Source of book: Borrowed from the library
I have had this book on library request for nearly a year. I get the feeling someone forgot to return it for months, and that is the cause of the delay. I did finally get it.
I am not entirely sure how to describe it, but the best I can come up with is:
“Lesbian Spider Bluebeard meets Mexican Gothic”
But that also misses a lot of things. It is actually quite impressive how much the author manages to fit in a sparse narrative, from a detailed and fascinating fantasy world to themes of actually seeing people and being seen in return. All this in 111 pages.
Hache Pueyo is a young author of Brazilian and Argentinian parentage. She spent a good bit of her childhood living in Spain. She is fluent in at least three languages - Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Other than that, biographical information is a bit sparse. This is her first novel, but she has written short stories, non-fiction, and translations.
According to interviews, she wrote the book quickly once the idea came to her - it took a couple of days, and very few changes were made to the final product. It does not feel under-edited all all, to be clear: it is a tight, focused, well-plotted, well-written book.
She wrote the original in Portuguese. She wanted to publish it in English as well, but, lacking a big contract, couldn’t afford to pay a translator. So she did it herself, because she could. In interviews, she describes some of the challenges of that, but I felt she did an impressive job of keeping the cultural references without losing an English reader.
The title of the book comes from a poem in the earliest known version of the Bluebeard tale. It is English, whereas the better known version is French. There are, of course, many different twists on the story, under various names. Bluebeard, of course, but also The Robber Bridegroom, and the one the author borrowed from, Mister Fox. You can read that version here.
Be bold, be bold, but not too bold,
Lest that your heart’s blood should run cold.
But Not Too Bold uses that poem throughout the story. To be clear, this book is not Bluebeard. But it is significantly influenced by Bluebeard.
We are introduced at first to “Capricious House,” the usual horror gothic mansion - in this case, patterned after the old Catalan mansions the author remembers from her childhood. It has a large staff, which is paid well in exchange for secrecy and faithful service. The staff is usually drawn from a local orphanage, and works there for life.
At the top of the staff hierarchy are the majordomo, one of the few males employed, and the “keeper of the keys,” a female role. Indeed, no males are ever allowed to go up to the third floor, let alone the attic, where the owner of the house, Anetema, lives.
As we soon find out, the long-time keeper of the keys, Ms. Matilde, is dead, and her protege, the young Dalia, is next in line.
Oh, and by “dead” we mean “eaten by Anetema,” who is an “Archaic One,” part of a race of pre-human monsters who take on various shapes. There are few left anymore, and they are all in hiding. Anetema is mostly like a giant spider, but she is able to (sort-of) pass as almost-human when she needs to. But it is all an act, and it falls apart of you look too closely.
We also find out that Anetema has had a series of “brides,” each of which lasts a few weeks before getting eaten.
Each of the brides - and indeed anyone Anetema eats - becomes a “memory” - Anetema weaves a miniature of the person, which is then placed in a doll-house recreation of Capricious House, and, like a tiny automaton, performs its usual duties and pleasures repetitively in the house.
The problem is, someone has stolen one of these “memories.” Anetema, suspecting it was Ms. Matilde, ate her. But, having second thoughts, she will test the theory. If another theft occurs while Dalia spends the night alone with Anetema, then it wasn’t Matilde, and the real thief will have to be found. If no other theft occurs, then it had to have been either Matilde or Dalia, so Dalia will be the next victim. No pressure.
I’ll stop there, but the story goes both in the direction of Bluebeard, and also in a very different one. The ending is a bit of a surprise, but makes sense. And it isn’t as dark as I expected either.
I didn’t write down any particular lines in this book, because it worked much better as a quick read. I found it engrossing, and a good bit of gothic horror.
A few notes, however. First, I use “Lesbian” in my description, but there is no sex depicted in the book. Don’t expect bodice-ripping anything, although some form of sex is implied at times. Although, to be honest, I am not at all sure that “sex” is what would happen given the species issues. The little we are given implies something a lot weirder.
However, there is definitely food porn in this book. The descriptions of food are everywhere - some that are a bit out there like fried spiders, and others that are traditional desserts from South America. All of it is all too lovingly described - you might get cravings from reading it.
On the other hand, if you have a problem with spiders, this book might be a bit intense. Spiders are mostly not scary, but they are everywhere, from the pet tarantulas all the staff have to the spider-woman at the center of the story. The author loves spiders, and it shows. Since I think spiders are really cool, I liked that part. Your mileage may vary.
But Not Too Bold isn’t the kind of book I regularly read, but I ran across it on a list and thought it looked interesting and unusual. And that is what it turned out to be. (Also, female author, recent book, in translation - all things I make an effort to include in my reading.)
If you like gothic horror, spiders, food, and LGBTQ themes, you might find this interesting to check out.
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