megancmahon 's review for:

The Butcher's Daughter by David Demchuk, Corinne Leigh Clark

5.0

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Hoooooo boy this was so dark and I was nauseous for almost the whole time I read it. Five stars.

• For a while I did kind of wonder where this book was going - the plot with the Freemasons, the unreliable narrator aspect, the deaths announced in epistolary form...but at the end it all came together beautifully
• Unreliable narrator is one of my favourite literary devices, when done well. This was done EXTREMELY well, in my opinion - the dishonesty lies in Margaret's motivations, not necessarily the actions. It reminded me a bit of The Angel's Game: nobody disputes the deaths, but the why and how are up to the interpretation of the reader. The questions this left us with were chilling: was Margaret always a sociopath? Was she the one who killed Aphra? I found Johanna's disappearance from the narrative chilling, and at that point in the story all the deaths did begin to fall apart a bit - because Margaret was losing track of all her lies? Chilling. I loved it
• This book did the grime and grit and hopelessness and despair of low-class Victorian London BEAUTIFULLY. This was a noir-Penny-Dreadful and I could hardly bear to put it down, though I could NOT read it while I ate or before bed
• I loved reading Margaret's justifications for her actions, and her constantly asking the reader "if you had been in my shoes, what would you have done?" Probably not committed murder and cannibalism so much, but it was still an interesting point about the punishing nature of Victorian society
• I always love an epistolary novel and I thought this one was awesome. We never meet Miss Emily Gibson, but the shape of her absence is everywhere in the text. Since we know from the beginning that she's missing, her case colours the whole of the story. I loved being asked to fill in the gaps from my own imagination
• THE ENDING WAS AWESOME. Holy. You do have to know a bit about the Ripper case for the full impact to be felt, but WOW. The addition of the Freemasons and their "cult" really come full circle with the final case notes, especially

Overall I absolutely loved this even if it made me queasy (that shows great writing!). I hope I find more books like this: dark, visceral, atmospheric, and written with such splendor and immediacy.