The Betrayals

Three years ago, I read and absolutely loved The Binding by Bridget Collins. It is one of my all-time favorite books. So I was excited when the author’s second adult novel, The Betrayals, was announced. Though I’ve had it for the past year, I’m only now finally getting to it as part of my Dark Academia reading challenge. It’s pretty different from The Binding, but still has that magic and intrigue that I fell in love with, too.

Summary

Years ago, Léo Martin was a student at the exclusive, all-male academy called Montverre. While there, he competed against—and eventually befriended—fellow classmate Carfax. They worked on the grand jeu, a game combining music, art, poetry, math, and philosophy. But when tragedy struck, Léo abandoned the grand jeu for a career in politics.

Now Léo has been exiled from politics and sent back to Montverre. A lot has changed since he was a student: Now the top position in the school is held by a woman, Claire Dryden, otherwise known as the Magister Ludi. Why does she look so familiar? Why does she seem to hate Léo so much? And what really happened all those years ago?

Review

I absolutely adored Bridget Collins’s previous novel, The Binding, so I had high expectations going into The Betrayals. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had confidence in her writing and storytelling. This is inspired by Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game; I haven’t read that, so I can’t say how the two compare, but this does stand on its own.

Like her previous novel, The Betrayals has a similarly clandestine tone, but is otherwise quite different. It’s less fantasy and less youthful, instead existing in a vaguely speculative historical setting reminiscent of WWII-era Europe. It’s unclear where exactly it’s set… possibly Switzerland? The novel also runs in two timelines, one in the 1926-1927 academic year and one in the late 1930s.

At its heart, The Betrayals is a dark academia book in which the characters work towards something called the grand jeu. Some reviewers have bemoaned the lack of explanation around what the grand jeu is, but I think we’re given enough to enjoy the book. It’s a game that combines several academic pursuits (from music to math to philosophy), a game that requires years of training to truly master. I can imagine it well enough, but it’s not the real point of this book. If anything, the murkiness surrounding the grand jeu actually adds to the novel’s overall vibe.

And indeed, this is a very atmospheric novel. Bridget Collins has a way with language that is mesmerizing; her writing is poetic, but not quite “purple prose,” thankfully. There are four point-of-view characters (and I’ll get to the latter three in a moment), but the girl known only as The Rat has by far the most atmospheric chapters. They’re experiential and dreamy. Her brief chapters are the most separate from the main plot, but they add to it in their own strange way. I like what we finally learn about her by the end of the book.

The bulk of The Betrayals follows three other POVs: young Léo when he was a student, current 32-year-old Léo, and Claire Dryden. Léo is the main character here, though he’s not particularly likable. He’s prone to meanness, misogyny, and bitterness. He has his good qualities too, but they’re frequently overshadowed by his negativity and pugnacious ways. Even so, I enjoyed his younger self’s first-person chapters the most; they’re the most fast-paced here.

The Betrayals highlights academic achievement, which is something I always love. I was a nerdy student back in school, so I can relate! It also explores sexism in school, especially with Claire’s parts.

Another theme I loved is the romantic relationships that arise. I shan’t spoil too much here. Suffice it to say, Léo could be labeled as bisexual or pansexual. But do any of his love interests reciprocate his feelings? Especially when he’s such a jerk to them all the time!

Politics, religion, abuse, and big secrets abound in The Betrayals. It ties together a lot of different themes, and yet they work well together, even within such an arcane story. It gets an open-ended close, and I personally wouldn’t turn up my nose at a sequel!

Final Thoughts

As unusual and esoteric as The Betrayals is, I loved it. Even with its morally gray characters, it’s hypnotizing and imaginative, combining several themes that I enjoy. It doesn’t outshine Bridget Collins’s previous novel, but it does uphold her standing as one of my favorite newer authors. I already look forward to her next novel, but in the meantime, I’ll be reading the short stories she contributed to both The Haunting Season and The Winter Spirits.

Get the Book

You can buy The Betrayals here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins
Audience	Adult
Genre	Historical Fiction; Magical Realism
Setting	Europe
Number of Pages	400
Format I Read	Hardcover
Original Publication Date	May 18, 2021 (US)

Official Summary

“Dizzyingly wonderful . . . a perfectly constructed work of fiction, with audacious twists . . . Collins plays her own game here with perfect skill.” — The Times (UK) 

An intricate and utterly spellbinding literary epic brimming with enchantment, mystery, and dark secrets from the highly acclaimed author of the #1 international bestseller The Binding.

If your life was based on a lie, would you risk it all to tell the truth?

At Montverre, an ancient and elite academy hidden high in the mountains, society’s best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu—the great game—an arcane and mysterious competition that combines music, art, math, poetry, and philosophy. Léo Martin once excelled at Montverre but lost his passion for scholarly pursuits after a violent tragedy. He turned to politics instead and became a rising star in the ruling party, until a small act of conscience cost him his career. Now he has been exiled back to Montverre, his fate uncertain.

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.

As the legendary Midsummer Game approaches—the climax of the academy’s year—long-buried secrets rise to the surface and centuries-old traditions are shockingly overturned.

A highly imaginative and intricately crafted literary epic, The Betrayals confirms Bridget Collins as one of the most inventive and exquisite new voices in speculative fiction.