At one point, Miranda and Dorothea prepare to travel from Milan to Naples disguised as men - a longed-for escape, full of the promise of danger and intrigue - and it's skipped over. Much of the narration keeps to Miranda's viewpoint, but she's an intelligent character and might observe her new world with a little more clarity. There's a lack of detail in the worldbuilding that can be frustrating at times.

The biggest criticism I can offer is that Miranda in Milan often feels like half a book. Her original characters are formidably vivid: The devout and tortured Agata is a believable antagonist, and the lively Dorothea, a servant girl from Morocco who claims to be a witch, enchants both Miranda and the reader. Miranda finds friends and allies, but is still exiled to the margins she finds her freedom in walking unseen through the maze of tunnels that undermine the palace's walls and reveal its secrets.ĭuckett's story is intriguing, adept, inventive and sexy. Duckett brings the first of many touches of gothic horror here: Miranda is confined to her luxurious room, which she may only leave with her face under a veil 'that felt as though she had run facefirst into a clump of spiderwebs.' Surrounded by servants who hardly dare speak to her, supervised by the sinister Agata, who bears an unknown grudge, Miranda finds herself more isolated than she was on the island.ĭuckett's autobiographical writings describe a childhood spent similarly isolated, and Miranda in Milan will resonate with anyone who has felt an outsider's loneliness.

When a teenager who grew up on a magical island is expected to become a dutiful court lady, the transition was never going to be easy - and to make matters worse, Miranda finds herself being treated as though she were monstrous.

Miranda is hand in hand with young Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, whom she will marry with the blessing of both their fathers and the gods. Prospero has reclaimed his title as Duke of Milan, forgiven his usurping brother and renounced magic: His staff broken, his books drowned, his slaves Ariel and Caliban freed. At the end of Shakespeare's The Tempest, the sorceror Prospero and his daughter Miranda take leave of the lonely, enchanted isle where they've spent the last 14 years in exile.

The Ones Who Look by Katharine Duckett