Fire, Fakery and Total Social Failure: A Review of ‘The Phoenix Keeper’ by S. A. MacLean

• The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. Maclean

• Published by Orbit Books

• Fantasy, Romance, Cozy, LGBTQ+

• Synopsis

  As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila's childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There's just one glaring caveat: her zoo's breeding program hasn't functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighboring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.
  
  But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons... Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. But mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo's most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.
  
  Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the face of a goddess who's convinced that Aila's beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than as a passive conservation exhibit. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila's success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job...
  
  She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species – and her love life – now rests on her shoulders.

“Falling in love never burned so bright”

This book is a romance. It’s right there on the cover. Someone thought carefully about the tagline for this novel and decided that the key takeaway was that there is kissing in it. Also phoenixes. Honestly, a better tag line of this book would have been “Can an introverted, socially awkward mess of a woman get past her bird obsession for long enough to forge a meaningful relationship?” But maybe that’s why I’m not a publisher.

My attitude probably seems quite negative, but I actually enjoyed this book and Aila as a character. I just don’t think the romance is that key to the story, and some of the marketing material refers to a ‘soul-restoring queer romance’ which doesn’t really get rolling until the two-thirds mark after quote a long time spent on a romance that we all knew was going to fall by the way side. You are setting your readers up for disappointment when you do things like this. Luckily I was broadly in it for the fantasy creatures so I was going in with the correct mindset.

So if this book isn’t really a romance, what is it? It’s a cosy urban fantasy with a society that mirrors our own, except magical creatures exist and are integrated into how that society functions. This is a very low fantasy setting. There isn’t really magic to speak of that doesn’t come from the creatures. This simplifies the world building a lot, although MacLean does throw a lot of information about the broad geography and culture of this land which I found sort of slid over me for the most part. The creatures are very imaginative and there are some really unique creatures that I enjoyed learning about. It’s almost entirely set in a magical zoo so if that in any way sounds appealing, you will probably enjoy this.

It’s also a character driven novel. Aila suffers from social anxiety and a large part of the book is about her learning to overcome the challenges this provides her. I think it’s very likely she is neurodivergent in some fashion as well although this is never stated explicitly. As someone who is both neurodivergent and socially awkward, I personally found her journey to be both believable and healing. However, I think she will frustrate some readers. She comes across much younger than her late twenties and seems actively disdainful of people much of the time rather than anxious. She engages in a lot of selfish behaviour as well, which she does realise and seek to rectify but it’s quite painful watching her take her best friend for granted.

“They resumed their walk, Tanya with a thoughtful silence, Aila musing ways he could herself into a spectre and never have to interact with another human.”

The female friendship in this is delightful. Aila clearly cares for her bestie, Tanya, a lot and Tanya is hugely supportive of Aila and helps her manage her anxiety as much as possible. This wholesome friendship is slightly undercut by how Aila treats her other female colleague and ultimate love interest, Luciana. Aila’s thoughts about Luciana come off “not like other girls” at best and slightly misogynistic as worst. She’s critical of basic things like *checks notes* Luciana taking pride in her appearance and having a good stage presence. These two characters do have an antagonistic history. The romance is loosely an enemies to lovers trope although it’s more of a one sided college rivalry that Aila has held on to for ten years. Which is a perfectly normal thing to do of course.

Beyond that I did quite enjoy the romance. I liked that Aila’s early disdain for Luciana actually allowed her to be more herself when they were together which helped assuage a lot of her anxiety when it came to taking the next leap. I enjoyed learning more about Luciana alongside Aila although I couldn’t quite get over how often it was referred to that she smells like Mango. I was fully imagining a distracting level of fruit cocktail every time they interacted. They’re definitely cute together but I’m not sure it was fireworks… or even Phoenix fire.

“Insane and beautiful. What a combination. Luciana pinned her with a smirk, all confidence. All smug. As if she had every move planned out. Aila was never any good at chess.”

Other great characters include Aila’s parents who are refreshingly accepting of Aila’s quirks. It’s nice having a book MC who just has a healthy and normal relationship with her folks even though she is very different from them. Tanya’s boyfriend is a very minor character but also has a fun dynamic with Aila, and you can tell they have a history of friendship that comes across naturally in the text.

This is ultimately a slow paced, cozy good time following Aila engaging in a prolonged anxiety spiral and being a nerd about birds for 400 pages. There’s a very satisfying arc in here about Aila realising a childhood dream, succeeding professionally and growing as a person. I was rooting for her and watching her succeed felt quite gratifying. There was a lot of humour and heart, a pretty predictable villain and dragons and kelpies and birds, oh my. I personally enjoyed this one, but there might not be enough going on for more plot driven readers.

Recommended for: Horse Bird girls, Legends and Lattes fans, harbourers of secret zookeeper ambitions