Book Review: The Midnight Bargain
After reading (and thoroughly enjoying) Witchmark and Stormsong, I was pleasantly surprised to see that C.L. Polk had another fantasy coming out, based on an entirely different premise. It looked to be somewhere between Pride and Prejudice and her previous works, so I was a little skeptical, but I ended up solidly in the Polk fan club once again.
Beatrice’s family has fallen on hard times, so her family has risked everything on Bargaining Season - the time of year when noble men search for good wives. Beatrice is expected to attract and marry a fine husband and give him strong, magically powerful sons. But Beatrice has a secret: she’s a sorceress herself, in a world where female magic users are more or less forbidden. And she’s determined not to give up magic. As Bargaining Season begins in earnest, Beatrice must find a way to both keep her freedom and save her family.
Listen, as a modern feminist myself, it’s basically impossible not to root for Beatrice in this story. The deck is stacked against her in so many ways, and she’s doing everything she can to fight it off and get what she wants from her life. If anything, she is maybe a bit too reckless, but without those character traits, this would be a much more boring book. Instead, we get a plucky, determined and fierce hero who knows what she wants and is damn well going to get it (without being a stereotypical “strong female character” who is tough like the guys either, so bonus points for Polk).
The characters circling around her are equally interesting in their own right, many of them windows into other ways the world could be, other paths Beatrice could take. Ysbeta is the perfect friend and ally for Beatrice, sharing many of her interests while being distinctly different. There’s the sense that Ysbeta is ace/aro or somewhere along those lines; unlike Beatrice, who is highly interested in Ysbeta’s brother Ianthe, Ysbeta never seems to be interested in romance with anyone. She’s instead intensely focusing on being a scholar, on preserving and sharing knowledge. And she comes from a wealthier and freer background than Beatrice (though still certainly not free).
Beatrice’s sister Harriet is on the opposite end, someone who lives for Bargaining Season, who knows all its ins and outs, and who has internalized a lot of the structural misogyny in the world. She’s a constant weight on Beatrice, reminding her of the dutiful daughter she should be, according to the men of this world.
Ianthe is…remarkably supportive, for a man in this world. He indulges both Beatrice and Ysbeta, and he supports them in their endeavors. He even comes to their rescue at times without ever coming off as malicious or too condescending. He’s a perfect love interest for Beatrice, precisely what she wants and yet what she can’t really have if she wants to keep her magic.
That’s really the crux of the worldbuilding, the problem Beatrice can’t get around. This is a world where magical power comes from spirits, and unborn babies offer a tempting house for malicious spirits. Women who do not wear this special magical collar are then vulnerable to having their children possessed; but the collar also blocks their magical ability and prevents them from advancing through the magical societies established in the world. It’s a big thorny knot to untangle, cleverly tied by Polk to make sense within the world. It’s also infuriating, since it inherently reduces a woman’s value to her womb.
To be fair, Polk is really good at this style of crafting a shiny society with major problems lying beneath the surface. She did it equally well in the Kingston Cycle, with witches and aether. It’s infuriating precisely because it is so believable.
The plot radiates out from this central conceit: Beatrice studying magic with Ysbeta in secret (with a little help from Ianthe), Beatrice interacting with spirits and experimenting on her own, Beatrice interacting with high society and trying to find a way to help her bankrupt family. There are moments of high excitement paired with plenty of room for introspection and reflection upon the unfairness of the world. And damn, but the conclusion is satisfying as hell.
At the end of the day…agh, Witchmark is still my favorite C.L. Polk novel. But honestly this one is probably second place, edging out Stormsong by a hair. It’s a delightful and quick read, and fans of Polk’s previous work will find plenty to enjoy here.
Grade: 4.25/5 stars
Memorable Quote:
““All right. It’s unfair,” Ianthe said. “But how can we change it? There is no way to protect a sorceress from bearing a spiritborn without the warding collar. That’s something you can’t deny.”
”But no one is looking for another way,” Beatrice said. “The current system lays all of the restriction, all the responsibility, and all of the burden on sorceresses. Men aren’t inconvenienced in any way. They may do whatever they like. For them, the system isn’t broken, so why look for a solution?””
