Book Review - My Brother's Keeper by Tim Powers

Historically Accurate (If Mostly Unverified) Horror

“I shot a werewolf’s skull.”

“That’s always a good thing to do, I imagine.”

Spanning 1845 to 1848, My Brothers Keeper is the historically accurate (if mostly unverified) story of the Brontë family and their battle with a werewolf god and his acolytes. If you’re not an English major and never finished Wuthering Heights, fear not. Tim Powers has a gift for telling readers everything they need to know about historical figures, while filling in the gaps of their biographies with the supernatural. 

What we know: Patrick Brontë was born in Ireland and changed the family name when he arrived in England. It’s a curious historical fact that he fired a pistol over the church cemetery every morning. Stranger still, two of his children, Emily and Branwell, were bitten at different times by rabid dogs, though seemingly coming to no lasting harm. Sadly, Patrick survived his wife and all of their children, living another six years after his last daughter passed away. But what if those rabid dogs were one and the same, and a mythical monster? And what if Patrick’s family paid the cost for the sins of their father?

Well, if you’re Tim Powers, you have fertile ground for a novel. 

[A review copy was provided by Baen, though it in no way influenced the following review]

The Story

The novel opens with a short prolog in 1830 with four of the Brontë children, Branwell, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, performing a blood ritual in a local “fairy cave.” While they can’t fully grasp the enormity of their action, or dream of the consequences, something most certainly happens. Just not what Branwell promised. Flashforward 15 years and Branwell is a drunkard, squandering his life in the care of his sisters.

One morning, while out for a walk on the windy moors with her faithful bullmastiff, Keeper, Emily finds an injured man. Though he seemed near death and refused assistance, when she returns with help the man has mysteriously disappeared. This is just the first in a series of increasingly bizarre events as she learns of her family’s history with a malevolent spirit named Welsh, her Anglican minster father’s youthful pact with the goddess Minerva, and of a secret order of Catholic werewolf hunters.

There’s plot aplenty and worldbuilding to spare, what with a werewolf god and its cult, trips through the Otherworld, and ghosts. Yet Powers skillfully balances the fantastic elements with the human story at its heart. Every family suffers, and the Brontë family perhaps more than most. Ultimately, My Brother’s Keeper is about loss and salvation, redemption and healing.

The Characters

The sisters Brontë, obviously, though the primary focus is on Emily. We also spend a fair amount of time with the ne’er-do-well, eponymous brother, Branwell, and their father, Patrick, an Anglican minister wracked with guilt and shame. Also of note is Emily’s dog Keeper, named after the heroic dog of her ancestors.

Alcuin Curzon “the one-eyed Catholic” is a Byronic hero: dark, brooding, distant, dangerous, and secretive. He and Emily are both attracted and repulsed by one another, and, while we know from history romance isn’t in the cards for her, we can’t help but wish they’d lower their guards long enough to have a moment. 

A mysterious order with an evil agenda is represented by Mrs. Flensing, who first meets Branwell in a London pub and “baptizes” him with a double-bladed knife. She works in the service of Welsh, an ancient evil spirit whose presence is intertwined with the Brontës. 

The World

Set on the moors surrounding the Yorkshire village of Howarth, the world is familiar to any reader of the 19th century literature. Emily and her family live in a house walking distance from town, adjacent to the church and cemetery, and rarely leave except to walk the countryside, though Branwell frequents the local pub. 

However, in Powers’ imagination, there are uncanny things out on the moors that require unorthodox attention.

“You… a curate’s daughter, will solicit help from a pagan goddess, through the offices of a werewolf.”

The Politics

Only the interdenominational church politics of the day.

Content Warning

If severed fingers and rotting heads make you squirm, you might have a rough time. Obviously, there are elements of horror, but it’s far enough removed from today’s reality that it would only keep the most sensitive up at night.

Who is it for?

Let me make this explicitly clear: this is neither Wuthering Heights and Werewolves nor for that crowd. It’s not a parody or pastiche, but historical fiction with paranormal elements that keep it firmly entrenched in the murky ground of horror. So if you’ve ever found yourself up late reading Algernon Blackwood or M.R. James, this is for you.

Why read it?

“You’re still God’s possession… even if He’s left you out in the weather a bit.”

It’s got ghosts, werewolves, and ghosts of werewolves! But it’s all handled thoughtfully with elegance. In a weird way, Hemingway’s iceberg theory applies, in that Powers’ meticulous (one might say slavish) attention to detail and historicity adds weight to what initially sounds like a light and silly premise.