ALEXANDRA ALMOND Thoroughly Disenchanted. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley

Alexandra Almond’s cosy fantasy demonstrates why you really should be careful what you wish for.

In Australian author Alexandra Almond’s debut fantasy novel, lovers Genevieve and Oliver spent a weekend in an enchanting old house – that may or may not be haunted – and wished that they could stay there forever, without any of life’s complications. That was in the 1920s. One hundred years on, they haven’t aged a day, but have serious regrets and are no longer a couple. Unable to leave the property, and with only limited contact with the outside world, they have mostly settled to being friends, keeping busy and trying to be as self-sufficient (and sane) as possible.

Their only source of novelty comes from the occasional visitors who arrive on stormy nights to seek shelter. Their latest visitor, Ella, seems different from any of the others, as bubbly as she is curious, making Genevieve and Oliver wonder if she might be able to help them finally break the curse keeping them trapped. With Ella’s fresh eyes and the return of their close friend Fionn, a fellow immortal who is able to leave the property, perhaps they will be able to work out what went wrong that night and, most importantly, how to undo their fateful wish. What really happened and whose fault was it?

The story is told from Oliver’s perspective, but he and Genevieve are so open with each other that we feel we know her equally well, and it’s easy to appreciate their different views about the curse. Free-spirited feminist Genevieve is desperate to escape what, to her, is the latest (and worst) barrier to being able to live the life she has always wanted. Oliver feels the strain of being trapped but is more relaxed about it. Readers who experienced lockdown will definitely relate to Genevieve and Oliver. One can definitely tell that Melbourne’s lockdowns in particular had an influence on this novel, without it being about COVID or being too soppy or preachy regarding mindfulness and similar coping strategies.

Almond also makes the most of having immortal characters born in a different era to explore shifts in values and attitudes towards minority groups. Oliver, for example, who has certainly gone native in this century by owning a coffee machine and keeping his hair in a man bun, reflects on having to overcome the prejudices he was raised with:

Fionn was resistant to her charms, which Oliver had thought extraordinary until, sneaking back into college late one night, he’d happened upon Fionn kissing the captain of the cricket team by the back gate. In hindsight Oliver blushed at his own naivety, but he’d genuinely had no idea that men were that way with other men in real life, not just in Ancient Greek texts or depraved bohemian societies.

The descriptions add to the novel’s sense of playfulness:

It was like the sun coming out on a cloudy day; Hugh Jackman bursting into song; being swamped by Golden Retriever puppies. The weight and feeling of wrongness vanished. He could breathe, he could think.

The romance side of things actually isn’t predictable, for a change. Refreshingly, this story is about friendship, forgiveness and acceptance as much as it’s about romantic relationships.

Almond handles setting a fairytale-style story about a haunted house with a history in Australia in a way that acknowledges First Nations Australians, rather than ignoring the existence of the traditional custodians and having the implicit assumption that all magic is of the kind from European folklore. Here it’s acknowledged that magic was already in Australia and Europeans merely changed it.

For the most part, there’s a good mix of modern and less modern speech from the immortal characters, as if they picked up some new habits from their storm visitors and the internet, but kept others resolutely:

‘We talk old?’ Genevieve asked in surprise.

‘Well, you never swear, for starters.’

‘That’s not true. I say bloody and damn all the time.’

Watching the characters untangle the mystery at the heart of this novel is enjoyable and it is possible to make a few guesses about how things might pan out without anything being too obvious. Readers don’t get all of the answers about how the magic works but the uncertainty about both that and the future is left hanging in a satisfying way at the end of the story.

Thoroughly Disenchanted is a fun read, with a good dose of humour and a great cast of characters who learn a lot important things about love, friendship and survival. There are plenty of surprises too.

Alexandra Almond Thoroughly Disenchanted HarperCollins 2024 PB 320pp $32.99

Amelia Dudley has degrees in plant biology. But despite spending a lot of time in the garden, her plants still occasionally die.

You can buy Thoroughly Disenchanted from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW.

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Tags: Alexandra | Almond, Australian fiction, Australian women writers, cosy fantasy, haunted houses, spells and curses