‘The laws of Smoke are complex. Not every lie will trigger it. A fleeting thought of evil may pass unseen. Next thing you know its smell is in your nose. There is no more hateful smell in the world than the smell of Smoke…’ – Dan Vyleta, Smoke
Soooo, after being in a state of sleep and work for the past two weeks I am finally back with the post I promised. This time I’m reviewing Dan Vyleta’s Smoke. Warning: there may be SPOILERS ahead!
The blurb for the book reads:
Smoke opens in a private boarding school near Oxford, but history has not followed the path known to us. In this other past, sin appears as smoke on the body and soot on the clothes. Children are born carrying the seeds of evil within them. The ruling elite have learned to control their desires and contain their sin. They are spotless. It is within the closeted world of this school that the sons of the wealthy and well-connected are trained as future leaders. Among their number are two boys, Thomas and Charlie. On a trip to London, a forbidden city shrouded in smoke and darkness, the boys will witness an event that will make them question everything they have been told about the past. For there is more to the world of smoke, soot and ash than meets the eye and there are those who will stop at nothing to protect it . . .
The initial concept of Smoke triggered my attention instantly, especially with the connections I’d seen on the cover to Phillip Pullman’s The Northern Lights series (though I’ve yet to read the books, the Golden Compass is one of my favourite fantasy films). A Dickensien London, where elitists have mastered the art of smoke and can control the country as a result, sounded like exactly the sort of novel I could devour. However the book was far from what I’d expected.
Mostly because there were so many avenues within the concept that I felt Vyleta failed to utilize. The plot, though still engrossing and original, ebbed through many slow pacing digressions and stayed very contained within the schoolboys and their friendship. For instance when Thomas and Charlie go to visit Lord and Lady Naylor, the chapters drag through their days exploring the manor house. The tension finally ignites with the surprise arrival of Julius, Thomas’s school antagonist, but sadly the action doesn’t really kick off until quite far into the story, which really impeded my enjoyment.
Smoke recounts from the perspectives of a wide series of characters, from main voices to very minor, one-scene faces, and this was one of the novels winning aspects. Livia, Thomas’s distant cousin, unfolds one of the perspectives I particularly found alluring. Her romantic relationship with both Charlie and Thomas sparked a fire of excitement and turmoil into the book, allowing Vyleta to cleverly subvert the age-old trope of the high-class lady falling for the bad boy. Eventually, in the novels concluding scene, Livia takes both of their hands and walks into the streets of London, refusing to choose which man she can love.
Yet even more intriguing that the love triangle born from Livia’s interjection was the morally ambiguous role of Lady Naylor. During Smoke Vyleta’s characters constantly walk the murky grey line of right and wrong, enough so that we are never truly certain who the real villians are. Everyone seems to have a noble purpose that drives them to commit dark deeds, and amid the toxic world of Smoke this vague lawfullness is as enticing as the concept.
Overall, Smoke introduces an enigmatic, dark vision of London that tugs at the imagination long after the dust has cleared. Vyleta writes with such vivid description and ease that the words almost envelop you in a cloud of smoke themselves.
Rating: 2.5/5⭐️
With love,
Brandon
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