The West Passage | Review

Ding, Dong the Lady of Grey is dead! Now what? The West Passage by Jared Pechaček takes readers on a journey alongside Pell and Kew as they navigate through the Palace full of grotesque and whimsical creatures.

The West Passage marks Jared Pechaček’s first novel; a dark fantasy adventure filled with eldritch elements, this third person novel where numerous scenes had weird activities occur all of a sudden. The descriptions to some of these characters require much imagination – they are indeed unique.

This dark fantasy novel revolves around a massive palace which features several towers surrounding it. Each of these towers have their own communities built around them: Grey Tower, Black Tower, Yellow Tower, Red Tower, and Blue House. Black Tower rules them all. Within these tower communities sits a “Lady” who oversees the civilians of that particular section of the palace.

Protagonists Pell (also known as Yarrow Seventy Six as the book progresses) and Kew go on a quest throughout the Palace to notify Black Tower, the Lady of Grey has passed. The absence of a matriarch leaves Grey Tower in a state of disorder, while the West Passage is unprotected with no Guardian. On top of that, some beast is making its way towards the Palace.

Following Pell and Kew’s journey throughout, the reader learns more about the Palace’s surroundings and its inhabitants. Surprisingly, no one leaves nor exits the Palace. So the Palace’s population is dwindling and the reader senses this as both Kew and Pell leave Grey Tower on their journey to Black Tower.

One praise I do give this book are the character descriptions. The characters in this book are beyond your imagination – literally! For instance, the Obsidian Lady’s head, “…was a cube of some dark substance like a talon, and many yellow eyes opened in its sides…her shoulders sprouted beneath them, leading to three arms, though one was severed just above the elbow and capped with chased gold”.

The plot build seems non-existent for this novel. The story consists of some basic ideas: the Palace needs to be saved, and the Beast has to be stopped. But there is no sense of urgency within the novel itself. There’s no sequence of events throughout the book that shape the broader narrative, not many events causing and affecting each other. Most events that happen throughout the book don’t have a purpose behind them.

For example, when Pell sees the random light that seems to be able to see her, she freaks out and the ape ends up approaching close to her to make sure she is okay. Then Tertius ends up killing the ape?! I would think as scenes such as this one occur and the book progresses, this traumatic event affects her character development. This did not seem to be the case. Pell feels horrible but i felt rushed into the Lady of Yellow calling and forcing Pell to see her.

The character names don’t seem personal. For instance, Black Tower seems to resemble a beehive structure, and the civilians do not have unique identities associated with an individual name. Instead, their names all start with Robin and are part of a numbering sequence. So we have Robin One, Robin Fifteen, etc. This makes it difficult to differentiate the characters and form a connection to them.

Overall, I would give The West Passage a 3 out of 5 rating. While the story had many creative characters and an interesting setting, I felt there was no purpose. Sure the Palace is in danger and a Beast is coming but that is all the reader knows. For those readers who love going for the ride in a story with no clear destination, this book is definitely for you.