Unequivocally my favourite read of 2022 so far. It has everything I want and need in a romance novel:
- a distinctive voice, with a near-perfect ear foUnequivocally my favourite read of 2022 so far. It has everything I want and need in a romance novel:
- a distinctive voice, with a near-perfect ear for dialogue - strong, rich characters - not just the MCs but the secondary cast as well - an unerring focus on what makes two people come to love each other - the way the book draws out the relationship between Henry and Theophilus is excruciatingly beautiful - explorations of erotic contact that don’t follow the script - pining pining pining for days (months, a year) - a sense of delight and play, even when it’s achingly tense - head on confrontation of ethical and moral challenges inherent in the scenario; from the power dynamics of the employer/employee relationship, to the inequities of slavery and indenture in the British world of the 1760s - world-building with enough, but not too much
Really, it was my catnip, beginning to end. It isn’t perfect in its editing (and the format of the ebook is a bit off putting) but the love Johannes Evans works into every line - it’s a stunning display. I can’t wait to read more of his work. ...more
This was my first Jess Kidd novel but certainly won’t be my last. It surprised me with joy from the very first page. Told in a light, playful, elasticThis was my first Jess Kidd novel but certainly won’t be my last. It surprised me with joy from the very first page. Told in a light, playful, elastic and honestly moving prose, it managed to walk on just the right side of whimsy (most of the time) and delivered character and atmosphere in spades.
Things In Jars is the story of Bridie Devine, part detective, part surgeon, who lives a quietly eccentric life with her housemaid Cora in 1860s London. She’s gets by removing warts and taking out teeth and is occasionally passed a case by a childhood friend at Scotland Yard. Which is how she comes to be standing in front of the century-old corpses of a mother and baby, walled up in Highgate Cemetery Chapel. It seems that they’ve been locked up and abandoned there, which is grisly enough, but on closer inspection Bridie notices the baby died biting and chewing on its mother, with teeth as numerous and as sharp as a pike. Not twenty-four hours later Bridie is approached to investigate the disappearance of a young child, Christabel Berwick, who is rumoured to have a fearsome and deadly bite of her own.
So begins an investigation that takes Bridie into the dark world of anatomists, curiosity collectors, murderers and mermaids. She is joined by the ghost of a boxer, Ruby Doyle, who approached her in Highgate Cemetery claiming to know her, and has decided to tag along. Cora, seven foot tall in her stockings, provides the muscle of the operation.
As I said, it’s whimsical in spades but deft at making the characters who are living through it seem real and rounded. Bridie’s independence, tinged with loneliness and frustration; Cora’s fierce and dogged compassion; Ruby’s big-hearted humour and wasted desires. I was absolutely in love with them all; and with the peripheral characters too. The narrative has a second timeline, from Bridie’s childhood, that adds historical and emotional depth to her experiences.
Overall, a delight from end to end. I’m only erring on four rather than five stars for two reasons. First, the ultimate villain of the piece didn’t properly come to life for me and stays an enigma in a way that doesn’t make sense given how carefully Kidd developed the story. It makes the ending seem rushed and unearned, which I was sorry for. Second, there is an incident of assault at the midway point, which is implicitly sexual and possibly rape, and I didn’t feel the aftermath was handled very well. But still, still, a marvellous read and I’m happy Jess Kidd has two other books I can devour....more
What an urgent, timely and yet timeless novel; concerned with faith, forgiveness, atrocity, violence and love in ways that are reminiscent of The EsseWhat an urgent, timely and yet timeless novel; concerned with faith, forgiveness, atrocity, violence and love in ways that are reminiscent of The Essex Serpent and yet so unlike it. Stylistically Melmoth is constructed to an 18th century blueprint, forcefully omniscient and instructive in its narration. It’s gothic and baroque in quite uncomfortable ways, repetitious in its symbolism (all those jackdaws) but never loses the fluency that I find so arresting in Perry’s writing. It’s a work in voices, moving between different fragments of writing - letters, diaries, memoir - from different time periods and cultures. Because of that it sometimes seems disjointed, but the power of each of the pieces is startling. Hoffman’s diary in particular held me spellbound. Together they form this extraordinary testimony on human frailty and a treatise on predestination and the possibility of hope. While Melmoth doesn’t seem as perfect to me as The Essex Serpent did, it seems wholly bigger, on a different scale thematically. ...more
Brutal and brilliant, a combination of crime, folklore and horror (in the old, gothic sense) that had me twisted into a knot on the sofa for hours. I Brutal and brilliant, a combination of crime, folklore and horror (in the old, gothic sense) that had me twisted into a knot on the sofa for hours. I liked the way that Myers played with genre tropes - the lone wolf, the drunk journalist and their bromance; corrupt coppers; close knit communities - and layered them up with strata of contemporary and timeless forms of darkness and depravity. The cruelty of the landscape and the cruelty of man, and the body of a teenage girl caught in the teeth of both.
That said. Here is another Ben Myers book short of women, in which the only notable female character is a corpse. As with The Gallows Pole it makes some sense in context, but nevertheless leaves me on the edge of uncomfortable....more
It looks like I've been reading this for ages but In fact I gulped it down in two days separated by weeks of reading War and Peace and other things. IIt looks like I've been reading this for ages but In fact I gulped it down in two days separated by weeks of reading War and Peace and other things. It's one of those books that splits me in two. On the one hand I bloody loved it. It's raunchy, witty, swift and sweet, with some lovely peripheral characters to circle the central romantic pairing. On the other hand it's derivative and daft as a box of frogs and doesn't work very hard at world building. I have loads of boring questions about the unlikely plot. And that scene with the nudity and frolicking in the face of imminent danger? (If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about.) Oh please. Delicious and eye rollingly silly at the same time. But obviously I'll be devouring the whole series post-haste. It's the perfect guilty pleasure. ...more
The talent sings through this book from beginning to end, in the wild heathenish prose and in the intensity of the love that it describes. It's a ghosThe talent sings through this book from beginning to end, in the wild heathenish prose and in the intensity of the love that it describes. It's a ghost story, yes, and in its early stages pretty chilling, but latterly it grows into a gorgeous knot of romance, self-determination, fate, longing, family. The characters are electric, even those you only meet in vignette. Are you getting the picture? I loved loved loved this book....more
Honestly, I have no idea how to rate this book and so I haven't. On the one hand the writing, the writing. Yep, it's as good as everyone says it is. AHonestly, I have no idea how to rate this book and so I haven't. On the one hand the writing, the writing. Yep, it's as good as everyone says it is. And there are some lovely characters too, and some beautiful vignettes of relationships (especially sibling relationships) wrapped up in the package. But on the other hand, the rape, the domestic violence, the murder, the deformed babies, the rape again and again. I had to stop reading twice out of horror and pick up something else.
I also felt the sf payoff at the end was rather unearned, an odd fairytale romance to cleanse the palate after all that real world pain. ...more
A brutal, visceral and excruciating read, but deeply beautiful and moving. Daniel is a Welsh sheep farmer who has lost his wife; another nameless man A brutal, visceral and excruciating read, but deeply beautiful and moving. Daniel is a Welsh sheep farmer who has lost his wife; another nameless man is digging for badgers in his woods, baiting them with dogs for the entertainment of other cruel men. Their worlds converge, symbolically and actually, with violence and grief. Highly recommended, and easy to read in a single sitting. ...more
