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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
“they were my life’s work but she was living, and i would do anything to save her.”
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fun concept, but the pacing could have been better. It’s very slow as the uneasy atmosphere builds but then rushes through the end to reveal all its secrets at once.
From Rebecca to the frustrating Other Typist, we have a dirth of sapphic coded atmospheric thrillers. I’m so used to the queer yearnings being subtext, that I was honestly shocked- and then very happy- when the romance in the Animals at Lockwood Manor jumped out of the subtext and into the main plotting of the story.
The story exudes an atmosphere more than a driving plot- during the Blitz, Hetty oversees the evacuation of a museum’s mammal collection from its London home into the crumbling Lockwood Manor. Lucy is the daughter of the household, haunted by the echoes of her mother and her own troubled thoughts. Lockwood Manor itself is a character- rotting, labyrinthine, and strange. Animals move in the night. Strange shapes disappear down corridors. All the while, the odious Major Lockwood lords over it all.
I love slow, intimate character driven stories, but even I wished for a little more movement, especially during the third quarter of the story. Movement can come from plot or character development, but something needs to feel like it’s unfolding to keep the reader engaged.
Still, past this lull, I loved this story. While I can’t speak to the care it shows all issues it touches, I found the book’s handling of mental illness adept, especially for this genre. Lucy is never someone to be fixed and she’s not treated as a plot device or puzzle piece, but rather a developed human who drives her own story. Her illness isn’t magicked away by love or plot contrivance, but we are able to see how healthier support systems can help people flourish. Lucy deserves only the best.
TLDR: an atmospheric sapphic thriller with nuanced inclusion of mental illness that drags in places but is saved by the strong dynamic between the two heroines and the eerie presence of Lockwood itself.
The story exudes an atmosphere more than a driving plot- during the Blitz, Hetty oversees the evacuation of a museum’s mammal collection from its London home into the crumbling Lockwood Manor. Lucy is the daughter of the household, haunted by the echoes of her mother and her own troubled thoughts. Lockwood Manor itself is a character- rotting, labyrinthine, and strange. Animals move in the night. Strange shapes disappear down corridors. All the while, the odious Major Lockwood lords over it all.
I love slow, intimate character driven stories, but even I wished for a little more movement, especially during the third quarter of the story. Movement can come from plot or character development, but something needs to feel like it’s unfolding to keep the reader engaged.
Still, past this lull, I loved this story. While I can’t speak to the care it shows all issues it touches, I found the book’s handling of mental illness adept, especially for this genre. Lucy is never someone to be fixed and she’s not treated as a plot device or puzzle piece, but rather a developed human who drives her own story. Her illness isn’t magicked away by love or plot contrivance, but we are able to see how healthier support systems can help people flourish. Lucy deserves only the best.
TLDR: an atmospheric sapphic thriller with nuanced inclusion of mental illness that drags in places but is saved by the strong dynamic between the two heroines and the eerie presence of Lockwood itself.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Animals at Lockwood Manor is a slow burn resulting in a lesbian affair. I was frustrated by the pacing, but I'm more of a thriller reader so the buildup was killing me. Still, who wouldn't keep going with the promise of a WW2 love story?
The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey is a mysterious, gothic, historical fiction set at the start of WW2. Thirty year old Hetty Cartwright is the curator of the taxidermy mammal collection at the London Natural History Museum. To protect the extensive collection from bombings it is evacuated to Lockwood Manor in the English countryside and Hetty is sent to live in the Manor to oversee the collection’s safety.
Hetty is an unusual, socially awkward woman. She is obsessed with the mammals in her care and determined to succeed in protecting them to ensure that she protects her ongoing employment. But immediately after the collection’s arrival one of the large jaguars disappears which is just the start of a number of perplexing and disturbing happenings related to the collection.
The owner of the Manor Lord Lockwood is an abrupt, overbearing man who clearly doesn’t like Hetty, while his daughter Lucy is fragile and suffers from nightmares. Soon Lucy and Hetty become friends and eventually form a romantic relationship.
As more animals disappear or are damaged and more eerie things happen, there is an increasing feeling of danger and Hetty feels as though her grip on reality is loosening. Lucy is also clearly suffering with traumatic memories but what has happened to affect her in such a way?
While I have not read any gothic novels I kind of felt like this was gothic-lite. The atmosphere, descriptions and eerie happenings all contributed to a moody feeling but it wasn’t as creepy as it might have been. The uncovering of the family secrets and the climatic ending was handled pretty well but overall the story was very slow moving.
The narrative switches between Hetty and Lucy in alternating chapters but I’m not sure this was entirely successful as their voices are fairly similar. I will say that the writing is lovely and descriptive and I certainly felt that the Manor and its occupants (including the animals) were vividly drawn.
This book falls into the like but not love category for me.
Hetty is an unusual, socially awkward woman. She is obsessed with the mammals in her care and determined to succeed in protecting them to ensure that she protects her ongoing employment. But immediately after the collection’s arrival one of the large jaguars disappears which is just the start of a number of perplexing and disturbing happenings related to the collection.
The owner of the Manor Lord Lockwood is an abrupt, overbearing man who clearly doesn’t like Hetty, while his daughter Lucy is fragile and suffers from nightmares. Soon Lucy and Hetty become friends and eventually form a romantic relationship.
As more animals disappear or are damaged and more eerie things happen, there is an increasing feeling of danger and Hetty feels as though her grip on reality is loosening. Lucy is also clearly suffering with traumatic memories but what has happened to affect her in such a way?
While I have not read any gothic novels I kind of felt like this was gothic-lite. The atmosphere, descriptions and eerie happenings all contributed to a moody feeling but it wasn’t as creepy as it might have been. The uncovering of the family secrets and the climatic ending was handled pretty well but overall the story was very slow moving.
The narrative switches between Hetty and Lucy in alternating chapters but I’m not sure this was entirely successful as their voices are fairly similar. I will say that the writing is lovely and descriptive and I certainly felt that the Manor and its occupants (including the animals) were vividly drawn.
This book falls into the like but not love category for me.
I understand and appreciate what seems to be the attempt by Jane Healey to write a queer love story that isn’t fraught with disaster over their queerness and their love. We have many books detailing our suffering as individuals within an historically marginalized and vilified community, and sometimes we want an unproblematic love story. The problem for me was that this may have contributed to a story lacking conflict.
Conflict (a lot of it) is something I would have - and did - expect from a story about closet lesbians taking place during a World War. Yet what little conflict there was barely even existed as a fleeting thought until around chapter 40 (there are 46 chapters).
I was regrettably bored. I think Jane Healey has talent and put down some lovely prose, but I think I would have enjoyed this more as a short novella. Not that I hated it. I certainly did not hate it. It just wasn’t a gripping read.
Actual rating: 3.5 out of 5
Conflict (a lot of it) is something I would have - and did - expect from a story about closet lesbians taking place during a World War. Yet what little conflict there was barely even existed as a fleeting thought until around chapter 40 (there are 46 chapters).
I was regrettably bored. I think Jane Healey has talent and put down some lovely prose, but I think I would have enjoyed this more as a short novella. Not that I hated it. I certainly did not hate it. It just wasn’t a gripping read.
Actual rating: 3.5 out of 5
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes