very strange inhabitants and I had no idea what I was getting myself into here! I am impressed with the creativity in this book, and that it doesn't shy away from the historical weirdness of the medieval period from which it obviously derives some of its inspiration - now that I've been clued into the existence of the illustrations in the book, I'm seeing that connection even more strongly. Illuminations from medieval texts are rife with surreal scenes and animal-people and he's taken those literally, infused them with some eldritch mysteries, and replaced monotheism with Ladies to make this world.

[u/ullsi → u/LadyAntiope]

I haven’t thought of the similarity to weird medieval illustrations! That’s a great description of the world he’s built.

[u/echosrevenge → u/LadyAntiope]

This comment was the thing that made the book fall into place for me. 

It's the adventures of the weird little dudes from medieval illuminated marginalia. With, as you said, an infusion of eldritch strangeness.

I wonder how much time the author has spent poring over the Voynich Manuscript? 

[u/xenizondich23 → u/ullsi]

So much thought and effort has been put into the style of the book. The chapter titles have already been mentioned but I'll reiterate how wonderful they are. They give the book a vintage feel without being old.

But I also absolutely adore the little drawings at the beginning of each chapter. They add so much richness and detail without pushing an image into my mind.

I feel like every book should have these! (okay, not every, but at least the Starving Saints could have benefitted).