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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Identical twin sisters Keziah and Tilly are like two peas in a pod, apart from the heart-shaped mole on Tilly's cheek - until an incident when they are five-years-old, which means Tilly never grows another inch. Their manipulative, drunken father spots a business advantage in their physical disparity, and he takes them off travelling around the countryside fairs to be gawped at while he peddles his addictive remedies to the unwary.
When Keziah and Tilly are fifteen, their father cruelly sells them on to a mysterious man known only as Captain - a move which introduces them to a very different kind of family, and a chain of events that brings danger and darkness their way...
Theo's mother died in childbirth, after she was parted from her lover. Raised by his callous, grandfather Lord Seabrook, a man with very particular vices who resents the loss of his only daughter, Theo's only friend is his kindly old governess Miss Miller. When his grandfather remarries and produces a legitimate heir, he banishes Theo and Miss Miller from Dorney Hall and forbids them ever to contact him again. Theo's hopes of becoming a surgeon are dashed, and his future looks bleak, until he finds employment with Dr Summerwell at his Museum of Anatomy in London, and meets Captain and his unusual, theatrical ‘family’.
The story is told beautifully via the narratives of Keziah and Theo, who capture your imagination from the very first page, and through them Essie Fox brings the darker sides of Victorian entertainment alive from the points of view of the performers (both willing and unwilling), their clientele, and those who enable their weird, wonderful, and often debauched, pursuits. This is a world where the public are captivated by anything out of the ordinary, titillated by anyone deemed a 'freak', and willing to part with their cash for a glimpse of something shocking - or maybe more, if the price is right.
Against this backdrop, Fox conjures up deliciously Gothic storylines full of period feel that immerse you in the era, and fills them with characters painted as living breathing people that leap from the page and stir your emotion. There are villains and heroes enough to make this novel a highly entertaining Victorian melodrama, and Fox's writing ties you to the fates of Captain's little family, and the troubled Theo, through all the trials and tribulations she throws at them.
Fox weaves themes of loss, obsession, love, acceptance, and reconciliation throughout, and explores some very interesting aspects of the notion of 'fascination'. I love the way she also examines so many facets of the world of medicine during the Victorian age, and the myriad practices that existed on its fringes too, forcing you to think about the performance aspects of their work - and the macabre acts indulged in by some of those acknowledged as doctors. And the way she holds the secret of Theo's feelings of kinship with Captain's family until almost the very end was very cleverly done.
I adored everything about this book, especially the way Fox channels some of my beloved Victorian authors in constructing a story that easily holds you as fast as anything Wilkie Collins could have written. The nod towards the adventures of the notorious Fanny Hill, and the history of the author's family, is a delight too. If Gothic done well is your bag, then this is absolutely the book for you!
When Keziah and Tilly are fifteen, their father cruelly sells them on to a mysterious man known only as Captain - a move which introduces them to a very different kind of family, and a chain of events that brings danger and darkness their way...
Theo's mother died in childbirth, after she was parted from her lover. Raised by his callous, grandfather Lord Seabrook, a man with very particular vices who resents the loss of his only daughter, Theo's only friend is his kindly old governess Miss Miller. When his grandfather remarries and produces a legitimate heir, he banishes Theo and Miss Miller from Dorney Hall and forbids them ever to contact him again. Theo's hopes of becoming a surgeon are dashed, and his future looks bleak, until he finds employment with Dr Summerwell at his Museum of Anatomy in London, and meets Captain and his unusual, theatrical ‘family’.
The story is told beautifully via the narratives of Keziah and Theo, who capture your imagination from the very first page, and through them Essie Fox brings the darker sides of Victorian entertainment alive from the points of view of the performers (both willing and unwilling), their clientele, and those who enable their weird, wonderful, and often debauched, pursuits. This is a world where the public are captivated by anything out of the ordinary, titillated by anyone deemed a 'freak', and willing to part with their cash for a glimpse of something shocking - or maybe more, if the price is right.
Against this backdrop, Fox conjures up deliciously Gothic storylines full of period feel that immerse you in the era, and fills them with characters painted as living breathing people that leap from the page and stir your emotion. There are villains and heroes enough to make this novel a highly entertaining Victorian melodrama, and Fox's writing ties you to the fates of Captain's little family, and the troubled Theo, through all the trials and tribulations she throws at them.
Fox weaves themes of loss, obsession, love, acceptance, and reconciliation throughout, and explores some very interesting aspects of the notion of 'fascination'. I love the way she also examines so many facets of the world of medicine during the Victorian age, and the myriad practices that existed on its fringes too, forcing you to think about the performance aspects of their work - and the macabre acts indulged in by some of those acknowledged as doctors. And the way she holds the secret of Theo's feelings of kinship with Captain's family until almost the very end was very cleverly done.
I adored everything about this book, especially the way Fox channels some of my beloved Victorian authors in constructing a story that easily holds you as fast as anything Wilkie Collins could have written. The nod towards the adventures of the notorious Fanny Hill, and the history of the author's family, is a delight too. If Gothic done well is your bag, then this is absolutely the book for you!
I have never been story-edged so hard in my life.
This had so many moments to make it so good and everytime after a crumb of something that could have been, the story did a 180 and became dull again.
And then in the final pages the picks so fast, tossing all the crumbs together to make a lacklustre finale between the almost comicbookesque villians.
And then it doesn't end. The epilogue is 50 pages of finding all the loose threads and tying them together messily with the feeling 'ah yes, I said that.'
I picked this up because premise sounded really good. But it didn't even hold up to the title.
The fascination is not there, it barely goes past acquaintances storytelling wise. But characters sometimes act like they are eachother lifeline without anything to back it up. The actions of the characters didn't make a lick of sense.
I wish it explored the hinted clairvoyance of one of the characters more. I wish the fascination with medical oddities was much darker and intense instead of 'welp this is my grandfather's creepy basement' at the beginning of the book.
I have never been so frustrated in my life after reading a book.
This had so many moments to make it so good and everytime after a crumb of something that could have been, the story did a 180 and became dull again.
And then in the final pages the picks so fast, tossing all the crumbs together to make a lacklustre finale between the almost comicbookesque villians.
And then it doesn't end. The epilogue is 50 pages of finding all the loose threads and tying them together messily with the feeling 'ah yes, I said that.'
I picked this up because premise sounded really good. But it didn't even hold up to the title.
The fascination is not there, it barely goes past acquaintances storytelling wise. But characters sometimes act like they are eachother lifeline without anything to back it up. The actions of the characters didn't make a lick of sense.
I wish it explored the hinted clairvoyance of one of the characters more. I wish the fascination with medical oddities was much darker and intense instead of 'welp this is my grandfather's creepy basement' at the beginning of the book.
I have never been so frustrated in my life after reading a book.
I loved this so much. The characters are so rich - I adore Theo, Keziah, and Tilly, the heart of the novel, but the minor characters are the ones that I feel truly have my heart. I would die for Aleski Turgenev!!!!!
The plot is fairly predictable, but I feel like it's predictable in the way of 19th century novels like Dickens and Gaskell, where you know where the story is going but it doesn't matter because it's more about how the characters get there. Even though I knew more or less how it would all end, it was really satisfying to follow it through each point, and I thought the various twists and turns were delicately handled so that Big Reveals never felt irritating or overwrought, and the laying out of clues were very enjoyable!
Beautifully written, a little eerie at times, and ultimately driven by a cast of lovable characters that I adored!
The plot is fairly predictable, but I feel like it's predictable in the way of 19th century novels like Dickens and Gaskell, where you know where the story is going but it doesn't matter because it's more about how the characters get there. Even though I knew more or less how it would all end, it was really satisfying to follow it through each point, and I thought the various twists and turns were delicately handled so that Big Reveals never felt irritating or overwrought, and the laying out of clues were very enjoyable!
Beautifully written, a little eerie at times, and ultimately driven by a cast of lovable characters that I adored!
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
awkardly written with thin characterisation
The title of this is somewhat apt as it seems modern authors have a fascination with freakshows and grotesqueries of the Victorian era. I am not sure it fascinates me enough to warrant the number of books that get written on the subject though. This one is competent enough, following the story of the bastard heir to a rich estate who gets disenfranchised when a new and more legitimate heir is born. He reconnects with a pair of twins, one normal the other suffering from dwarfism, that he met once at a carnival, whilst at the same time working at a public 'cabinet' of the macabre. A mystery follows that links everyone back together in weird and mystical way.
It is dealing with some fairly classic tropes of both the gothic and carnival genres. The story flows well enough, although the convenience of all the links exposed does feel somewhat contrived in places. Ultimately I found it blended in with a lot of other books in these tropes and whilst competent it just wasn't memorable enough for me.
It is dealing with some fairly classic tropes of both the gothic and carnival genres. The story flows well enough, although the convenience of all the links exposed does feel somewhat contrived in places. Ultimately I found it blended in with a lot of other books in these tropes and whilst competent it just wasn't memorable enough for me.
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror
Moderate: Addiction, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Abortion
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No