Dark Hygge

Reviewed by Lauren Kay

Harry potter fanfiction. Fanfiction! I would have been impressed if it was mostly grammatically correct and managed to keep my attention at all. But once again, in the most astonishing way, this book blew away all expectations and cleaved itself a spot in my list of favorite pieces of literature of all time. I treasure the times in life where I’m left awestruck like this.

This book takes place in a universe in which the Order of the Phoenix loses the war against Voldemort, and Harry Potter is dead. Hermoine is the center of our story now, she has just undergone 16 months of sensory deprivation as a prisoner to Umbridge. She has been brought out of storage because Voldemort enacted a magical repopulation program and she is chosen to be part of it, specifically assigned to Voldemort’s most feared executioner, The High Reeve. Very purposely handmaid’s tale-esque.

Delivered to his doorstep, the High Reeve is none other than Draco Malfoy, as cruel, ruthless, and deadly as he’s ever been. Part of the reason for her assignment to him is that she cannot remember certain events of the war. They searched her mind and her memories are sealed behind impenetrable magic walls. It is thought that a magical pregnancy will erode those walls and help her remember these details for the Dark Lord. Her mind must constantly be checked for progress by a skilled “legilimens”, which Draco in fact is. The first volume of this focuses on her adjustment to speaking again, adjusting to the lack of magic caused by her metal manacles, and enduring what is required of the High Reeve to do to her… (this book is very dark) All while trying to remember what happened just before her capture, before Draco invades her mind and sees for himself.

The next volume is a record-scratch/rewind to over 40 chapters of flashbacks in which the story goes wide screen and we understand so. much. more. We understand her place in the order. We understand what caused the rift between her and Harry and Ron that she references in the starting chapters. We see the choices she made that started a chain reaction of heart-stopping events that lead us back to the present day in her servitude to Draco. and by the time you get there, you see everything differently. It doesn’t become better because of what you learned, but all the more heart-breaking. She realizes that what she forgot was a mission, she had a goal and she must still complete that with the time she has left before Voldemort runs out of patience…

Senlinyu crafts a gut-wrenchingly beautiful story about war, self-sacrifice, and love as a mode of survival amongst cruelty. Her depiction of Hermoine is nuanced and multi-faceted, capturing a bookish intelligent girl who becomes hardened by the horrors that she’s seen and is pushed into the morally grey out of necessity. The author makes no excuses for Draco’s actions, but crafts such a compelling character that you’re dying to find out why he’s doing what he’s doing. You will close the book deeply caring for both of these characters despite what they’ve done. I’m not skilled enough to try and nitpick any weaknesses with this book, it felt like there weren’t any. I was glued to my kindle the entire time, devouring this. I was fully immersed. I was not the same person after reading this.

Five stars. I don’t say that lightly.