There is also an extremely clunky political atmosphere in the novel, which seems to take place in a sort of alternate 1930s Europe. The 'Party,' led by 'The Old Man,' rules over the region, and the main character Léo is a disgraced former head of cultural affairs whom the Party banishes to the grand jeu academy, his former school. The Party discriminates against Christians (no explanation here as to why) and is obsessed with nationalism and cultural unity. I cannot see how this was not a loose reimagining of the late Weimar era and the rise of the Nazi Party -- it so blatantly replaced Jewish people with Christians and the 'Old Man' was so obviously a Hitler-esque demagogue. I have spent three days reading this book and for the most part I did enjoy it. Yes, like other reviewers I too found the whole 'grand jeu' thing a bit weird and I gave up trying to understand it, instead I just thought of it as experimental, interpretive dance. But on the whole I did enjoy the book, not to the same extent as The Binding, but I think that was always going to be a problem for this book, it had big shoes to fill.

There are some twists in the story that genuinely surprised me. I was so spellbound that I didn’t see them coming! Overall, if you enjoyed The Binding, then The Betrayals is guaranteed to please. The first line in the description for The Betrayals inspires all sorts of intrigue so naturally, we’ve got to know… “If your life was based on a lie, would you risk it all to tell the truth?” Why or why not? Grand jeu: what a cop out to say you can’t describe the game and then say it isn’t music, math etc but never really paint what it isLeo meets the current Magister Ludi. The first ever woman to be given the position. But Leo can’t help feeling something drawing him to her. My main criticism however is with the character reveal of Carfax (and hence why this review is marked 'spoiler'). Throughout the book we are told two things about Carfax: These are the times that scare her the most, the beginnings and endings: this is when the world is most unpredictable.” The plot is extremely slow with very descriptive writing style (esp The Rat’s POV), so many things / words are not explain well you just need to accept the way they are without knowing muchabout them, that makes my reading journey felt so painful

A lot is going on with this novel, no doubt, and I’m trying to be as vague as possible to not leave any spoilers. The ending is a bit surprising, even if it is not wholly original (shades of M. Butterfly), and is only successful because it exists in a book. All in all, The Betrayals is a frustrating read to a certain extent because it is so vague and ambiguous — and would be the type of ambiguity that would lead to perversion in John Wayne’s mind, though I seek to make no judgments myself. Again, the setting is not specified, though Collins references France and England as fellow countries in her text. The period of the novel’s setting is similarly vague at best, as mentioned, so we’re never too sure if the fascists are a mirror of the German Nazi party— simply because it is not clear if the story takes place in Germany or not. You have to read a good portion of this novel before it becomes clear that Collins is merely taking liberties with retelling the story of the rise of Nazism in Germany during the ’30s at all — so the book can be rather confusing to say the least. When a car pulls up to deliver some baggage to Montverre early on, you don’t know how the car should look like: modern, or something from another era? I suppose this vagueness is Collins’ way of saying that the story could happen at any time, but the details do matter as they do gradually (sort of) emerge as the story is being told. Nonetheless, The Betrayals is one of those books that lingers in the mind, on and on. It works on you, like a kind of hypnotic mesmerised effect. It wasn’t perfect, and it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was certainly thought provoking about the world we live in and the world we don’t, which will stay with me for some time to come. It’s an extremely distinct yet enjoyable story to read from a wonderful and sleek imagination that leaves me eager to see what Bridget Collins cooks up next. While I did have some issues with certain aspects of The Binding, I did find it to be an absorbing read. The Betrayals promises a similarly generically historical setting with a far less compelling story (I had to slog my way through the first four chapters of this book). There is an overuse of the words 'grand jeu', so that these words are used indiscriminately, appearing in weird contexts were they don't even make sense (feel free to disagree). Also, I was irritated by the belated explanation—if we can even call it an explanation—of what this 'grand jeu' is (especially considering that up to that point the words 'grand jeu' have been used incessantly!). And why just not call it the 'great game'? Because using French words lends an air of mystique? Another sumptuous act of imaginative world-building ... If you're looking for an absorbing, transporting work of fiction - and why would you not be? - The Betrayals is just the thing ... settle in, and enjoy getting lost in this captivating book' ObserverThe part of this that I was the most regretful about, was that in the end there was no happy ending, per se. It leaves off incomplete but realistic, and the leaving the ending up to me is great, but not always, so I was really glad with the execution of it in this book. So yeah – I’ll leave it at that for now! If you’ve read this book, do share your thoughts with me down in the comments! Even if you hated it, I would love to know! Where do you disagree with me? Where do you agree? The book spends a great deal of time on Carfax's school life, his relationship with Leo, his personality, wants and fears, all through the eyes of Leo. I really enjoyed meeting Carfax and I absolutely wept when we saw how badly bullied he was (Chapter 13 I found particularly painful). And out of all the characters in the book, including the three different narrators, the one I thought I knew most was Carfax. And my shipper heart was just so, so satisfied 😍 It’s been a while since I shipped anyone as much as I did Léo and Carfax. I loved the way their relationship developed, how Léo went from envious hatred to defending “him” from Felix and all his other “friends”. I loved how they could talk about academics for hours and hours. How they understood one another despite their rivalry. The honest conversations they had on the astronomy tower and above the roof of the Great Hall. The underlying tension that was there the whole time. I mean, I was basically in seventh heaven when Léo walked in on Carfax playing the cello 🥰🎼

But its inherent emptiness is alienating, and while that's a perfectly apt metaphor for the themes in the book, it's going to leave a lot of readers dissatisfied. There's so much mystery shovelled into this book that it burns all the emotion out. The Grand Jeu (no real explanation given), the Rat (evidence of a past mystery and a mystery in itself), the Party (some kind of fascist government who want something from the game, the school, and apparently to persecute christians), the death (who and why). Instead of coming together, each strand nullifies the others. The romantic element was disappointingly resolved, a beautifully depicted relationship developed in the first half of the book turned mundane by the end. A unique, unexpected and beautifully unsettling story ... gorgeously beguiling and totally addictive' Joanna Glen, author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope Also, can we just talk about all the commentary on a women’s role in academia? So many of the snide remarks Claire experienced and the way she constantly had to prove she was better than her male peers, just so that she would be taken seriously at all, throws a lot of light on our own history. And maybe not even just history. As a girl studying a STEM subject, it’s kind of hard not to notice that there’s only a single female professor in our whole department, and that a noticeable majority of my fellow math students are guys… Of course, that’s still way better than actively being discouraged from studying at all, just because of your sex, but it just goes to show that it takes time for remnants of a system that barred women from university to fade altogether…. [For context, the first German university to allow women to study there was Heidelberg in 1895.] So if you’re like me where too many time jumps within a novel—that’s not meant to be a time travel romance—will pull you off the story, then you might really need to take your time and sit down with this book without having to put it down for any reason. And I do mean sit with it without any distractions, have a pen and paper nearby for notes ( I did!), and definitely plan on a reread, so you can fully grasp the deliciously mysterious and magical novel that is The Betrayals. Wooow… this is so disappointing! I almost don’t want to believe this is the same author who wrote “The Binding” one of my fav standalone book on 2019, maybe the high expectation I put on this book is the “problem” why I didn’t enjoy this

Book of the Month

But this rarified world of learning Léo once loved is not the same place he remembers. Once the exclusive bastion of men, Montverre’s most prestigious post is now held by a woman: Claire Dryden, also known as the Magister Ludi, the head of the great game. At first, Léo feels an odd attraction to the magister—a mysterious, eerily familiar connection—though he’s sure they’ve never met before. The setting is also incredibly vague. Is the story set now? The 1800s? The 1400s? There’s no way of knowing. There are mentions of a menacing-sounding government called – wait for it – the Party, and politicians who have a hatred for Christians. But – and here you’ll start to sense a theme – we never find out why. We know that Léo used to work for the Party, but we never find out what exactly he was doing for them either. I had to have lots of orthodontic work because I have several adult teeth that never materialised. The orthodontist (presumably trying to make the 14-year-old me feel better) told me it was because I was ‘further evolved than everyone else’.

The story is so well written; nothing is obvious, everyone has secrets, and there are so many things at play. There are also two storylines; one storyline is set in the past, nad one set in the sorta present, with three perspectives. I loved the different perspectives, but I would really have liked to see more of the Rat's perspective. Montverre has changed since he studied there, even allowing a woman, Claire Dryden, to serve in the grand jeu's highest office of Magister Ludi. When Leo first sees Claire he senses an odd connection with her, though he's sure they have never met before.At the end of the novel, Bridget Collins notes that the story, and particularly her Grand Jeu, was influenced by Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game. Now if I'd remembered my university reading of that book, this one would have made a hell of a lot more sense. My Latin did, finally, come in handy when deciphering 'Magister Ludi' (Master/Teacher of the Game), but that's where my sense of accomplishment ended. The 'grand game' is a complex mix of music and math, philosophy, religion, and life itself, understood by the reader only in the abstract. Unlike us, the students and teachers at Montverre feel the power of the game, working to create the most intricate or clever version in competition with each other. So central is this process of creation that the game becomes more important than any character in the novel.