A review by storiesdontcare
The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan

5.0

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect of this book, but I wanted to finish reading it before venturing out to see the new film or the older one. (Had I remembered that Nicole Kidman lives in Nashville and realized she was doing a Q&A after a screening I MIGHT HAVE DONE OTHERWISE, but I digress!) The novel is told from multiple perspectives of all the women and girls living at Farnsworth, and I appreciate the different voices, unreliable narrators, and the fact that some secrets are revealed but never fully discussed--it gives the feeling that unlike Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, these characters do have a life beyond what's on the page. Cullinan manages to make all of the characters sympathetic at one time or other, and I just really loved the air of stuffy Southern Gothic secrecy that permeates throughout the book.