Michelle Lovric writes historical fantasy set in Venice, and she does it with a commitment to sensory and historical density that most authors writing for adult audiences don’t attempt. Talina in the Tower is technically middle-grade, which may be the most misleading genre classification currently in use — this is a book that assumes its reader wants to be fully inside a strange and elaborately imagined world.
Talina is a half-human, half-cat girl in 19th-century Venice. She’s been raised in a tower, and when she escapes, she enters a city where the boundary between the human world and the animal world is more permeable than the humans would like to admit. Lovric’s Venice is both historically grounded and genuinely fantastical — she knows the city and its history deeply, and that knowledge gives the fantastical elements weight.
The writing is ornate. This is either a flaw or a feature depending on your tolerance for prose that insists on being noticed. Lovric’s style is maximalist in a way that sits outside current fashion, but it’s maximalism in service of atmosphere that the story requires. A stripped-down Venice would be a lesser Venice.
What distinguishes Lovric’s books from comparable fantasy is that the magic has rules that are rooted in the actual sensory and cultural life of the city — smells, textures, the quality of light on water, the politics of old families. It earns its strangeness.
Published: 2012 · Genre: Middle grade historical fantasy · Setting: Venice
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Talina in the Tower about? Talina is a half-human, half-cat girl in 19th-century Venice, raised in a tower, who escapes into a city where the boundary between the human world and the animal world is more permeable than the humans admit. Lovric’s Venice is both historically grounded and genuinely fantastical — she knows the city and its history deeply, and that knowledge gives the fantastical elements weight.
How does Michelle Lovric’s prose style work in Talina in the Tower? The writing is described as ‘ornate’ and ‘maximalist in a way that sits outside current fashion’ — but the review argues it is ‘maximalism in service of atmosphere that the story requires.’ A stripped-down Venice would be a lesser Venice. The style is presented as either a flaw or feature depending on tolerance for prose that ‘insists on being noticed.’
What distinguishes Lovric’s approach to magic from comparable fantasy? The review notes that ’the magic has rules that are rooted in the actual sensory and cultural life of the city — smells, textures, the quality of light on water, the politics of old families.’ This grounding in the real Venice’s specific sensory world is described as what makes the magic ’earn its strangeness’ rather than feeling arbitrary.
Is Talina in the Tower truly middle-grade fiction? The review calls the middle-grade classification ’the most misleading genre classification currently in use’ for this book — it ‘assumes its reader wants to be fully inside a strange and elaborately imagined world’ at a density ‘most authors writing for adult audiences don’t attempt.’ It is a book for readers who want historical and sensory density, regardless of age category.
Further Reading from Authoritative Sources
- Michelle Lovric — Wikipedia’s Michelle Lovric article provides biographical and bibliographical context for the author, including her extensive writing about Venice and her children’s fantasy series, helping readers understand the deep Venetian expertise informing Talina in the Tower.
- Venice and its history — Wikipedia’s Venice article provides the historical and cultural context that underpins Lovric’s world-building, helping readers understand what the 19th-century Venetian setting contributes to the novel’s atmosphere and why the historical grounding matters.
