Under the Pendulum Sun

Subtle and enthralling, UNDER THE PENDULUM SUN is the story of a young woman who follows her missionary brother to the lands of the fae, only to discover that the truth hurts more than any lie.

With a slight grin that never reaches its eyes, this book whispers, “I’m not trapped here with you, you’re trapped here with me.” It’s a mostly quiet story which has some elements of horror based around a visitor’s everyday routines under the inconstant light of the pendulum sun in the lands of the fae. It runs on conversation, small moments, and fridge-horror realizations as slowly learning what this place is casts a new light on everything we’ve seen done there. 

The world-building is deep and beautiful. It’ll definitely help to have some familiarity with some version of the christian bible and various apocrypha, but their use and most references are contextualized and explained very well within the story so it should make sense without that. It mostly adds poignancy, and gets to the heart of some scenes faster if you already know the passages and parables being referenced. The setting and various denizens are slowly revealed as the story strolls along, saving wonders for calm moments of revelation.

Brief warning about triggering tropics: <spoiler>Due to a historical connection between descriptions of changelings and autistic people, the depiction of changelings in this book may be triggering to some readers. The book does not address autism specifically, but the particular list of "what makes a changeling inhuman" in this book has a high degree of overlap with allistic descriptions of autism and autistic people, and actively triggers disassociation in some of the characters. I don't know if the parallels were intended, but they are uncomfortable, especially given the fates of the characters involved.</spoiler>

Not... really sure what I just read?

So, the premise of this book, on one level, is "Missionaries go to spread the word of God to fairyland." And obviously, this is one of those horrifyingly bad ideas on the order of the white dad going down to check the sound in the basement alone, but also, like basement!dad, it has its own sort of logic that necessitates it. If you believe in the religious premise, and if you have fairyland, then fairyland requires god, obviously.

And at first this book reminded me of annihilation. A woman, Catherine, goes into Fairyland, to look for her brother, Laon Helstone, and find out why his letters have stopped. Like [b:Annihilation|17934530|Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1403941587s/17934530.jpg|24946895], Catherine is searching for the meaning of her loved one's disappearance in a place that is devoid of/destabilizes meaning.

(Also, clearly, something else is going on, because what kind of name is Laon Helstone?)

In Fairyland, she finds a strange house named Gehenna (also, what kind of name, etc?), the changeling woman who loves him, a goblin who is the mission's only successful convert, and her brother, strangely tormented. It's Gothic, but not. Fairyland defies all physical laws, but also social and ethical laws, and Catherine can only search for the truth even though she suspects it is terrible.

And then, on the other hand: Okay, my grandparents where literally evangelical missionaries. Well-meaning people who went to foreign lands, learned their language, talked about god, and served a colonial agenda. This book... sort of inhabits that space? In a [b:House of Leaves|24800|House of Leaves|Mark Z. Danielewski|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1403889034s/24800.jpg|856555] kind of way?

There's a twist half way through that I sort of saw coming and then a twist at the end that I spent the last third of the book waiting for, but that I also do not... what. WHAT DID I READ? I DON'T GET IT? WHY DID IT FEEL QUEER? AM I JUST A SAD QUEER WHO READS EVERYTHING WITH SUBTEXT TURNED UP TOO HIGH? WHAT IS SIN? WHAT IS SOUL? IS MISSIONARY WORK "GOOD"? HALP.

Even if you share my reservations on stories told in first person, what Jeannette Ng has crafted here is excellent and well worth reading.

The narrative leans far more heavily on Christian theology than I'd imagined it would, which probably says more about the limits of my imagination than of the author's skill, since it says right on the cover that it is indeed a story about missionaries!
I had assumed it would deal more with Arcadia, rather than the faith of the missionaries visiting there, but as with all fairy-tales, the true story lies in the magical world's impact upon us, rather than our impact on it. Like a true gothic novel of the period, it also dwells far more on the existential crises of the characters than in any visceral action of the fae. I can understand why the back cover might shy away from those particular disclosures, because in the abstract that probably sounds boring, but in the actual expression of those ideas, it certainly isn't.

Under the Pendulum Sun feels like the previously undiscovered work of some Bronte sister that had stumbled onto a story with surprisingly modern pacing. It feels strangely undated to read, fitting neatly as neither an actual gothic novel, nor as one for our own period, but I felt that gave the narrator a special realism: we saw the story entirely through her eyes, and so the story was presented as she might have seen it, alien to both Victorian and modern readers alike.

Under the Pendulum Sun is the story of sinners, pressed into a world where maybe those sins don't count the same way, among creatures who may or may not even have souls to save. It's far more about their own less-than-savory failings than it is the mysteries of the fae, even as those mysteries surround them. It's a surprisingly spiritual story, which greatly lends to its period authenticity. Still, the mysteries of the fae swirl all around, often literally, just beyond the walls of the castle where most of the action is set. The mysterious wonders of the fae sparkle, from their clockwork sun, to the hidden delights of the goblin-market, to the majestic uniqueness of the land-bound "sea whale".

The world glimpsed here is unique, and the story is satisfyingly self-contained while still leaving the reader to consider marvels of the fae that spill beyond the pages presented. It's a very satisfying read, and while not of the faith myself, I imagine that the theological musings presented would add yet another dimension for those who are. I greatly enjoyed the book and will look forward to the author's next.