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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
I have to admit I went into this book with certain expectations and that expectation was turn completely upside down by the time I had finished. There is an air of suspension that follows you through the whole story. I loved this feeling and not knowing exactly where the feeling was coming from. The author does a really job of nudging us with mysterious happenings while giving us no solid answers until the truth I sprung on us at the end. The characters are very well written, both those we are meant to like and those we aren’t. I loved getting to know them and seeing how the develop in the midst of the tension and dread.
oh to live surrounded by decaying taxidermy while i exchange loaded glances with a beautiful heiress and also the house is certainly haunted, whether by the past or by literal ghosts or both
Thoroughly enjoyed the gloomy, gothic atmosphere of this book. The changing POV was immensely enjoyable too, though it was at times a bit hard to quickly identify who was talking. The pace may be slow to some, but I personally think it suited the theme of an old, infested manor and its inhabitants quite well. The feeling of being trapped with no way out was pouring out of the pages. The one thing that disappointed me was the resolution - I suppose I expected the "twist" to be something entirely different and definitely not as abrupt. While the better chunk of the book is developing slowly and steadily as the tension grows, the ending feels sudden and - in my opinion - unsatisfying.
Still would recommend, though probably more as gothic romance than gothic horror.
Still would recommend, though probably more as gothic romance than gothic horror.
Encompasses almost every single gothic trope I can think of.
Interesting story with a brilliant setting. I loved all the animal elements - especially when some of the characters were likened to an animal. Slightly spooky, well written with a good twist. Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and the authors for the ARC.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A unique and wonderfully spun gothic mystery taking place in England during WWII. Hetty is promoted to Director of the Museum at the start of the war. She is tasked with safeguarding and accompanying many of the mammal specimens of the museum to Lockwood Manor where they’ll reside during the war in hopes of being protected from the bombs expected to rain down on London. Lockwood is an enormous estate compromising of 92 rooms, several servants, Lord Lockwood, and his daughter Lucy. The Lockwoods recently suffered a tragedy when Lord Lockwood’s wife and mother died in a car accident.
Hetty and the animals move into the manor and almost immediately strange things begin happening. First, the jaguar vanishes. Then, animals seem to move to new locations throughout the night. Rumors of the manor being haunted are whispered amongst the servants. Details of Mrs. Lockwood’s madness and Lucy’s night terrors and nervous personality come to light. Overwhelmed by the amount of work, isolation, and never ending damage to the animals she must try to mitigate, Hetty wonders if the house is making her mad too.
Dark and surprising, the Animals at Lockwood Manor was a fast read that transported me back in time. The details of the manor and exotic beasts were perfectly relayed and the descriptive writing wove beautiful imagery. Absolutely recommend!
Thank you BookishFirst and the publisher for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
A unique and wonderfully spun gothic mystery taking place in England during WWII. Hetty is promoted to Director of the Museum at the start of the war. She is tasked with safeguarding and accompanying many of the mammal specimens of the museum to Lockwood Manor where they’ll reside during the war in hopes of being protected from the bombs expected to rain down on London. Lockwood is an enormous estate compromising of 92 rooms, several servants, Lord Lockwood, and his daughter Lucy. The Lockwoods recently suffered a tragedy when Lord Lockwood’s wife and mother died in a car accident.
Hetty and the animals move into the manor and almost immediately strange things begin happening. First, the jaguar vanishes. Then, animals seem to move to new locations throughout the night. Rumors of the manor being haunted are whispered amongst the servants. Details of Mrs. Lockwood’s madness and Lucy’s night terrors and nervous personality come to light. Overwhelmed by the amount of work, isolation, and never ending damage to the animals she must try to mitigate, Hetty wonders if the house is making her mad too.
Dark and surprising, the Animals at Lockwood Manor was a fast read that transported me back in time. The details of the manor and exotic beasts were perfectly relayed and the descriptive writing wove beautiful imagery. Absolutely recommend!
Thank you BookishFirst and the publisher for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
lesbianism with slow build-up, only to be clashed with a disappointing conclusion that doesn't even make any sense from the build-up
‘The Animals at Lockwood Manor' reminded me somewhat of the classic ‘The Secret Garden’ by F.H. Burnett; there being a large mansion tucked away in an English countryside, with a semi-welcomed guest who arrives for an unidentified amount of time, but with a more gothic twist to it.
Hettie Cartwright is young museum curator, who with the start of the WWII, finds herself in charge of safekeeping the Natural History Museum’s animal collection (originally just mammals, but that soon increased to include others), which has been shipped out of London in attempt to protect it from the German air raids. Lockwood Manor with its ninety-two rooms seemed like an idyllic space in which the menagerie would be free to peacefully wait-out the war, but as often seems to be the case, old mansions have secrets of their own which will threaten all of the mansion’s inhabitants.
Hettie soon after moving in, realises that the task of keeping her chargers safe and in the condition they arrived in will be harder than she imagined, for they begin to mysteriously move around or even disappear only to turn up skinned from their fur. The two other occupants of the Manor, Lord Lockwood and his daughter Lucy complicate things further. Lord Lockwood is arrogant and haughty and quick to turn things around and blame Hetty when things go wrong (which happens too often for Hettie’s liking). Meanwhile, Lucy seems to be burdened by some kind of trauma and bouts of ‘bad nerves’ and proves to be a distraction of a completely different kind that endangers to break the hound-like focus Hettie had put on the museum’s collection.
What’s more, Lockwood Manor appears to be head to head in competition for the ‘Creepiest Place Award’ with Stephen King’s Overlook Hotel, with the former being written out to be almost a character of its own. Sounds resonate through empty corridors, footsteps are to be heard in all hours of the night, and servants seems to want to leave not long after being hired with alarming frequency. Soon, Hettie thinking starts to mirror that of Lucy; that there might be a presence, with them on their sight.
I quite enjoyed reading this; there was no work required to get into the novel or stay focused. The random shenanigans involving the animals, the Lockwood Manor itself and the question of what fate awaited the two young women, created a small frisson of tension. This stretched out throughout the length of the novel, keeping the pace steady. I liked how the novel is primarily told from Hettie’s point of view, with a few short chapters in-between, narrated by Lucy Lockwood; offering a needed glimpse of the past and alternate viewpoints of the present. Both of the characters were complex and with faults, but likeable all the same. Throughout, the author tackled a mix of issues, which I will not mention here in order to avoid spoilers, but which added to the depth of the novel that made it a worthwhile and suspenseful read. ‘The Animals of Lockwood Manor’ was far more better than what I envisaged after reading the synopsis. The original storyline and atmospheric setting make it one a kind.
**Thank you to NetGalley and the Pan McMillan for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review
Hettie Cartwright is young museum curator, who with the start of the WWII, finds herself in charge of safekeeping the Natural History Museum’s animal collection (originally just mammals, but that soon increased to include others), which has been shipped out of London in attempt to protect it from the German air raids. Lockwood Manor with its ninety-two rooms seemed like an idyllic space in which the menagerie would be free to peacefully wait-out the war, but as often seems to be the case, old mansions have secrets of their own which will threaten all of the mansion’s inhabitants.
Hettie soon after moving in, realises that the task of keeping her chargers safe and in the condition they arrived in will be harder than she imagined, for they begin to mysteriously move around or even disappear only to turn up skinned from their fur. The two other occupants of the Manor, Lord Lockwood and his daughter Lucy complicate things further. Lord Lockwood is arrogant and haughty and quick to turn things around and blame Hetty when things go wrong (which happens too often for Hettie’s liking). Meanwhile, Lucy seems to be burdened by some kind of trauma and bouts of ‘bad nerves’ and proves to be a distraction of a completely different kind that endangers to break the hound-like focus Hettie had put on the museum’s collection.
What’s more, Lockwood Manor appears to be head to head in competition for the ‘Creepiest Place Award’ with Stephen King’s Overlook Hotel, with the former being written out to be almost a character of its own. Sounds resonate through empty corridors, footsteps are to be heard in all hours of the night, and servants seems to want to leave not long after being hired with alarming frequency. Soon, Hettie thinking starts to mirror that of Lucy; that there might be a presence, with them on their sight.
I quite enjoyed reading this; there was no work required to get into the novel or stay focused. The random shenanigans involving the animals, the Lockwood Manor itself and the question of what fate awaited the two young women, created a small frisson of tension. This stretched out throughout the length of the novel, keeping the pace steady. I liked how the novel is primarily told from Hettie’s point of view, with a few short chapters in-between, narrated by Lucy Lockwood; offering a needed glimpse of the past and alternate viewpoints of the present. Both of the characters were complex and with faults, but likeable all the same. Throughout, the author tackled a mix of issues, which I will not mention here in order to avoid spoilers, but which added to the depth of the novel that made it a worthwhile and suspenseful read. ‘The Animals of Lockwood Manor’ was far more better than what I envisaged after reading the synopsis. The original storyline and atmospheric setting make it one a kind.
**Thank you to NetGalley and the Pan McMillan for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review
Intimacy was allowed in moments of great fear, when all the barriers of propriety broke down.
See, this was a really slow book, very internal, with not a lot of action happening. Not having read the synopsis, it took me a while to pinpoint what the book would be focusing on, whether it was the paranormal elements, the mild horror, the interpersonal relationships. This is a book that might struggle to find its audience; I feel like a lot of people might find it dull? Buuuuuut luckily for me, I am exactly its audience! I loved the slowness, the fact that a lot of this hinged on memories and meandering thoughts and relationships between the characters.
In the days before WWII begins in earnest, many museums in London are evacuating their pieces to volunteer houses outside of the city for the duration of the war. Hetty, one of the employees at the natural history museum, is tasked with the caretaking of the taxidermised mammals, which will all be housed at Lockwood Manor. There, she meets the arrogant Lord Lockwood, and his beautiful and mysterious daughter Lucy, and finds herself both embroiled in a mystery, strange occurrences involving the animals, and possibly falling in love. This is very obviously inspired by Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, what with the huge manor, the very gothic atmosphere, and Lord Lockwood's wife, who grew up in the Caribbean. She's dead when the story begins, but still haunts the house like Bertha did, and there are some great parallels with her daughter, our second main character. I just adored all the descriptions, and how effectively this really close and claustrophobic atmosphere was created, shadowed by all these dead animals populating the space.
We've got a dual first person POV, and I loved them both; at first I thought the story might be more effective if we were limited to Hettie's POV, but I came to really appreciate everything we saw from Lucy's perspective. It really heightened the tension and some of the spookiness. I also just really enjoyed their relationship; historical narratives of lonely women who are trying to find their niche, trying to be understood, and finally finding friendship in each other is just... I love it. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that there's some Caribbean folklore in here, because of Lucy's mother. I wasn't expecting to find Lajabless (La Diablesse, in the proper French) in these pages, and her story isn't really in keeping with the folklore I know, but the inclusion and the way it's used is interesting.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Sarah Lambie, which I adored, very shallowly, because her voice reminded me of another narrator whom I love. And she did such an effective job of conveying the melancholy, the gothic air. I think if you're going into this expecting a heavy mystery, or very involved paranormal stuff, you're going to be a bit disappointed. But if you're in for something slower, more thoughtful, with a love story at its heart, you might enjoy this!
Content warnings:
Spoiler
discussion of child sexual abuse, rape, anxiety/panic attacksIt was as if I were kindle that had been lit by her touch, and she had joined me in the flames.
In an utter, unending ocean of books about WWII, I’m not sure that this one makes much of an impression. Of course, the focus of the book is far away from the action of the war. Lockwood Manor has become host to some of the taxidermy from a museum in London in hopes that they might be saved from any potential bombing. But Lockwood is quite the gothic manor, giving those that stay there strange nightmares and of course, there are rumors of ghosts. That is the plot thread that drew me in—a bunch of creepy taxidermy and ghosts? Yes, please.
Though the first part definitely held my interest, I found myself skimming by the time I was about halfway through, and in the end, I can’t say I enjoyed this book much. It is rather repetitive, with main character Hetty constantly questioning just about everything (seriously, there are SO MANY rhetorical questions in this book, sweet Jesus), nervously checking on all the museum displays, thinking about her job, worrying about everything, rinse, repeat, etc.
Though this only comes to fruition more than halfway through the book, the novel was also interested in the burgeoning relationship between Hetty and another woman (I won’t say who so there’s no spoilers!). I appreciated the story and unconventionality of their romance in a time when love between two women or two men was almost unheard of. It is also refreshing to see this diversity in a novel.
But to me, the book felt aimless—what is the goal of the narrative? A romance tale? Historical fiction? A ghost story? It couldn’t seem to decide what it really wanted to be about, and in the end, to me it felt like it wasn’t about much at all.
While most of the chapters are from Hetty’s POV, there are some interspersed chapters from another character, and these chapters were always set fully in italics. It’s really taxing on the eye to read a lot of italics, so I balked every time they came up. Perhaps that’s a personal thing. Additionally, they felt like unimportant fluff, not really adding anything of substance to the narrative.
My thanks to HMH for my advance copy of this one to read and review.
Though the first part definitely held my interest, I found myself skimming by the time I was about halfway through, and in the end, I can’t say I enjoyed this book much. It is rather repetitive, with main character Hetty constantly questioning just about everything (seriously, there are SO MANY rhetorical questions in this book, sweet Jesus), nervously checking on all the museum displays, thinking about her job, worrying about everything, rinse, repeat, etc.
Though this only comes to fruition more than halfway through the book, the novel was also interested in the burgeoning relationship between Hetty and another woman (I won’t say who so there’s no spoilers!). I appreciated the story and unconventionality of their romance in a time when love between two women or two men was almost unheard of. It is also refreshing to see this diversity in a novel.
But to me, the book felt aimless—what is the goal of the narrative? A romance tale? Historical fiction? A ghost story? It couldn’t seem to decide what it really wanted to be about, and in the end, to me it felt like it wasn’t about much at all.
While most of the chapters are from Hetty’s POV, there are some interspersed chapters from another character, and these chapters were always set fully in italics. It’s really taxing on the eye to read a lot of italics, so I balked every time they came up. Perhaps that’s a personal thing. Additionally, they felt like unimportant fluff, not really adding anything of substance to the narrative.
My thanks to HMH for my advance copy of this one to read and review.