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A review by shannonsthilaire
The Nightingale's Castle by Sonia Velton
4.0
I was on edge in a good way reading this vibey, lyrical novel.
Countess Erzsébet Báthory, a 16th century Hungarian noble, was notorious for hiring young girls and doing terrible things to them. In this novel, a girl whom we are led to be believe is a secret relation is hired to work at the castle.
With a premise like this, you know stuff is going to go down. We will never really know what happened inside that castle, but the version of this author puts forth is among the most likely ones. Did the blood countess actually bathe in the blood of young girls? Or was she villainized by the powerful men who were indebted to her? Like Circe, Medea, and other retellings, The Nightingale's Castle reveals the real woman behind the story.
It’s told with an omniscient POV, which is an ambitious undertaking that pays off. It was fascinating to get into the heads of the various people who lived in the castle and were caught up in this nightmarish story. It reads like a fairytale, an ominous one.
I was most engaged with the first half, and when the torture and punishments came to the forefront of the story, involving characters I wasn’t attached to, it did drag a bit, but I remained immersed in the world and zipped through to the end.
Countess Erzsébet Báthory, a 16th century Hungarian noble, was notorious for hiring young girls and doing terrible things to them. In this novel, a girl whom we are led to be believe is a secret relation is hired to work at the castle.
With a premise like this, you know stuff is going to go down. We will never really know what happened inside that castle, but the version of this author puts forth is among the most likely ones. Did the blood countess actually bathe in the blood of young girls? Or was she villainized by the powerful men who were indebted to her? Like Circe, Medea, and other retellings, The Nightingale's Castle reveals the real woman behind the story.
It’s told with an omniscient POV, which is an ambitious undertaking that pays off. It was fascinating to get into the heads of the various people who lived in the castle and were caught up in this nightmarish story. It reads like a fairytale, an ominous one.
I was most engaged with the first half, and when the torture and punishments came to the forefront of the story, involving characters I wasn’t attached to, it did drag a bit, but I remained immersed in the world and zipped through to the end.