Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty... by Jac Jemc

Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty... Reviews

• 
  Mai

  I know more about the British royal family than I would care to admit. No, not that current nonsense with Harry and Meghan. No, not Henry VIII. Well, maybe Henry VIII. But truly, his mother, his grandfather, and the Plantagenets before them.
  
  So I picked this up as I was curious about other European royals of this time. The bits I know about Germans are those that married into the British and Russian royal families. Who knew Catherine the Great was German and Marie Antoinette was Austrian? Maybe a lot of you. I didn't.
  
  This reads so smoothly and entertainingly I nearly thought it was a biography. As with all such things, parts were slow, but overall, I enjoyed myself, and I will do some research into the German and Austrian royal families at a later time. Message received.
  
  🎧 NetGalley
• 
  Beata

  Two icons of the 19th century Europe who have always drawn attention and generated speculation regarding their lives and true nature. The audiobook feels like non-fiction which is not a flaw in my opinion. I would recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about Sissi and Ludwig, as was the case with me. Biographies presented in an accessible way and read well by Mr Jefferson. I received what I had expected.
  *Many thanks to Jac Jemc, RB Media, and NetGalley for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.*
• 
  Emily Coffee and Commentary

  
  https://www.instagram.com/p/CurhGTrLZ...
  
  A lush, intimate look at two of Europe's most gorgeous, misunderstood souls. Empty Theater is a testament to the pressures and shackles of royalty, the suffocating spotlight that royals cannot escape. For King Ludwig II and Empress Sisi this is especially true; these rulers, though surrounded by opulence and power, were held back from their true desires and ambitions until their untimely demise. Jac Jemc expertly weaves together fact and fiction, embellishing two already outrageously captivating lives into a compelling journey that is equally entertaining and tragic. This is a treat for history fans as well as those who can relate to sacrificing personal wants and welfare to preserve an outward image or goal.
• 
  Maryna

  [4.5] A reimagined history of the two European royals. With refined sense of humor Jac Jems portraits Sisi and her cousin Ludwig as charming, willful and spoiled to high heavens.
  Their eccentricities and capriciousness, hopes and dreams, and a bond that held them to each other for most of their lives.
  It is partially based on the historical research and the diaries and personal letters.
  As the author notes in acknowledgments: in a way, this book could be seen as fiction based on many personal fictions.. For the information taken from the personal letters and diaries of the historical figures mentioned in this book is well known for exaggerating facts of their lives.
• 
  Lindsay Hunter

  This book was so very fun and lushly detailed and funny and insane. I do not know how Jemc accomplished this other than by the strange magic she is very well known for by now. I simply loved reading this book and I’m sad it’s over now!
• 
  Monte Price

  The cover really caught my eye here, and in the moment of reading this book I felt like I was learning a lot. It was delivered in a fun way, in a way that certain facts will definitely stay with me longer than other facts.
  
  I do think that it ultimately failed as a novel? As fun as the writing was at time, as funny, and engaging as certain sentences made it feel I'm not sure that it ever felt like a narrative. It felt like a piece of nonfiction that was fun to read sure, but not a story being told. Ultimately i think that's where the book failed for me. It's also part of what makes it so hard to review? Because while I think that people should definitely read the book to know about two cousins that we should definitely spend time discussing, I'm not entirely sure what group of people would actually be best to pitch it to. While the time period is certainly historical, again, at the core of it it is a recitation of facts and while conversations were almost entirely made up, the dialogue is hardly the interesting part of this book?
  
  If for no other reason that the book has the longest title you're likely to read this year, I think that it's at least worth a shot to see if you're in that pool of people that will read this and have an enjoyable experience.
• 
  Lorin (paperbackbish)

  This book is a fictionalized account of the lives of Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, and Elizabeth, Empress of Austria. Like most European royalty in the nineteenth century, their lives are intertwined and full of tragedies. Ludwig and Sisi are cousins, both loathsome of their royal duties but taking full advantage of the luxuries their positions afford them. Often vain, cruel, and cold to those around them, this book offers a glimpse into the more tender motivations and inner workings of two beloved monarchs, who were quite possibly the loneliest people ever to walk the earth.
  
  Oh, this book. I loved it. It's quirky and wry and heartbreaking all at once. Sisi is one of my favorite historical figures, so much of the content here was not new to me. The format, though, is exquisite — brisk vignettes into the lives of Sisi and Ludwig, often ridiculous but sometimes overwhelmingly affecting. I don't think this unconventional narrative structure will be for everyone; you can't go into this book expecting a rising action, climax, and resolution. But it works beautifully for me, an irregular style to match that of its characters.
  
  I found Ludwig's ending to be particularly interesting. One of my favorite things about historical fiction is the ability to re-imagine events in a way that makes the reader think, "hmm, maybe it did happen like that," which Jac Jemc does beautifully. Sisi's ending also left me bereft; not her death specifically, but the family gathering afterwards. Just such lovely writing!
  
  Huge thank you to Jac Jemc, MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!
• 
  Allison

  This book is 400+ pages long and I inhaled it in less than 24 hours. It's irreverent and weird and at the same time vulnerable and empathetic and made me feel deeply and painfully seen. It's half biographical histfic, half chatty contemporary: a thing that shouldn't work except that it works beautifully. Bless Ludwig and Sisi, these two little self-destructive weirdos.
• 
  lookmairead

  QUICK REVIEW:
  This was a spontaneous pick this month and it was delightful. Pacing and Jemc’s no-nonsense voice (in sometimes a nonsensical world) made it an easy page turner.
  
  RECOMMENDED:
  - If you like your chapters short.
  - If you are looking for HF reads for Mental Health Awareness Month.
  - If you’re fan of The Great television series.
  
• 
  Alyssa Shifra

  I have to admit, from the very beginning, I was deeply curious about “Empty Theater” by Jac Jemc. Its subject—a loosely fictionalized biographical account of Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Elisabeth (“Sisi”) of Austria—was not an area I was familiar with; but that very obscurity seemed to offer the freshness of novelty. The unique wealth, privilege, and historical prominence of the main characters would offer plenty of material for careful research; but would also require a steady hand to balance the demands of authenticity and relatability. What angle would the author—a horror fiction writer with teaching roots in academia—choose to take? The very cover art seemed to be expressive of something tongue-in-cheek—but what? It was all intriguing enough for me to pick up the book and find out.
  
  For all the glitter and grandiosity one might expect in the lives of a king and an empress, page one of “Empty Theater” sets the tone with a grim forewarning: Ludwig and Sisi are tragically doomed. Ludwig will one day be declared unfit to rule by reason of insanity, and soon after found mysteriously murdered. Sisi, too, will meet a violent end, stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist. Knowing this, we take a deep breath and begin at the beginning, settling into a slow pilgrimage that traces the paths of Ludwig and Sisi’s lives. Each one is born into a uniquely…sub-optimal childhood. Using their friendship as both a narrative frame and a foil, Jemc illustrates how genetics, gender, upbringing, and social expectations send both Ludwig and Sisi down very different, but equally…sub-optimal paths.
  
  There are a lot of plot details I could highlight: much of Sisi’s story (obviously) centers around her roles as wife, mother and empress. We witness her loveless, political marriage; her ambivalence towards motherhood, at odds with the trauma of maternal loss; the way she vacillates between rebellion against any sort of expectations/responsibility in her role as empress, and resentment that the world only recognizes her as a pretty face. Ludwig’s tale is also shaped by a complete aversion to the demands of state (but an inability to resist the lure of wealth and power). Fueled by an obsession with the composer Wagner, Ludwig reimagines his life as an artistic/spiritual leader (whose primary function, apparently, involves spending fantastical sums of money on music and palaces). Unfortunately, the pressures of reality, Ludwig’s deeply conflicted sexuality, and the looming family specter of mental illness contribute to ever-increasingly intense bouts of depression and social anxiety.
  
  The chapters are very short and flip back and forth in focus between Ludwig and Sisi. I understand it’s a literary style Jemc has utilized in the past, but it’s incredibly effective here. With two main characters, there is SO MUCH content to cover. The short chapters are absolutely necessary to keep the reader’s interest and prevent the story from bogging down. Even so—there are times when “Empty Theater” feels like a billion-course meal of miniature cupcakes.
  
  Jemc’s prose isn’t unappealing; but, like an actual supper of only cupcakes, I started to feel a bit of indigestion after the hundredth one. It’s not so much that the story isn’t a happy one; (and, make no mistake—in spite of Jemc’s slim, proffered fantasy of a happily ever after? for Ludwig with his stable hand/lover—“Empty Theater” is a tragedy.) Ludwig and Sisi were real, historical people, and their stories should be told with honesty and integrity. Life was not kind to them, and their characters and choices clearly reflected that. But—even so…the deeper I read, the less I enjoyed Ludwig and Sisi, or felt patience with their flaws. There was no redemptive arc; they did not learn or grow from their experiences; there was no reason for or purpose wrought from their respective tragedies. In the end, I could only feel a sense of disgust and relief that it was over…
  
  …Which begs the question…why tell such a tale? Maybe Jac Jemc’s affinity for horror drew her to this story. Was it supposed to be a sort of literary bauble, sparkling on the outside, but filled with a disturbing ooze on the inside? (I suppose in that sense, historicity heightens its sense of macabre.) For me, “Empty Theater” did not really satisfy—but if you’re a fan of slow-burn, historical tragedy, maybe that was the point.
  
  Thank you to the author and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
  
• 
  anna

  rep: gay mc, achillean side characters
  tw: suicides, murder, blood, child abuse, internalised religion-based homophobia
  
  4.5 ☆
  
  this is a peculiar little book. the shortness of the chapters makes one think of a history textbook, but the gentleness of the writing reminds us it's a piece of fiction (based on some real events). we get glimpses, rather than whole scenes, but somehow they still manage to convey all the emotions that they should & to portray the characters as multidimensional. this compactness simply works in the book's favour at all times.
  
  it gives agenda to its main characters, puts them lovingly onto the pages, invites the reader to think about them as people first & historical figures second. it's both hilarious & tragic, and the very ending is groundbreaking.
• 
  Juliana Niño

  I don't know, man. This was aggressively average. I was under the impression there would be a more concrete plot to this, but nope.
  ✨No plot, just vibes✨
  The vibes being two royals that kinda sucked.
  
  This is a fictional account of the lives of King Ludwig II and his cousin, Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria.
  (P.S. There is actually a new Netflix show all about Empress Elisabeth called The Empress)
  The narrative is a chronological one, following them from birth up to their deaths. We get to see what unfolds as Ludwig and Sisi take on their new roles as King and Empress.
  Aaaaaand that's pretty much it.
  
  This being a fictional account of two historical figures, I was expecting there to be more embellishment to the plot and narrative. But as I have already stated, there isn't a plot, and the narrative was very straightforward.
  Without quoting anything from this ARC, here is an example of how the narrative read in my head: "This person didn't like this person, so they avoided them at all costs. This person decided to go to Italy to not have to deal with said person." Lol.
  It was all just so blunt and...boring.
  That being said, I can see how others will not take issue with the narrative. As I was reading, I could recognize moments of sarcasm, wit, and whimsy, but unfortunately, I was still bored for the majority of the book.
  
  So, why is it just hella average?
  ✨Because I didn't hate the writing style, but was not engaged by the way the story was told.
  
  ✨Because I did find it interesting to learn about these young royals (a lot of what's in this book really did happen), but I was expecting a plot, not a history lesson. And this is coming from someone who has read a lotttt of historical fiction and tends to love it.
  
  ✨And because Ludwig and Sisi honestly suckedddd. They were entertaining in the way reality TV can be entertaining, but I don't like reality TV. A novel would have been a good opportunity to add more to these characters; make them juicy, dynamic beings. But they came off as caricatures after a while.
  
  2.5 rounded up. I didn't have a great time with it, but this is one of those books where I would recommend it to the right person. I can appreciate what the author wanted to accomplish, even if I didn't enjoy the way it was realized.
  
  Thanks so much to NetGalley and FSG for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
• 
  Anna

  The writing style did not work for me—the choice to make the narrator a detached modern-day voice, inserting anachronisms on double standards, postpartum depression, unacknowledged privilege, or “clutching imaginary pearls,” pulled me out of the story. The urgency of their duties and restrictions would have resonated with our present times without them. I enjoyed reading about Wagner’s character much more, to be honest.
  
  To me, Empty Theatre reads like fictionalized research flashcards—a dry summary of Sisi and Ludwig’s unhappiness. It also tells me the author was more enamoured with the episodic structure and page breaks than with the characters she chose to portray. Or maybe, like the cheeky subtitle, these choices were an afterthought, because the narrative keeps jumping from one thing to the next, never really allowing you to fully immerse yourself into the thrilling world of royals behaving badly.
• 
  Gabriela Carr

  Loved this! Historical fiction written in a gossipy style, describing life in the Austrian and Bavarian courts in the 19th century. Focuses on two cousins who have every material thing, but who both chafe against the life they’ve been born into or married into, and who make the lives of others around them often difficult in the process.
• 
  Mitch Loflin

  I was hooked from the paragraph-long title. A funny and crazy historical fiction romp with the perfect ratio of historical to fiction for me. These people were ridiculous and it’s so fun to lean into that. Just a really great time, and surprisingly touching - you can’t help but get so attached to Sisi and Ludwig in this.
  
  Wondering when I’ll ever be paid a compliment as off-putting as Franzl calling Sisi “as fresh and unspoilt as a half-open almond.” Also couldn’t help but relate to Ludwig who, in addition being a gay menace who loves Wagner, has to be separated from his pet tortoise because “He’s grown too attached to it. He mothers the thing all day, swaddling it and feeding it with an eyedropper” then later in life invites a horse into his dining room as his dinner companion (DEEPLY Mitch-coded behavior all around). Maybe the most fun I’ve had reading yet this year.
• 
  Amanda

  Empress Sisi will reign in my heart forever. This book and audio is truly everything I could have wanted from this story. Its just so inanely fun.
• 
  Kayla Oswald

  I’m gonna be honest… there was a lot more graphic gay sex in this than I thought possible
• 
  Rachel

  I love this book!! It is wacky, smart, fun, tragic, and I couldn't put it down.
• 
  Samantha

  Every once in a while I come across a book that manages to successfully tell a story that is somehow completely bonkers yet also makes perfect sense. I always want to ask the author, how on earth did you come up with this? And I find myself wondering just that now. How did Jac Jemc dream up the idea to imagine this wonderfully hilarious yet heartbreaking story based on the lives of Empress Sisi and Ludwig II?
  
  The best Historical Fiction, in my opinion, is that which reimagines the truth in a way that both enhances it as a story and also does better justice to its principal subjects than perhaps they received in real life.
  
  Though the tone is upbeat and the pacing excellent, the story is a tough read at times (and I mean this in a good way) because it so profoundly captures the spirit of loneliness. That the subjects are royalty makes them no less relatable in this regard, and while the rest of us can’t say we were in a one-sided friendship with Richard Wagner and a literal prisoner of our own fantasy inside a fairy tale castle like Ludwig, we all know what a sense of emotional isolation can do to the mind.
  
  Jemc did a terrific job of taking the facts of both Ludwig’s and Sisi’s lives and weaving them into a tale that brings them to life in a manner that, in a way, they weren’t permitted in their actual existence.
  
  Between its sharp, clever wit and its fantastical, rich storytelling, I imagine both Sisi and Ludwig would have loved this book. I did too.
  
  *I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
• 
  Neil

  Jac Jemc’s Empty Theatre takes a satirical, intentionally offhand look at the lives of two cousins, King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria. Conjuring feelings of hollowness and acute performativity, the title at once opens and shuts the doors on a reality too far removed from our own to seem genuine.
  
  Jemc acknowledges this openly, stating in the Acknowledgments that “this book could be seen as a fiction based on many personal fictions.” And so, a tale of impaired humanity unfolds; far more pressing and engaging than we’d like to admit, especially since Jemc’s protagonists come across as both deeply lost and wicked.
  
  Their vindictiveness stems, in part, from their privilege and lack of control; two states that continue to defy our linear experience of time.
  
  What’s more, by directly addressing the reader, the author succeeds in heightening the mystification surrounding the cousins’ deaths. That, and the very impossibility of placing Ludwig’s demise at the end of a steady, keenly felt narrative.
  
  Full review:
  https://delphicreviews.com/review-emp...
• 
  Stacie (MagicOfBooks)

  I will also do a video review here at my channel:
  http://www.youtube.com/magicofbooks
  
  "Empty Theatre" by Jac Jemc follows King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, cousins in their pursuit of happiness in a world that refuses to allow them to be themselves, forcing them to submit to roles imposed upon them by society.
  
  You know you're about to read a crazy book when the title is 55 words long. Yes. I counted. Three times to make sure. This book is described as being a satire or a comedy. The book is definitely funny. I wouldn't say it's laugh-out-loud funny, but it's certainly humorous. It's the type of humor that history nerds, like myself, would get a kick out of. Though the book proclaims itself a comedy, I found the comedy to have a high sense of tragedy to it. There's much about this novel that, despite the humor, is actually kind of sad. At its core, this novel is about loneliness. Loneliness and depression I'd say, back when depression was called melancholy. The novel follows real historical figures King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary. They are cousins, coming from the Wittelsbach family, known for their inbreeding, which this novel certainly doesn't shy away from which prompts some terribly funny moments. What Ludwig and Sisi share is their common loneliness and depression. They are two individuals who just want to be themselves but because of their position as heads of their countries, such a thing is not possible. Certain demands and roles are placed upon them that they absolutely sneer at.
  
  For Sisi, who was married to Emperor Franz Joseph at a very young age, her sole purpose is to produce children, look pretty, and attend various different boring functions that she really has no interest in. The real historical Elisabeth was known for her erratic eccentricities, going off for therapeutic vacations to get away from her husband, her mother-in-law, and even her children. She was a woman known for her great beauty, especially all that hair, and you get the idea she was probably a very vain woman. Jac Jemc presents a Sisi who is obsessed with her beauty, obsessed with her age, and with the arrival of every birthday, with the arrival of children and grandchildren, she sees all of that as a slow and painful death. Though she is surrounded by so much family, she's lonely. She's never happy. She arrives in Austria with the naive dream she will be allowed to be herself, help rule by her husband's side, and raise her children. None of that really happens, nor is it allowed to happen. Empress Elisabeth leads a rather sad life once you read about it in full throughout this novel. She married young. Her mother-in-law raised her children. She and Franz Joseph were distant for the most part. She lost one of her daughters. Her only son and heir committed suicide with his mistress. And then she herself was assassinated in the end.
  
  Moving on to King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who is just as terribly tragic. Ludwig becomes king at an early age and never seems to have a knack nor an interest in ruling. Others essentially rule through him. Jac Jemc presents a Ludwig who is even more eccentric than his cousin. Even from a young age he seemed to be rather peculiar with his quirks. He's just as sad and lonely as Sisi is, suffering from a degree of mental illness that even Sisi can't comprehend. Ludwig's biggest obstacle is the fact that he is homosexual. And in the 1800s, that's a big no-no for someone like him who is supposed to marry and pop out heirs. Jac Jemc clearly lays out that Ludwig likes men, he can't stand the idea of kissing a woman, let alone having sex with a woman to produce an heir. Ludwig is a lavish spender, sending his country into debt on numerous occasions, having to get the assistance of Prussia. He is friends with people who is advisors don't agree he should be friends with. One of his biggest friends is Richard Wagner, the composer. The two of them have a platonic relationship, but it's through Wagner that Ludwig realizes his passions for beauty and art. Just as Sisi is obsessed with beauty and age, Ludwig is too. He's vain and selfish, edging into cruelty. His life is just as sad as Sisi's in the end. He never marries or has children. He's deposed as ruler. His younger brother Otto is technically supposed to rule in his stead, but Otto is severely mentally ill, so their uncle rules as regent. And in the end, Ludwig and his doctor are found mysteriously dead by the river. Even to this day, no one knows what happened. Of course there are theories like assassination, or failed rescue attempts, or even suicide. Jac Jemc does something very interesting at the end of the novel to form her own fun speculation as to what could have happened, and it's a lovely, sad fantasy.
  
  If you have an interest in the lives of Ludwig and Sisi, this will probably be a novel that you enjoy. I wouldn't recommend this for a casual reader of historical fiction. I think you definitely need to know some basics about these two in order to understand some of the humor and comedy. It helps too to know how they die because there's interesting foreshadowing spread throughout the novel, so it helps to know certain things to understand some of the foreshadowing. This is either a positive or negative, but the chapters are fairly short, flip-flopping between Ludwig and Sisi. There's really nothing cohesive that ties the narrative together. You are essentially getting these quick moments into the lives of these two characters, how they are feeling and coping with certain situations. Seeing how the world crumbles around them, despite the fact that they live these wonderfully privileged lives that they often take for granted. As I said at the top of this review, the book is largely supposed to be a comedy, following two characters who seem to be out of touch with reality, or refuse to be part of reality, and instead are obsessed with beauty and age, but struggle with loneliness and depression as a result. And that's the tragedy of it all at the end of the day.
• 
  Andrea

  Do you like to read books about crazy people? This is a book about crazy people. High-profile, European royals, crazy people, King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria. They're cousins and they have the same strain of madness (from the Wittelsbach line? The one where royalty keep marrying their cousins? Who knows?). Ludwig doesn't want to be King at all; he hates politics and wants to concentrate on art, music, and architecture and sleep with men and do anything except spend time at the palace in Munich. Sisi doesn't want to be Empress at all; she wants to travel and ride horses at breakneck speeds and do anything except spend time at the palace in Vienna. They are both obsessed with their own youth, beauty, and personal appearance. They both think about death way too much. This is a fascinating book, and it's about crazy people. I would probably read another by this author, but I'm not rushing to do that.
• 
  Kyle

  Royals are people, too. Messed up, awkward, unsatisfied people. In “Empty Theatre,” Jac Jemc writes about two of the most infamous of the European monarchs, Ludwig II (known as the Mad King) and Elizabeth of Austria (called Sisi). Through vignettes that span their lifetimes, we see these two cousins rise to power and deal with it poorly. Ludwig forms a bond with the famed composer Wagner and continues to build bigger and more impressive castles - that he never can pay for. Sisi marries an emperor and chafes against the idea that all she is good for is producing heirs. As much an argument against monarchy as it is a compassionate rendering of two unfortunate historical figures, this book is great.
• 
  Leanne

  And absolutely fantastic novel! A novel that really sometimes reads a lot like narrative nonfiction, which is not a bad thing at all. I have never read anything by this author before but I was incredibly impressed. She doesn’t veer very far from fact, and as always fact is stranger than fiction and who could really add much to the life of Empress Sissi and Ludwig the second. Probably those are among the most interesting European royals of all times and the subject of so many movies and books. But the novel really struck a modern tone which was reminiscent of the movie “the favorite.” Intelligent, witty, and over-the-top—I could not put this book down it was just so much fun to read.
• 
  Jane

  Pretty wonderful. The already over-the-top real lives of royals Sisi, Ludwig, and Franzl were well served by Jemc’s ironic style. She combined the formal world of 19th C Europe with a very contemporary narrative syntax, which might have been annoying but worked. As for royal dissatisfaction and the burdens of duty, this could be the Habsburg version of Spare. The novel deepened over the course of it, as you grew in empathy for people who have everything and nothing — and then it all ends in tears. But the book was highly entertaining and the audio version read by Jefferson Mays was excellent.
• 
  Geonn Cannon

  I feel like I shouldn't have liked this... but I really did. A satire of royals/royalty that flowed really well, with very short chapters broken up into shorter sections that never felt choppy. Once I got into the format, each chapter felt like scenes of a movie playing out. I don't think it will be one of my favorites of the year but it'll definitely be one of the best surprises.
• 
  Victoria Castillo

  effective, indulgent, funny, word candy, word melancholy, a master class in story telling
• 
  Devon Flaherty

  Really more of a 3.5.
  
  At the start of Empty Theatre by Jac Jemc, you are given the fuzzy demise of two royal cousins in the very late 1800s. Then you quickly pull way back and, over several chapters, both the main characters are born and placed in their shared world of wealth, power, rules, restrictions, expectations, intermarriage, prestige, excess, intrigue, and any number of crazy relatives. The common people? They’re there somewhere in the background. I mean, princesses and empresses aren’t actually allowed to interact or to leave the palace or anything. Still, this fictional retelling of history is a whole lotta intrigue without being very intriguing, at least for long bits. The book is just too long and it recounts so many scenes in chronological order without making sense of the plot or story for us. Still, I was often taken by the writing style, the language, the characters, maybe even the playful, chaotic tone. I wanted to love it and sometimes I did. Sometimes I had a hard time picking it back up. Overall I enjoyed it.
  
  The entire title of Jac Jemc’s Empty Theatre is actually Empty Theatre, or The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty Despite the Expectations Placed on Them Because of the Exceptional Good Fortune of Their Status as Beloved National Figures, with Speculation into the Mysterious Nature of Their Deaths. That’s pretty much the synopsis for you; I don’t have any work to do here.
  
  I read this book for one of my book clubs—the fanciest one. I had never heard of it or remembered seeing it before but it sounded amazing. And that cover? And I enjoy great historical fiction.
  
  Present tense is not really my thing, which we have established over and over. That doesn’t mean I don’t love a book occasionally that uses present tense. However, I feel like an author has to justify present tense, and I don’t see how Empty Theatre needed it. Or even why it was chosen, artistically. Historical fiction begs for the past tense and I felt whiplashed almost every time I put the book down and then picked it back up. My mind kept expecting past tense, no matter how many times I was dropped back into present tense. And I did put the book down many, many times. I began enthusiastically enough, but it did go on for a really long time (okay, too long) and was true to the history in a way that meant there was no real plot (until suddenly there was at the end); there weren’t questions we were waiting on the answer to, not any traditional development of the story. It led me to wonder why it was made into a novel, or to reframe it, why Jemc didn’t run with the fictionalized version and give us an arc, a plot, didn’t focus in on some of the many, many scenes that are included in order to make it cohesive and, well, dramatic.
  
  What was it, then? Empty Theatre is a fact-deluge as well as a lore- and speculation-fest, chronological, beginning of life to end (for both characters). But this doesn’t say it all. It’s also a fun, feisty, zoomed-in account with plenty of juicy bits, plenty of meat and also great prose that sometimes is excellent prose. The fictionalization allows the reader to meet the characters up close and personal, to really plop into the scene with details and dialogue, making these very real (and now embellished) stories more accessible. More fun, surely. If you’re a stickler for facts, your options are a) skip this book or b) read it and then look up the veracity of events and claims as you read or afterward. There is so much historical fiction or based-on-true-events stuff out there, you should be used to it by now.
  
  The point, I think, was to explore the feelings, the psychology, the lived-in experiences of a couple of these eccentric royals from the European past (not going terribly far back here; we’re in the 1860s to 1898). Jemc chose two fascinating and over-the-top royals, a pair of cousins who ruled in neighboring territories (one senior to the other) in Eastern Europe near the end of the Habsburg dynasty… and for us readers, with the World Wars looming and the tension of a limited time left for royalty as royal (and the monarchies) nearly everywhere. The book explores mental illness, sexuality, and the pressures and expectations of being born into high positions. There is also the element of marriage and the powerlessness of women, or maybe it’s more the singularity of the purpose of royal women and the limitations to do anything outside of the purpose of bearing the next heir. Like Queen Charlotte and The Great. We’ve been debunking the fantasy of marrying a prince for awhile now.
  
  Though there’s a certain amount of seeing through these characters, too. Sure, we get really into Prince Ludwig and Empress Sisi, but we are also disillusioned. They’re both deeply unfortunate in some ways and they’re both spoiled brats, too. There are many incidents of casual cruelty, from and toward our MCs. So much. Which leads us to the possible moral of this story: monarchy is a bad idea. The King and the Empress were ill equipped and tragically uninterested in their roles. Their family history of lunacy and their lack of freewill give us sympathy toward them, but I don’t think we can completely get away from just how amazing they also had it, especially compared to the majority of their subjects.
  
  A few notes and warnings: if gets confusing with all the characters and I got a little resentful that there wasn’t a family tree, list of characters, and maybe even a timeline. And a time-appropriate map! But a reference for the characters is a must, so either make that list as you read or find some sort of resource online. (I couldn’t really find the map I was looking for.) I was an enormous fan of Sisi and her home gyms. I was not as fond of the monotony that happened largely in the middle parts of the book. I wanted to see a little more clearly why Jemc might have written this book. Why this story? Why these characters in history? Some of the books that my book club familiars recommended instead of—or in addition to���Empty Theatre were HHhH by Laurent Binet, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, and The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Also the streaming series The Great. I have seen that one and I was frequently reminded of it while reading. The Empress by Gigi Griffis is another series that is actually about Empress Sisi and her husband and is currently on Netflix.
  
  Here are some food suggestions, foods that are featured in the book that you could make for dinner while reading it or make for your book club or post-reading. Perhaps some will appeal to you more than others.
  
  • Liver dumpling soup
  • Rotkraut (braised red cabbage)
  • Veal and wurst (sausage)
  • Vanillekipferl (Austrian vanilla crescent cookies)
  • Plum Pudding
  • Toast with Schnapps (I can’t recall… maybe she ate it for breakfast?)
  • Hot Chocolate
  
  Lastly, here are a few fun vocabulary words, because there are a lot of vocabulary in this book:
  • chypre – a family of perfumes with citrus topnotes
  • capercailzie – a large Euasian grouse (a game bird with a plum body and feathered legs) that lives in pine forests
  • chamois – a species of goat-antelope; also a durable and comfortable fabric used largely for high end gloves made from the animal chamois. (Then later it became a term for a flannel-like cotton cloth that is often used as rags.)
  
  So yes, I liked it. Yes, I would recommend it for those who enjoy things like The Great and who have some tolerance for a meandering narrative or who at least will tolerate all sorts of things to get the rich-and-famous-people-of-history gossip. Or you like a study of the royals. Or are especially intrigued by the Victorian era but not necessarily in just England. It might take a second to get through it because you probably won’t be turning the pages late into the night, but it’s, well, unique. And there are some simply beautifully written passages.
  
  QUOTES
  
  “’Tell me, have either of you derived your greatest joys in life from doing what you’re told?’ She looks at her father” (p59).
  
  “…but in Vienna I’d have to wear gloves every day, and I worried what it would do to me not to feel the world beneath my fingertips” (p163).
  
  “Sisi wonders why his other palaces can’t be ‘poetic places of refuge,’ but she knows this brand of hope—that another place might hold the solution to one’s disquiet” (p242).
  
  “That is always the way, isn’t it? Something is always dying off and something always growing unruly” (p262).
  
  “Franzl knows that, if he were to ask Sisi what it was she wanted, she would not be able to answer. She knows only that none of these things is it” (p264).
  
  “To know a truth is different than to speak it aloud” (p264).
  
  “His heart chugs and halts …. He wonders if she will pick up on the code that he is locking into his words” (p311).
  
  “’Once you have everything, you must continually dream up new things to want. And all the same, I am hounded day and night to sign papers and take meetings that don’t matter at all to me, and this is my fate until I die’” (p323).
  
  “You are born into this life and you must find a way to tolerate it. Any option is an illusion” (p323).
  
  “Had they been visiting regularly, the minute daily changes might have deceived them into believing they remained mostly the same” (p329).
  
  “My body is my instrument. If the King wants to listen to a voice like mine, then he must face the form that produces such sound. This is what resonance looks like” (p330).
  
  “Hornig has come to realize that humans override self-protection for a sense of closeness and attachment” (p346).
  
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