Alchemy of a Blackbird

by Claire McMillan

For fans of The Age of Light and Z, a mystical, historical novel based on the true story of the twentieth century painters and occultists Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, each beginning as the muse of a famous lover and then breaking away to become an icon in her own right through a powerful friendship that springs from their connection to the tarot.

Desperate to escape the Nazis, painter Remedios Varo and her lover, poet Benjamin Peret, flee Paris for Villa Air Bel, a safe house for artists on the Riviera. Along with Max Ernst, Peggy Guggenheim, and others, the two anxiously wait for exit papers. As the months pass, Remedios begins to sense that the others don’t see her as a fellow artist; they have cast her in the stifling role of a surrealist ideal: the beautiful innocent. She finds a refuge in a mysterious bookshop, where she stumbles into a world of occult learning and intensifies an esoteric practice in the tarot that helps her light the bright fire of her creative genius.

When travel documents come through, Remedios and Benjamin flee to Mexico where she is reunited with friend and fellow painter Leonora Carrington. Together, the women tap their creativity, stake their independence, and each find their true loves. But it is the tarot that enables them to access the transcendent that lies on the other side of consciousness, to become the truest Surrealists of all.

From an author with “an enchanting, intoxicating voice” (Cristina Alger, author of The Darlings), Alchemy of a Blackbird is about a dynamic female friendship that became a historic artistic collaboration between two giants of the art world.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Art, Fantasy, Historical, France, Tarot

272 pages, Hardcover

First published July 11, 2023

About the author

Coffee first, Edith Wharton, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Pamela Colman Smith, Elisabeth Vigee LeBrun’s moonstone earrings, “Jack” Marvel Whiteside Parsons rockets, Ellen Olenska’s hampers of carnations, Nelson Rockefeller’s stargazer, Frederick Pope’s violin, Henry Winter’s books, Captain Frederick Wentworth’s letter, Clarissa Dalloway’s florist, Edward Rochester’s Newfoundland Pilot, Max de Winter’s Manderley, “I’m very fond of walking."

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The set of pictures in the Tarot cards were distantly descended from archetypes of transformation.'
—Carl Jung

While the popularity of the surrealists tends to minimize the achievements of women in the movement, painters Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington have long been my favorite artists and left a body of work and influence with the best of them. Springing from Dadaism, surrealism flourished between the world wars in Europe. The art form value expression over realism and was highly interpretable and symbolic, often thought of as a reaction as the social “rationalism” that descended into the horrors of 20th century warfare. ‘Surrealism is destructive,’ wrote Salvador Dalí, ‘but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision,’ and for artists like Varo and Carrington, tools such as the tarot became an exciting inspiration to guide their artistic visions. Drawing from the lives these two women and their shared love of tarot, Claire McMillan’s Alchemy of a Blackbird is a mystical romp through history to tell the tale of their ambition, passion, and friendship while living in Mexico and coming into their own as artists. A rather exciting and engaging journey of art, McMillan tightly winds biography with an exploration of the tarot cards that influenced them and threads a multitude of the other historical figures in their lives. Mostly told in third person, the narrative occasionally wheels into first person accounts from the various historical figures which can sometimes be distracting. While it can take a few liberties with their lives to streamline the story and Carrington often feels a bit of an accessory to the narrative, this was quite the fun and fascinating read. Full of mysticism and the marvels of art, Alchemy of a Blackbird is a portrait of women’s ambitions fighting to be heard under the oppressive and dismissive weight of men’s egos and the force of friendship that can guide them towards art, agency and achievement.

‘The tarot is like life…Like life, there is a random element to it, and like life, there is a synchronicity to it. And like life, what matters is the truth that can be glimpsed behind what is small and flimsy.’

This tale of ‘stray-dog artist types’ fleeing Europe during World War II and coming into their own while in Mexico began to take shape when author Claire McMillan first observed Remedios Varo’s 1961 painting La llamada (The Call). ‘I kind of needed to know everything about the person who painted this kind of portal of a picture,’ McMillan said in conversation with Ideastream Public Media and from her research she became enamoured with the friendship between Varo and Carrington.

La llamada from Remidios Varo

McMillan says she was also inspired by Varo’s success later in life after having struggled to find her way initially, something she deeply empathized with. ‘It wasn't really until she was grounded enough and settled enough that she could kind of let herself and her creativity off the leash a little bit and come into her own as a painter,’ McMillan says, ‘having to create space to make your own art is something we don't talk about enough, and how hard that can be.’ Her novel tells of Varo, struggling to stay afloat while in France painting reproductions or sometimes selling forgeries of famous Italian artists and feeling, like many other women in the surrealist movement, that their voices were drowned out by the surrealist men who didn’t value them. Eventually she and her lover, French Surrealist poet Benjamin Péret, flee the war for Mexico with the help of Mary Jayne Gold, an American heiress who helped artists flee Europe (I am particularly fascinated with her because her estate is in my city of Holland and she is buried only a few blocks from where I am typing this at the library). In Mexico City she finds herself continuously devalued by Péret until along comes Leonora Carrington, a woman she had previously met in Paris through André Breton, and the two begin a close friendship that would change their lives.

Leonora Carrington

Varo found surrealism to be an ‘expressive resting place within the limits of Cubism, and as a way of communicating the incommunicable.’ Inspired by the art of Hieronymus Bosch and the nightmarish worlds of Francisco Goya whom she channelled into her own work with influences of the dramatic compositions of painter El Greco, Varo created breathtaking art full of wonder and magic. There is a frequent motif in her work of being an outsider, often held in captivity by forces beyond her control and McMillan does an excellent job of portraying that in the novel as Varo and Carrington shared struggle allow them to refuse to merely be the muse for men such as their much older artist partners (Carrington was romantically involved with German painter and surrealist pioneer Max Ernst, a man over 20 years her senior, who left his wife for Carrington but would later marry Peggy Guggenheim in 1941).

Art by Remedios Varo

I rather enjoyed the connection to the tarot in this one, being a fan of tarot cards myself. Varo is gifted a deck by a bookseller and finds them to be a great source of inspiration as well as a mirror into her own soul to help guide her thoughts. I like how McMillan dispels the belief that someone must buy you a deck a cards and you shouldn’t obtain them yourself by tying it into the larger theme of patriarchal gatekeeping as explained by the woman who gives Varo her first cards:

‘This is a very old superstition, meant to keep women away from a source of knowing. Anyone who desires the knowledge of the tarot can buy a deck of cards for herself, can avail herself of that power.’

The pair often do tarot readings within the text for people and I enjoyed McMillan’s method of teaching the meanings behind the cards by associating various historical figures with the one-card pulls that Varo does for them. After each, the narrative drops into first-person for a moment to give an internal account on the scene. McMillan uses the tarot’s rich symbolism to add a wonderful texture to the novel and, in keeping with the words of A.E. Waite—a designer of the Rider-Waite deck with the art by Pamela “Pixie” Colman Smith” featured in the novel—that the symbolism connects to universal ideas that can help people unlock their consciousness and sift through the aspirations of the self. As Waite wrote:

‘The Tarot embodies symbolical presentations of universal ideas, behind which lie all the implicits of the human mind, and it is in this sense that they contain secret doctrine, which is the realization by the few of truths embedded in the consciousness of all.’

The scenes with reading can be a bit corny at times, but I quite enjoyed them and this would be a great book for inspiring someone to get into tarot of the symbolism of the art (if so, check out Tarot - The Library of Esoterica which is a great resource on the art of tarot). I really enjoy how much tarot symbolism makes it into the art by Remedios Varo and while she only ever made one tarot card—the Star, which I’ve seen at the Art Institute of Chicago—Carrington actually designed a deck of all the major arcana:

Selection of the Major Arcana by Leonora Carrington


The Star, oil on bone, by Remedios Varo

Art and ambition come alive through friendship in Alchemy of a Blackbird and Claire McMillan delivers a rather engaging historical novel. Fans of the surrealists, of the tarot, of art, or just anyone who enjoys a good historical novel will get plenty out of this one. Plus you’ll want to check out all the art of Varo and Carrington, which you definitely should because they are fantastic.

3.5/5

‘The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs.’
—A.E. Waite

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This historical novel is based on the true story of the painters and occultists Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. Both women had to break away from their famous partners in order to become icons in their own right. What connected them were the tarot cards, which are the driven force in this story.

France, 1939. At the International Exposition of Surrealists in Paris, paintings of Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington hang near each other. That’s how the two women meet and become friends. Leonora ignites Remedios’ interest in tarot cards. They take lessons together. But with Nazis approaching Paris, they flee separately to the French Riviera in hopes of escaping the country.

In Mexico, both women reunite, and continue their passion for tarot cards, which they feel helps them reach their full potential.

This story involves a dynamic female friendship and collaboration between two great artists. They break the shackles from their famous men and become the two greatest collaborators of the surrealist movement.

It is not a straight forward storytelling. Within a chapter there is a card, and under the name of the card is the name of the person relating the story in the following pages. It took me a few chapters to figure it out. At first it takes away from the flow, once, I figured it out, I was engaged by the additional voices in the story.

It’s interesting to get the backstory of the tarot cards. At the same time, I wished there was a bit more of the effect of the cards on their painting. Their artistic side is a minor part in this story comparing to tarot. The big part of the story is the self-discovery of Remedios Varo, which involves the friendship with another great artist and the tarot cards.

Overall, it is a fascinating story and the way it is presented is very unique.

Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Art is for the things we don’t have words for.’

This is stated more than once in Claire McMillan’s historical fictionalized biography of artist Remedios Varo and her life among the other artists and cultural icons, especially of the surrealist movement, caught up in the madness and fear which engulfed Paris and France as the Nazi army advanced toward the city. Not long into the novel, Remedios, her lover Benjamin Peret, and others are forced to escape for Marseilles where they will stay until they can find some way to leave France. Here they connect with Varian Fry at Villa Air Bel which has been serving as a safe house for artists that Fry is working to help out of Europe. During this time at Marseilles we see the Remedios renew and strengthen the connection to the Tarot that helps structure this book and her life. Here too, Remedios learns of her friend, and fellow artist, Leonora Carrington’s placement in a mental hospital in Spain. The table has been set and everyone is in place and about to begin their new lives.

Considering that I knew nothing of Varo or a Arrington or their art before reading this book and only limited information about the other artists, thinkers and writers involved, I found this story very interesting and the structure used, original and in keeping with Remedios Varo’s apparent philosophy of life. The story is essentially told through Remedios’s point of view, while periodically we hear from other important characters who are also identified by tarot cards, with appropriate descriptions. We readers receive a brief introduction into some of the cards’s meanings.

Following the transformation of an artist from someone’s muse to becoming an independent creator is a fascinating process, and I believe McMillan has fashioned a wonderful novel in Alchemy of a Blackbird. I know that I want to find whatever of Varo’s art may be available to view online after the descriptions I’ve just read.

I recommend this book to those interested in art, women in art. This is fiction, but based in fact.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced e-copy of this book. This review is my own.

[Karla Huebner]

I could have sworn I'd reviewed this right after finishing reading, but apparently not, or I dreamt that I reviewed it. Which is a pity because I could have gone into more detail... In any case, as I'm a scholar of surrealism, I was eager to read this and see how the author worked the famous friendship of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo into a novel. (That also makes me a somewhat dangerous reviewer.)

From what I know of the two artists, the novel is well grounded in facts, and the author does clarify some of the ways in which she adjusted the facts or added characters for whom there is no specific historical evidence. I always appreciate when novelists writing about historical figures let us know where they've used a bit of dramatic license.

The novel focuses on Remedios Varo, beginning during her relatively brief Paris period, and taking us through her wartime escape to Marseilles, days with Varian Fry's group of fleeing surrealists, and then follows her life in Mexico, which is where she and Leonora Carrington developed their remarkable friendship (in the book, the two are already friends to some extent in Paris, which is not impossible). In its structure, the novel makes use of tarot cards, which are assigned to individual significant characters, through whose eyes we see aspects of the story unfold. While initially this threw me just slightly, I rapidly caught on and enjoyed the various perspectives and how they were linked to specific tarot cards. Tarot cards are, indeed, an important thread throughout the book, as Varo acquires a set, learns how to use it, and several sets make their appearance throughout, including the famous set designed by the surrealists while they were trapped in Marseilles awaiting passage out of Europe.

One of the main themes here is Varo's arduous journey toward becoming a confident and major artist. She's depicted as young and lacking confidence for much of the novel, living in the shadow of her lover Benjamin Péret and not highly valued by some of the male or even female surrealists. There is some truth to this depiction. She was younger than most of the men, and during the 1930s and early 40s most male surrealists were still inclined to view the women in their midst through the concept of the femme=enfant, which some of the women (including Carrington) did seem to embody. The men were, however, becoming more aware of women as creative figures in their own right, partly as a result of so many remarkable women joining the Paris circle or even being co-founders of surrealist groups in other countries such as England and Czechoslovakia. Re Varo herself, it is certainly true that her major works all date from her Mexican period. Yet it is not as if she arrived in Paris as a young waif. Varo had studied in her native Spain, where she received her diploma in 1930 and married her first husband Gerardo Lizárraga that same year. In Barcelona, she was involved in the surrealist-adjacent group Logicofobista prior to meeting Péret and moving to Paris. I suspect that some of her lack of prominence within Paris surrealism was due to the perilous period during which she was part of the group, namely during the Spanish Civil War and the early days of World War II.

I wonder too whether in Mexico Varo was actually shyer or less confident than her younger friend Carrington (scholars more familiar with the personalities of the two might have something to say about that). Both were refugees, but Carrington arrived in Mexico not all that long after experiencing psychiatric hospitalization and was soon pregnant with her eldest son, whereas Varo was a native speaker of Spanish and arrived with her existing partner Péret. In any case, however, it's indisputable that Varo and Carrington became very close friends and investigated both serious and playful aspects of the occult, which the novel covers.

Considering this as a novel, without requiring it to be 100% historically accurate or a biography of Varo, I found this to be an engaging tale of a 20th century female artist's often difficult life and significant friendship with another female artist, spiced with their explorations of the occult. While there are things that I would have liked to see developed in more depth (but that would make it a different book), I enjoyed reading it and am sure many others will too.

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claire McMillan's book Alchemy of a Blackbird sweeps a reader around the world - from Paris to the Riviera, to Mexico in the wake of Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, two non-fictional beings who lived and breathed at a critical moment in history. Their friendship was the connection that bound them through years of war, art, men, magical sensitivities, and growth toward their own artistic goals - known and discovered. Armed with brushes, paint and a shared interest in the occult and tarocchi (tarot cards) they made their way forward, keeping track of each other, as friends do..

Based on the lives of these two women who were in and amongst that group of artists, writers and poets who morphed into the dada movement, dove into surrealism and moved together, mixed and mingled until they all fell into different worlds, this author captures a time with a compelling touch. Her writing sparks with sensual references that hit home with this reader.

Other celebrities met within the covers of this book are Max Ernst, Benjamin Peret, Peggy Guggenheim, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jean Nicolle, Pixie Colman Smith, and even William Butler Yeats.

There were moments that caused me to read and re-read - the one that's going to stick forever is a moment when Remedios wants to show her friend one of her favorite things to do to feel better about life. She takes Leonora to a mercado stall in the market district of the Mexican town, and buys a raven (the raven coming at a very high price - that she doesn't haggle down) that is frantic in a cage and two crows jammed into a box. She with the boxed crows, and Leonora carrying the caged raven walk little ways out of the bustle of town, and find a place to sit. Remedios opens the box, releasing the crows. Now she can breathe, she says. All the while she is talking about being blocked in her art, and how she works at finding ways to remove those blocks, and this is one of them. Leonora experiences her moment when she opens the raven's cage. My question, which had been present since the book began, is now brilliantly satisfied as I, with these two women watched the three black specks chase their freedom into the blue sky. It was a lovely moment.

"That's all magic is. The focus of will and intention applied to possibilities."

*A sincere thank you to Claire McMillan, Atria Books, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*

[Yelda Basar Moers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel of the tarot, but really it is a novel about the friendship of Remedios Varo, a famous surrealist painter, and her friend Leonora Carrington, a fellow surrealist painter. They blossom together as painters and artists and their synergy is beautiful to behold. Their story begins when they escape Europe during World War II to Mexico, where they settle among a group of other expat artists. All sorts of other famous artist are in the story, Peggy Guggenheim, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Andre Breton, among others. Through the tarot, which both female artists use, we also see Remedios’s heroine journey. I love how the writer, who’s given us a well crafted and beautifully told story, weaves the tarot into the narrative. I found this an original novel and what I would call an artisan historical novel, on the shorter side and exquisitely written with patience and care. I know a lot about the tarot and have been giving readings to friends and family for over thirty years and it’s clear that the author also knows it well too!

[Sherry Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really frustrating book to review because I enjoy the premise and concept of it so much, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I'm something of a surrealist artist enjoyer myself, and though my hyperfixation has always been Rene Magritte, the atmosphere of those 20th century Parisian cafes where the surrealists gathered has been the subject of my own writing as well. That makes this book pretty exciting to read, with the amount of artists being namedropped making this the MCU Avengers of surrealism.

McMillan clearly has cool ideas, the outline of a great character arc sketched out here. But the problem is that because of the shorter length and her own style choices, the writing constantly errs on telling and not showing, leaving emotional payoffs and conversations hollow and distant. The novel suffers from what I suspect is too much projection on the author’s part, where some ideas and descriptions read as far too modern sounding for the mouthpieces they come from. Remedios' arc is all about discovering how to stand in her own right, to be able to create freely rather than be constrained by self-doubt and the limiting gendered notions of talent, but because so many historical milestones have to be covered, everything is glossed over without detail and with a generic feminist coating.

The author has this unique structure of splicing each chapter with Remedios in third person, and then a side, outside character POV in first person. I understand the desire for an outside perspective, especially to describe Remedios' art, but this came across as a way to time skip and tell rather than show developments. Since Remedios is so distant and wracked with doubt about her artistic abilities, the outsider POV becomes a way to describe her as the author sees her, something that could be interesting but I think ends up being a crutch. It also leaves the reader feeling hollow, as McMillan repeatedly takes us out of the moment to paint this story in broad strokes. We are told this and that happened in the span of a paragraph, reflect on this or that, but never actually shown the event as it goes on. For example, Remedios is arrested and spends months in prison, all of which happens off screen. It’s a traumatic event that clearly affects her, and this entire experience is told through a detached outsider perspective. This entire novel is like something interesting being dangled just outside of the reader’s grasp, and you’re left only with the disappointment over what you don’t have.

The author also clearly has such little interest in developing Remedios’ relationships with the men in her life that it's hard to feel any satisfaction when Remedios casts them off. They're all incredibly flat, constructions that exist to hinder her rather than to be any real characters, and even then we are mostly told that they hold her back, rather than being shown it (in Jean Nicolle's case). Her relationship with Benjamin Peret is the most developed, and even then, we barely get any sense of the supposed passion and artistic intellectualism that drew them together. In fact, by consequence of the author's reluctance to write these relationships, it actually makes Remedios and Leonora Carrington's relationship seem queer as hell, as they are the only pair that I am convinced like each other and enjoy each others company. (The same actually, to a lesser extent, with Benjamin and Andre Breton, solely because his and Remedios' relationship is so dispassionate that the ways in which his and Andre's relationship is described comes across as unintentionally homoerotic.) McMillan admits as much in her author's notes that Andre Breton and the male surrealists may have been represented worse than they were historically, and that's alright, it's what a fictionalized account is meant to be. But I came away annoyed that the men were all so one dimensional for the sole purpose of getting the feminist themes across--I think it would've been a much more interesting and ultimately feminist narrative to explore both how these men could be so brilliant and also ignorant of women's issues. I wished for a genuine, good faith engagement with the radical surrealist leftism, as the movement was so inherently political, while also emphasizing how gender can be ignored in this discussion without an intersectional focus. A true reflection of the nuances of gender inequality and its pervasiveness within society, rather than caricatures to knock down.

For what it's worth, I did have a good time reading most of this. It reminded me how much I enjoy art history, and I feel invited to read more historical accounts of the surrealists.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

DISCLAIMER: I acquired an ARC edition of this novel from my employer (I work at a bookstore) for free and am reviewing the ARC version - not the final sale copy. My acquisition of this ARC does not impact my review at all.

—

This is an excellent historical fiction novel with a very engaging format. Each chapter follows the story of Remedios Varo, but is broken by the image of a tarot card, it’s meaning, and the first person perspective of whoever the card is meant to represent. It’s unique and enjoyable, though I can see how some readers may find this confusing. I think it is very appropriate for the fictionalized account of an artist of the surrealist circles.

I love that Remedios is the focus of this novel - she and Carrington are not very well known to me - and I studied art history for two years and spent quite a bit of time on the surrealist movement. That said, this novel highlights their voices in a way I very much enjoyed and found touching.

So what is it about? The novel centers on the artistic and at times literal journey of Remedios Varo, a Spanish artist who was part of the surrealist circles of Paris at the outbreak of WWII, her flight to Mexico, and her self actualizing growth as a woman embracing herself, her power, and her artistry.

The novel bills itself in some ways as the story of two women - Remedios and Leonora - friends and artists together who were influenced by the tarot and studied occultism.

Unfortunately this is one aspect of the novel that felt mildly lacking - Leonora’s and Remedios’ friendship did not feel quite like the anchor it should have been in this novel. It WAS present, and I loved what was there, but I honestly wanted more.

Wanting more is really my take away from the book - I wanted more of Remedios’ life before the outbreak of WWII, I wanted more of her time in prisoned for her association with her lover, I wanted more of her time in Marseilles and even more of her time in Mexico, more of her relationship with Carrington, and more of her relationship with the man she ends up with. The skeleton is all there - all of these aspects are present - but they do not feel fleshed out to my satisfaction. There is scant meat on these bones.

This book in the state I read it in was around 270 pages. I would have liked it to have had another 100.


Enough of my negatives, however. Let me sing it’s praises where it is deserved: I adore McMillan’s utilization of the tarot in this book. It’s very well executed and makes for a wonderful lens through which to consider this story and its characters. It is unique and refreshing to see the subject of occultism treated this way in a novel.

The themes of the book - the transformative power of friendship between women, the alchemy of artistic expression, the love and longing to be seen and understood - they’re beautifully expressed in McMillan’s writing.

I did genuinely love this book, despite my quibbles. It is a testament to Claire McMillan’s excellent ability to craft a story that I left it wanting more - to spend more time with Remedios and Leonora, because their journeys were wonderfully done.

[Caitlin (CMAReads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Atria for the free book.
This is a character driven story about Remedios Varo, a painter from the surrealism movement. I liked getting a glimpse into how this movement was interrupted by WWII and how these artists chose to cope and continue their work. I also found the parts about the tarot and unique chapter structure super interesting. I did find this story to be a bit slow. I wished some parts had a little more time spent on them. But I learned a lot and was done many internet rabbit holes learning about Remedios and her friends. I also was so impressed with her paintings.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review TK

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The group of artists who made France their home during and between the wars is a very well-documented bunch, and one that has been greatly overused in Historical Fiction. So my first order of business here is to applaud McMillan for actually finding a new and intriguing angle on the matter, largely by focusing on little-known and under-appreciated women in this circle whose stories are not popular in the zeitgeist or overused in fiction, especially compared to, let’s say, anyone who at some point married or had an affair with Ernest Hemingway.

The result feels like a fresh look at a familiar and welcome subject and time period, and McMillian’s smooth and atmospheric prose reads more like Literary Fiction than most Historical Fiction, which often feels formulaic and thin.

Multiple POVs always make me nervous, but this book is blessedly free of the problem that plagues many novels that use this, which is that they all sound the same and are difficult to distinguish. Here we get a distinct set of characters, each with their own unique voice.

And as someone who is always keen to read any novel that incorporates tarot, I was excited to find that this book makes much better use of it than most, and it makes for a lovely addition to the novel that enhances not just the plot but the figurative setting and feel of the story as well.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish that I could give more than five stars. I loved everything about this book — the way that tarot was woven so cleverly and seamlessly throughout; the the information about surrealism; the relationship between Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, and, most especially, the inner perspective of Remedios Varo as she struggled to make her art. I recommended the book to three friends. Each of us has read it, and loved it, in under two days.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling narration of Remedios Varo’s life! I’m always so excited when I find something about her because she’s one of my favorite surrealists, and there’s almost nothing written about her… I loved how McMillan’s novel focused on Varo’s relationship with Tarot — I knew it was a fascination of Varo’s but especially loved the descriptive/metaphorical work McMillan did to make this aspect of her life fully come alive.

That said — I enjoyed it but I didn’t think the book was written super well overall. I get that “faction” is more of a genre now, but I couldn’t get past how the writing just felt like info-dumping rather than inventive storytelling. The parts did sparkle for me were mostly non-narrative descriptive sequences near the end of the book where Tarot’s influence on Varo’s perspective on the world becomes more apparent. Definitely helped me make connections between surrealism and Tarot that I hadn’t made before.

[Crystal Reaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this. When I got it from the library I had no idea the characters were based on real people - that made the story even more engaging. And the fact that I could see images of the art work online was very cool.

[Ann Dudzinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alchemy of a Blackbird is based on the true story of surrealist artist Remedios Varo. It follows her 1939 escape from the Nazis in Paris, to tense days in Marseilles awaiting papers to flee France, to the rebuilding of her life, and reclaiming of her art, in Mexico.

I love historical fiction that features real people, and the inclusion of the occult and tarot made this a must-read for me, even though I typically avoid WWII literature (the market is oversaturated, IMO).

The story itself was interesting, but overall this book fell short of my expectations. While the occult was featured, it was more of a plot device, dropped in here and there to show the reader that Remedios worked with the divine but never really delved into. I think that had to do with the point of view, which was very removed from Remedios.

Each chapter began with Remedios in third person, then about two thirds of the way through, switched to whatever other character happened to be in that chapter in first person. The point of those inserts, which were jarring for me to read in the first few chapters, seemed a device to give another perspective on Remedios and the situation at hand. Unfortunately, they simply served to pull me out of the immediate story. There were so many historic names and dates dropped into some of them that it felt like the author simply wanted to use all of her research notes. I think the story would have been better served to have Remedios in first person and cut the other peripheral characters’ sections.

The occult is deep and the point of the book was to show Remedios’s transformation, yet the author never got into her head or heart. In the end, I felt like I was told a story instead of experiencing it for myself.

2.75/5 stars ⭐⭐+

[Gerrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alchemy of a Blackbird, by Claire McMillan, is a beautifully written historical novel illuminating the relationship of two famous female surrealists—Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington.
The story follows the artists’ budding friendship in the salons of Paris on the brink of WWII, to a safe house in Marseille, to their ultimate freedom in Mexico City during and after the war.
Laced throughout the story are nuggets of information and appearances by a who’s who of writers, artists and intellectuals of the era. There are too many to name here, but featured characters are Varo’s lover, poet Benjamin Peret, and Carrington’s lover, painter Max Ernst.
Both women were also followers of herbal mysticism and believers in the predictive and revealing practice in Tarot. To emphasize the impact of Tarot on their lives, the author has embedded in each chapter a beautifully illustrated tarot card, with its meaning explained and its symbolism represented by a real figure in the women’s lives. These characters lend extra aspect and enrich the reader’s understanding of these complex, exciting, passionate friends and artists.
The author’s notes reveal her extensive research into the artists’ lives and the history of Tarot, with an extensive list of sources provided.
I highly recommend this excellent historical novel, with its lyrical prose and its insight into Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, and their peers who were so important in the evolution of 20th century Modern Art.

Thank you to Atria/Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

[Sherry Arp]

I received an ARC but that does not reflect my views.

I am not going to give this book a star rating, because it is a DNF for me.

That said, it is a beautiful story and based on that I would give it a 3.75 star rating.

For me it was too hard to follow the storyline. I took me until half of the book to figure out the pattern of who was telling their story or who they were telling the story of and I found myself often lost and rereading to catch up. For that reason alone, I was unable to finish the book. I do plan to pass my copy along to a friend who I know will just love it.

[Mary Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew nothing about Remedios Vera or Leonora Carrington before reading this novel. I realized the feminine had been erased/minimized from the history of the Surrealists to its great loss. Move over guys!

[Lauren Pfieffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a creative myself, I deeply enjoyed the journey of Remedios throughout the novel as she finds confidence in her work.

The alternating perspectives of Remedios and then tarot cards with their respective perspectives from side characters was a really interesting way to tell the story.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opened my eyes to a piece of history I knew little about. Female surrealists in the early part of the 1900s (during and after WWII). Fascinating, insightful and beautifully written.

[Bri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned about Remedios Varo a couple years ago after seeing one of her paintings in DC.

The Call by Remedios Varo: https://nmwa.org/art/collection/la-ll...

I had never heard of her, and there was a time when I took art and art history classes, and just generally enjoy art. How could I have never heard of this fantastic Surrealist painter??

I was pretty stoked to find this novel - about Remedios Varo AND the tarot? Sigh me up!

Overall, I liked it, although I wanted more from it because I am excited about the topic. The characters felt fairly flat, and they are the main driver of the story. I wanted more delving into their exploration of alchemy, tarot, and the esoteric. I wanted to know how it affected their conversations, experiments, and work in specific detail. This is loosely biographical, and it seems this genre of historic fiction can trap writers, where they embellish some but not enough to make it interesting.

I could feel the care though in the research and tarot descriptions. I liked the feature of various characters' perspectives and their connection to the cards. The men of the story were so boring and annoying, especially Benjamin Pierre. I could see no reason for Remedios to be with him for so long from this story.

I don't know how I felt about the writing. I think alchemy is cool and enjoy the words used to describe its transformative processes and aims - Remedios described Frida Kahlo's paintings as "using honesty as the alchemical agent," which I love and stuck with me. So there were descriptions like that that really captured me. I think there were more opportunities for that kind of poeticism, given the subjects.

The audiobook was not enjoyable. I didn't like the readers - they did accents and strange affects (the person reading the tarot card descriptions was so, so monotonous).

[JoyReaderGirl1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claire McMillan offers a mystical occult approach in presenting an intimate historical fiction, ye biographical perspective, on the emotional evolution and artistic explosion of two women artists, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, during the Surrealist Revolution that emerged during the fear and turbulence of Nazi-occupied Europe in “Alchemy of a Blackbird.”

While a refugee in France living in secret communes with other artists, writers and philosophers like painter Max Ernst, poet Benjamin Peret, American heiress Peggy Guggenheim, writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, among others, Remedios learned both the Ryder-Waite-Coleman Tarot and the Tarot of Marseille by strokes of good luck from chance meetings with random booksellers. As a result, Remedios carried a deck of Tarot cards with her always and used the knowledge of these insightful tools for the remainder of her life.

Author Claire McMillan separates each chapter with a colorful picture of a Tarot Card, along with its explanation, and attributes aspects of the card to the person in the succeeding chapter to which it refers. The book is also structured with chapters by numerous characters referred to in the text that add depth and understanding to the historical context. Tarot lovers, and artists, will both thoroughly enjoy this novel as I certainly did.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Claire McMillan, and Publisher Altria Books for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical fiction about the alchemical friendship between two of my favorite artists, featuring cameos from most of the surrealists, with a framing device using tarot cards to represent the people and events in the book and how they relate to primarily Remedios Varo (and secondarily to Leonora Carrington)
Gosh, I can hardly imagine a book more suited to my interests!
I really, really enjoyed this novel in the audio version, with different people voicing all the different characters as they had their chance to tell part of the story. It's very witchy and very feminist and mostly very true to history (there is a great author's note at the end where she lists her sources and enumerates and explains her deviations, something I always appreciate in historical fiction)
I was all set to give it a very hearty and personal 5 star rating, but then very close to the end, we get a soliloquy from Butterflies. I get the symbolism and what she was going for, but to insert this kind of magical realism late in the game after nothing but the voices of human characters was very off-putting. So I docked a star.
Most of the historical biographical works about Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington are out of print (and going for hundreds on used book sites) so I despair of ever reading them. This book, fiction though it may be, was a satisfying substitute.

[Adri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on a recommendation from Janucka Stucky's instagram. Its a pleasant historical fiction piece about the surrealist Remedios Varo. An imagining of her life story from the 1930s to the last year of her life. The author conducted thorough research as she pointed out in her author's notes so it was interesting to learn about the other artists that gravitated within Varos' social sphere--Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, Benjamin Peret, Diego Rivera and most likely Frida Kahlo. I also enjoyed the scenes from Mexico City the best because the author captured specific locations with precision.

I appreciated the inclusion of the tarot cards as signifiers for specific characters. At first it was confusing when the point of view changed to a different character but then I understood it was the pattern of the book.

Overall, a recommended read. While the book is not plot-based, which is my preference, it provided insight into her personal growth as a female artist. There were some gems of beautiful writing sprinkled throughout the novel which I treasured.

[Julia Varnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book for learning about (and loving) Remedios Varo's art and for the way tarot was included. It's not an exciting book with a narrative arc (i.e., there is no real climax). The story starts with Varo (barely 20) and takes us through Varo's early-40s, when she has first shares her own (i.e., not a replica or work done for a company) artwork with the public.
This book is just a simple biographical historical fiction type story. Each chapter starts written from Remedios's perspective but in third person. Part way through the chapter, the author uses a tarot card (with description) to describe a character and the rest of that chapter is told from that character's first-person perspective. This writing style gives you different perspectives of the main character (Varo) and serves to enrichen our understanding of Varo. I found it lovely mostly due to the subject matter and the obvious care with which the author researched and wrote about her topic.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alchemy of a Blackbird is essentially about a young artist who feels blocked creatively and wonders when she's finally going to experience the "flow state" her fellow artists friends seem to tap into. She is drawn to the tarot, crystals, dreams, and other seemingly random objects she collects.
This book is told in a unique way. The first half of every chapter is told in the third person, focusing on Remedios. A tarot card is then presented along with the name of the card and a brief description of its meaning. Underneath the name of the card is the name of the character who will be voicing the rest of the chapter.
Since I know almost nothing about the art world and had no idea who Remedios Varo was, this book felt a little flat to me, but would be great for people looking for a light, low-stress read.

[Macy Carney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rushed through this audiobook for book club but really enjoyed it (although it was hard to follow at times and I got lost/confused with some of the heavily accented narrators switching between characters - also listened at a 1.2 pace which didn’t help). The book was complex and had a lot of depth to it. I plan on buying the book to read it instead cause I enjoyed the witchy/wiccan vibes so much - maiden/mother/crone, crystals, chakras, self discovery and reflection, tarot, familiars, house plants, etc. Also had a great emphasis on friendship and feminism which I’m a sucker for. Reading might also be better to view any included illustrations for the tarot cards and artwork. Can’t say historical fiction is a go to genre for me but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

[Sara Berlowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Down the Remedios rabbit hole; high-priestess of potions, paints, crystals, alchemy, and the cards. Of course, the story is near to the wild heart. An antsy artist oppressed by French intellectualism, Nazism, and The War, remedied alas by the vibrant colors of latinamerica and the agua viva of Orinoco. I too recall the pure wellsprings under pink western skies, Venezuelan friendships and deep-seeded memories of Ecuador, the calming aroma of lavender at the Farm, the blackbirds of dusk & dawn. Sending gratitude to the Monarch butterflies of Michoacán, and thinking of the friend I raised and released last year alongside my neighbor. Born to be free, always already ready to commence its long flight south of the border to reach the mythic land of dreams.

[Melinda Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks for the ARC!! The author did a fantastic job of sourcing about the characters. Of course it is fiction, so not everything is how it happened. This was such a smooth easy read. It definitely kept me wanting to know what happens next. I think it was pretty interesting how when talking about the tarot card it was printed in the book so you could see what it looked like.
Only reason I didn’t rate 5* was because there wasn’t any direction on whose perspective it was from until you read further down the page to see. Sometimes I thought say one person was still talking/thinking and it had switched.

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want to say this book was bad, because I don't think it was. But I AM glad it was relatively short. With that being said, it DEFINITELY needed to be longer. It literally starts mid-conversation between two characters. There's starting your story off quickly and then there's making people think "Wait, did I miss a chapter...?" I think it's one of those books where you definitely need the audiobook (for different narrators to differentiate the characters) but also a physical copy so you can follow along.

The writing is solid, I just think it gets lost in information/exposition (it's EXTREMELY tell instead of show) and forgets the characters along the way.