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adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Set in the Victorian era - 1840, when women were second class citizens and poverty levels were high, this tale follows the frustrating lives of four women after a winged woman is dragged from the Thames. A wonderfully dark historical fiction, with a sprinkling of magical realism, the slowly interlinking tales really bind this narrative together. (I have given a brief outline of each woman below, as it was a little hard to remember each at first).
Natalia - Scottish traveller and gifted storyteller who journeys by ship to London after being disowned by her family.
Etta - A talented and entirely unappreciated botanist, who lives with her cruel half brother after her fathers demise.
Mary - An excellent writer, who lives with her uncle Joss, a grieving drunk, but a successful journalist whom she often covers for when he is in a drunken stupor.
Annie - Skilled artist and lonely wife of Edward - an ambitious surgeon who is desperate for prowess and status as he overlooks his wife’s sadness as they struggle with infertility.
This really is a brilliant and beautiful book, it took me about 25% to get into it properly, but thoroughly worth it as I couldn’t stop listening after that.
CW - Dissection, vivisection, amputation, graphic, infertility
Natalia - Scottish traveller and gifted storyteller who journeys by ship to London after being disowned by her family.
Etta - A talented and entirely unappreciated botanist, who lives with her cruel half brother after her fathers demise.
Mary - An excellent writer, who lives with her uncle Joss, a grieving drunk, but a successful journalist whom she often covers for when he is in a drunken stupor.
Annie - Skilled artist and lonely wife of Edward - an ambitious surgeon who is desperate for prowess and status as he overlooks his wife’s sadness as they struggle with infertility.
This really is a brilliant and beautiful book, it took me about 25% to get into it properly, but thoroughly worth it as I couldn’t stop listening after that.
CW - Dissection, vivisection, amputation, graphic, infertility
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Body horror
Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Sexism
Minor: Classism, Alcoholism, and Fire/Fire injury
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