A review by jenna_le
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

4.0

Its closest antecedents are Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, especially the former, to whose narrative beats it holds up a twisted funhouse mirror and which it sometimes quotes almost-verbatim in its lampshading way; elements of Goblin Market and Tam Lin are also mixed in, together with some impressively original world-building drawn from Ng's own imagination. I would contend that Matthew Lewis's The Monk is also a direct ancestor, though. Not a book for kids or the faint of heart (it takes a theme or two that were arguably implicit in its Bronte forerunners and makes them explicit, extending them to taboo and disturbing conclusions), but still a smart, magnetic read for fantasy-inclined adults and a formidable debut.