Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh

“The story, of the longed-for princess who lay protected for so long in her enchanted sleep, was as familiar as my own. As my eyes closed at last, I saw the princess so very clearly—unnaturally still and silent on her narrow bed until the moment the enchantment broke. As I watched from behind my lids, the princess blinked, sloughed off the covering of cobwebs, and rose, looking astonished, from her bed.”

TITLE—The Heiress

AUTHOR—Molly Greeley

PUBLISHED—2021

PUBLISHER—William Morrow (HarperCollins imprint)

GENRE—historical fiction; retelling

SETTING—Georgian England

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—childhood illness, opium addiction, fairy tales, f/f romance, personal agency, possible off-the-page Autism, some gothic imagery, ghosts & hallucinations, sentient house vibes, female/queer agency in Georgian England, retelling-ish vibes, mother-daughter relationship, queer themes

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—Anne is the most relatable born-into-wealth privileged character I have ever read. Really enjoyed her character development.

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

PREMISE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

EXECUTION—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Snakes of ivy had begun a slow, strangling climb up the base of the poplar. They looped around the bulbous trunk and crept on tough hairy feet along the twisting branches. They moved, of course, far too slowly for human eyes to observe the actual motion, and yet I was able to track their progress over months and years of Sundays. My breast filled with affection for the ivy: its rustling three-pronged leaves, its apparent stillness and inexorable creep. And at the same time, I was sometimes punched by sympathy for the tree, for, just as inexorably, it was being smothered.”

My thoughts:

This book was very heavy seeing as how it treated drug (opium) addiction in a child 😰 but I thought it was very gently, thoughtfully, and genuinely handled. The characters were all quite vivid and very complex with no one feeling too tropey and even the insufferable Lady Catherine de Bourgh was interestingly portrayed in spite of her horribleness.

I loved Anne. She reminded me a lot of Anne Walker from GENTLEMAN JACK but was also different in a lot of ways. She felt very complex, sympathetic, and believable in light of her experiences and the time period in which the book was set.

I also loved the writing style. It had a definite modern (& almost gothic) literary feel to it while still capturing the very intentional tone of Austen’s original work along with some of the original wit (as much as could be reasonably applied in what was granted a more serious book). Tbh this book had no business being as beautifully written as it was. At times I completely forgot I was reading genre fiction.

And finally I just want to say that the deeper philosophy behind this book—the emphasis on the personhood of non-humans, the exploration of what personal agency can look like for a woman in Georgian England, love & sex, the complex nature of human personality & relationships—was all so well-handled and I really appreciate how effortlessly Greeley incorporated these themes into what was essentially just a fun piece of genre fiction. Her work is an excellent example of how you don’t need to have problematic stuff in your book just because you’re writing historical/genre fiction. Hats off to her for that. Will definitely be seeking out more of her books!

I would recommend this book to fans of Jane Austen and/or historical fiction, especially when they feature queer / gothic themes.

“…and then Eliza’s thigh pushed between both of mine, dragging my shift against my skin, startling me into an entirely new knowledge of myself. And shiver every Feather with Desire.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CW // child abuse, very graphic: opium addiction (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, by Jane Austen
THE CLERGYMAN’S WIFE, by Molly Greeley (Charlotte Lucas’s story)—TBR
MARVELOUS, by Molly Greeley (A Beauty & the Beast origin story)—TBR
ALICE IN WONDERLAND, by Lewis Carroll
AFTER ALICE, by Gregory Maguire
GENTLEMAN JACK (2019 TV show)
Anne Lister’s diaries
WHITE IS FOR WITCHING, by Helen Oyeyemi (sentient house, emaciating illness, also Ore was from Kent)

Content Warnings

ehmannky's review

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Were it not for the fact that this book is gay, I would not have finished it lol. There's a lot of things I liked here (addiction being portrayed, Anne being a lesbian, etc.), but there's so much more that I didn't enjoy. The pacing is not great (the plot of this book honestly starts 100+ pages in, the first 100 pages are Anne simply doped up from birth to 27 and by god you are going to learn about every one of those years), and Anne's addiction, which gets so much attention in the first half of the book, is completely dropped in the latter half. She doesn't have any lingering effects after the first round of kicking the habit. But I did like the final few chapters, I thought those were well done. But again the pacing in this was just...bad.

Also the entire plot where Anne's girlfriend won't go live with her because somehow being in a life partnership with a woman who she loves and is wealthy, could give you independence, will let you do whatever is somehow worse and than being a wife to a man she doesn't love who is only kind of wealthy, whom you have no independence from, and are only free form at death was so ridiculous. A third act break up for the sake of a third-act break up.

Content Warnings

lord_morpheus's review

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emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

hmatt's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Another great contemporary addition to the <I>P&P</I> universe. I'm finding that I quite enjoy these stories where we deep-dive into a minor character.

For whatever reason, though, I wasn't quite as compelled by this novel as I was by <I>The Other Bennet Sister</I>, which is the last one of these takes I read. This one is a bit lighter on plot, maybe, and it feels a bit too long. Part 4, in my opinion, was completely unnecessary and can be omitted from your reading.

Moreover, what the f is the author trying to say about substance dependency and abuse in Part 4?? Because it kind of seems like they're glamourizing it by having Ann return to using laudanum, which is not cool.

Content Warnings

barleymowetc's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

mairead_parade's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A very enjoyable example of the reimagine a classic minor character trope, with a really beautifully done ending. My only complaint was that the detox process felt a little glossed over, which didn’t seem right given how central it is to Anne’s development.

Content Warnings

a2_rache11's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

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