Victorian Psycho is a wonderfully grotesque and uniquely written work of historical fiction about a governess beginning a new job with the Pounds family. This one is short and not so sweet, and Feito's deftly detailed and wholly original writing style will knock your socks off. Her abnormally delicious way of describing events, both expected… Continue reading Review: Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher is a delightfully gory* novel set in late 19th century North Carolina following scientific illustrator Sonia Wilson as she begins a new job with a reclusive, surly naturalist with a penchant for insects and parasites. A stark departure from her usual botanical illustrations, crafting insects and their life cycles proves… Continue reading Review: Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
Burn Down Master's House by Clay Cane takes place over about thirty years stretching from Pennsylvania to South Carolina, with the overarching story's inciting event taking place in Goochland, Virginia. Author Clay Cane based these four interconnected stories off of his own ancestry, as well as real events in the 19th century American South pulled… Continue reading Review: Burn Down Master’s House by Clay Cane
The Sea Child by Linda Wilgus follows poor widow Isabel newly arrived back in her home village of Helford in Cornwall three years after the death of her husband at the Battle of Trafalgar. Isabel is no stranger to the sea--her late husband was a midshipman, her adopted father was an admiral, and most intriguingly,… Continue reading Review: The Sea Child by Linda Wilgus
Daughter of Strangers by Maybelle Wallis rounds of the trilogy which began with Heart of Cruelty and was followed by The Piano Player. The third book in the Doughty trilogy, Daughter of Strangers relegates William and Jane to the background and focuses instead on William's colleague from Dublin, now in New York with the Doughtys,… Continue reading Review: Daughter of Strangers by Maybelle Wallis
The House of Two Sisters by Rachel Louise Driscoll (titled Nephthys in the UK) follows Clementine "Clemmie", daughter of a famed Victorian Egyptologist and "mummy unwrapper." Clemmie ventures alone to Cairo to return one of her father's (pilfered) artifacts that Clemmie believes has cursed her family. (Read into that the colonialism and superstition as you… Continue reading Review: The House of Two Sisters by Rachel Louise Driscoll
The Piano Player by Maybelle Wallis, the sequel to Heart of Cruelty, picks up about eight years later in Dublin. Dr. William Doughty works in Meath Hospital amidst both the Great Famine and a cholera epidemic. Meanwhile, Jane and her actor husband Edmond are newly arrived in Dublin on their theatre troupe's tour. Jane and… Continue reading Review: The Piano Player by Maybelle Wallis
For as much as I enjoy Jurassic Park (the movie,) I've actually never read any Michael Crichton but have always intended to. I randomly stumbled across Dragon Teeth, released posthumously, which centers around the "bone wars" of early paleontology in the 1870s American West. Dragon Teeth follows 18-year-old William Johnson of Philadelphia, a Yale student… Continue reading Review: Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips follows a family though the American Civil War from its start to tenuous post-war reconstruction. The novel begins in 1874 West Virginia with young ConaLee and her mute mother Eliza being taken to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum by a man known only as "Papa," but who is not, in… Continue reading Review: Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
This Savage World by Anna Housego opens in 1770s London where young Maggie Bloodworth is trying to make her way in a city unforgiving to the poor. She is taken on as an apprentice midwife and eventually learns her trade with enough skill to stand on her own two feet. As Maggie's life progresses, she… Continue reading Review: This Savage World by Anna Housego
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