Review: The Extraordinary Florence Stoker by Karen Brooks

* Copy courtesy of HQ Fiction *

The Extraordinary Florence Stoker by Karen Brooks is about the life of Florence Balcombe, the fiercely intelligent young woman who courted Oscar Wilde but went on to marry Bram Stoker, who famously penned the gothic horror novel Dracula. The novel takes place between 1876 - 1937, and while Dracula was published in 1897 and features heavily in the second half of Florence's life, you don't need to have read it in order to understand or appreciate her story.

Growing up in Dublin, Florence fell in love with the talented and flamboyant Irish writer Oscar Wilde however their relationship didn't last and ended after approximately two years. I thoroughly enjoyed their clever and quick-witted dialogue which continued when Florence met Bram Stoker.

"Well, in that you're wrong. There's nothing more fashionable than outrage - moral outrage especially. And Oscar excels at that - and not just in fiction." Page 319 

Florence is extremely well read and desperate to leave Ireland and Bram wants to be a writer so the two marry and follow their dreams to London. Brooks is able to bring Victorian era London to life so well I could almost hear the hustle and bustle of the city and see the smuts clinging to the curtains.

Going into this, I thought Bram Stoker was a lawyer and writer, but I didn't know he was also a critic and spent the majority of his career working as a theatre manager for famous actor Henry Irving.

Florence dislikes Irving from their first interaction and struggles to accept Bram's loyalty and dedication to the man in the face of his unceasing demands. The relationship between the two seemed to me to be one of devoted and adoring employee ensnared by a selfish and arrogant narcissist who gradually drains the life force from this brilliant man.

This serves as a constant strain on Florence's marriage and the writing was so effective I found my own temperature rising and teeth clenching. In fact, if I wasn't holding the book I think my hands would have been balled up in fists as I willed Bram to quit his post or at least exit Henry Irving's overbearing orbit.

This marital drama is offset by the kind of salons and events you and I can only dream of attending, with plenty of prominent names from the world of literature, music, theatre, art and politics.

"Time is described in a myriad of ways by poets, writers, artists, merchants and even ordinary folk. We're all at its mercy in one way or another. We have too little, or too much. We rush, we loiter; we spend it wisely or foolishly. Too often we neglect to consider its passing until, one day, something happens to draw attention to what we've squandered. Then, all the days, weeks, months and years that have been and gone concertina into a singular terrible moment where time stands completely still. This was that moment." Page 327

Readers hoping for an insight into the creation of classics like The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde or Dracula by Bram Stoker will of course find it here, but you needn't have read either in order to enjoy Florence's role in them both. Oscar Wilde's court case features in Florence's story and I found myself judging her harshly for her lack of support during and following his trial and subsequent sentencing.

Bram only manages to write in scarce snatches of time and I enjoyed the insight into his childhood, learning he spent the first seven years of his life as an invalid. His interest in eerie folk tales - often told to him by his nurse and mammy - were evident and I can't help but wonder what else he would have written if he'd had more time. Florence lived to the age of 78 and we follow her life to the end, so we expect to read about Oscar Wilde's passing but I was disappointed that the death of her dear friend Ellen Terry only warranted the barest mention.

After Bram's death, the film adaptation Nosferatu in 1927 changed Florence's life. I had no idea about the protracted copyright battle over the film and I'll admit this drawn out legal fight became a little tedious to read about for me. Florence Stoker's determined battle for copyright was unwavering and her hard-won accomplishment is still felt today.

"Because of Florence Stoker, from this day forward, an author's copyright will be enshrined in every single deal that's made. Every contract will now include a clause protecting the creator's rights, whether it be for film, theatre, and maybe even for that new-fangled invention." Page 527

The Extraordinary Florence Stoker by Karen Brooks is expertly researched and Florence was an interesting and accomplished woman in her own right. She supported her husband despite their intimacy problems and sacrificed her health and reputation to ensure his life's work was protected.

Karen Brooks is also the Australian author behind The Good Wife of Bath set in the 1300s, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading last year. It takes great skill to write about the middle ages and the Victorian era with equal measure and I still have two of her other historical fiction novels - The Chocolate Maker's Wife (set in 1600s) and The Whisky Widow (set in 1700s) - on my TBR to enjoy.

The Extraordinary Florence Stoker by Karen Brooks will appeal to fans of historical fiction with an interest in the literary scene of Victorian era London.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel is the second book in the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel and commences in September 1535. Thomas Cromwell is about fifty years old now and holds the title of Master Secretary. I'm reading this as part of the Wolf Crawl slow read and was pleased to discover the superb writing in evidence in Wolf Hall is also present here. The connection between the two books is absolutely seamless, despite the three years between publication.

Cromwell is a formidable man and we are quickly reacquainted with him in the opening pages.

"No one knows where he has been and who he has met, and he is in no hurry to tell them. He never spares himself in the king's service, he knows his worth and merits and makes sure of his reward: offices, perquisites and title deeds, manor houses and farms. He has a way of getting his way, he has a method; he will charm a man or bribe him, coax him or threaten him, he will explain to a man where his true interests lie, and he will introduce that same man to aspects of himself he didn't know existed." Page 7

I love the frequent references to history in the book, a time when the forest stretched ahead for days and the forefathers of England - the giants - left their standing stones. This haunting atmosphere permeates the pages and the present here in Bring Up the Bodies. On every page I experienced the weight of foreknowledge, as Cromwell reflects on the ghosts of the past, while he is a ghost of the past to us, the reader.

This gives the writing a melancholic feeling, given we know who will succeed and who won't and the ultimate fate of the primary characters.

"It's not just the past you think of, as you ride these fields. It's what's latent in the soil, what's breeding; it's the days to come, the wars unfought, the injuries and deaths that, like seeds, the soil of England is keeping warm." Page 9

Cromwell has been an excellent father and mentor and it was interesting to see the qualities and attributes he prizes in his son Gregory and which were important 500 years ago:

"Gregory is a fine archer, a fine horseman, a shining star in the tilt yard, and his manners cannot be faulted. He speaks reverently to his superiors, not scuffling his feet or standing on one leg, and he is mild and polite with those below him. He knows how to bow to foreign diplomats in the manner of their own countries, sits at table without fidgeting or feeding spaniels, can neatly carve and joint any fowl if requested to serve his elders. He doesn't slouch around with his jacket off one shoulder, or look in windows to admire himself, or stare around in church, or interrupt old men, or finish their stories for them." Page 27-28

I've been listening to Lux by VOCES8 while compiling this review over several days and it's an album containing ethereal music covering 400 years of choral music. It perfectly embodies the feeling of history I tried to convey earlier and I can almost imagine I'm standing behind Thomas Cromwell in Westminster Abbey when I listen to it.

In Bring Up the Bodies, Cromwell tries to convince Queen Katherine to obey the king's wishes and the dialogue between them is fascinating. Here's a taste of Katherine's anger whilst speaking to Cromwell.

"There is a pause, while she turns the great pages of her volume of rage, and puts her finger on just the right word." Page 106

That word, in case you're wondering is contemptible. However just as he failed to persuade Thomas More to change his mind and take the oath, Katherine also proves to be immovable.

The king is through with Anne Boleyn after she continues to fail to give him an heir and relies on Cromwell to bring her down to make way for Jane Seymour. Cromwell does so by finding evidence of adultery against her, which is treason and punishable by death. Cromwell needs guilty men, so he finds men who are guilty and in carefully preparing his evidence and witnesses, Cromwell makes use of the opportunity to take out some of his enemies or weaken their houses.

King Henry is just as fearsome and narcissistic as ever, and his tempers shift without notice. Cromwell can read the king's mood better than any man and knows just how to manipulate him to achieve the desired outcome, although still at considerable risk.

"You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him. But as Thomas More used to say, it's like sporting with a tamed lion. You tousle its mane and pull its ears, but all the time you're thinking, those claws, those claws, those claws." Page 249

Anne Boleyn's downfall dominates the plot in Bring Up the Bodies, but there's also plenty of time to witness Cromwell's steady rise in power, the expansion of his wealth and family dynamics. He (Cromwell) has carefully mentored his young charges and Rafe is now a trusted man in the king's service. His advice to Rafe though is chilling.

"Look, he says: once you have exhausted the process of negotiation and compromise, once you have fixed on the destruction of an enemy, that destruction must be swift and it must be perfect. Before you even glance in his direction, you should have his name on a warrant, the ports blocked, his wife and friends bought, his heir under your protection, his money in your strong room and his dog running to your whistle. Before he wakes in the morning, you should have the axe in your hand." Page 417

The late Hilary Mantel was the first British author and the first woman to win the Booker Prize twice, and I totally get it now. Bring Up the Bodies is an epic character study of Thomas Cromwell and the writing is extraordinary, with a phrase to savour on every page.

I've already started reading the final book in the trilogy The Mirror and the Light and am loving it so far. It's 880+ pages though and the slow read will take us until the end of the year, when I imagine I'll be feeling bereft to have finished.

And now no more for lack of time.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Intro

The first time I tried to read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel it was 2010 and I found it completely inaccessible. There were too many characters named Thomas - indeed, Mantel notes in the book half the world was called Thomas at the time - and I couldn't follow who was speaking. Regrettably, I had to set it aside despite my love of historical fiction and interest in the Tudor period.

It wasn't until last year when a book buddy of mine (thanks Andrea!) recommended I join Wolf Crawl with her - a year long slow read hosted by Simon Haisell from Footnotes & Tangents - that I agreed to give it another chance. The challenge is to read the entire Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel over the course of the year and I'm so glad I took the plunge. Check out my sign up post for more about the series and the challenge.

Review

Wolf Hall is all about the life of Thomas Cromwell, servant of King Henry VIII yet it's not told in the first person. Cromwell is hardly ever referred to by name and instead he's referred to as 'he'. Once Simon had explained Mantel's unique writing style it was like a key had been turned and the book finally opened up its secrets to me.

The novel begins in 1527 when Cromwell is in the service of Cardinal Wolsey, although the reader is also treated to a few flashbacks from his youth. If you're at all familiar with Tudor history, you'll know Thomas Cromwell has been portrayed as the villain who drafted the framework for Henry VIII to break with Rome and make himself Supreme Head of the Church of England so that he could annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. Cromwell was also responsible for the dissolution of the monasteries, reforming the English government and engineering Anne Boleyn's eventual downfall and ultimate execution.

In Wolf Hall, it's clear early on that the author is going to deliver an intimately refreshing and somewhat favourable view of Thomas Cromwell.

"Thomas Cromwell is now a little over forty years old. He is a man of strong build, not tall. Various expressions are available to his face, and one is readable: an expression of stifled amusement. His hair is dark, heavy and waving, and his small eyes, which are of very strong sight, light up in conversation: so the Spanish ambassador will tell us, quite soon. It is said he knows by heart the entire New Testament in Latin, and so as a servant of the cardinal is apt - ready with a text if abbots flounder. His speech is low and rapid, his manner assured; he is at home in courtroom or waterfront, bishop's palace or inn yard. He can draft a contract, train a falcon, draw a map, stop a street fight, furnish a house and fix a jury. He will quote you a nice point in the old authors, from Plato to Plautus and back again. He knows new poetry, and can say it in Italian. He works all hours, first up and last to bed. He makes money and he spends it. He will take a bet on anything." Page 25

Cromwell's dedication and devotion to Cardinal Wolsey early in the book was touching and admirable. When Wolsey is unable to secure the papal annulment for Henry he falls out of favour with the King yet Cromwell remains fiercely loyal and somehow manages to avoid the scandal and Wolsey's subsequent arrest for treason.

I've read countless books set in the Tudor period - too many to mention here - and each have their own take on these historical figures and I relished Mantel's version of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More in particular. The depth of Mantel's knowledge of history and the classics is astounding and thanks to Simon's weekly articles, I was able to appreciate her subtle references to ancient and Tudor history that I otherwise would have missed.

Simon always closes each week's challenge update with 'and now no more for lack of time' so I enjoyed seeing it pop up twice in Wolf Hall in letters from Cromwell's son Gregory. What a terrific sign off.

The mere fact the events in Wolf Hall occurred some 500 years ago means we know precisely what's going to happen to each of the characters. This foreknowledge of their inevitable fate imbues the novel with a ghostly sense of melancholy that I found deeply moving.

Here Thomas More is speaking to Cromwell about the death of his father:

"It's strange, Thomas, but since he went, I feel my age. As if I were just a boy, till a few days ago. But God has snapped his fingers, and I see my best years are behind me." Page 230

Each death haunts Cromwell and his grief weighs heavily on his shoulders, painting a sympathetic view of the man. Naturally Henry VIII has a large presence throughout the book, and under Mantel's treatment he comes across as a grandiose narcissist. I've heard this quote attributed to Henry VIII in other historical fiction novels but it's a favourite and I loved seeing it here:

"If I thought my cap knew my counsel, I would cast it into the fire." Page 217

By the standards of Tudor nobility, Cromwell was low-born yet his rise is a direct consequence of his ability, work ethic, ambition and dedication to the King and I was gratified when he was appointed to the position of Keeper of the Jewel House in 1532, where he's able to oversee the King's incomings and outgoings.

Throughout it all, Mantel gives Cromwell some stellar dialogue and I found myself unexpectedly chuckling every few pages. Here Cromwell takes issue with a woman's manner of addressing him:

"If a man spoke to you in that tone, you'd invite him to step outside and ask someone to hold your coat." Page 378

Cromwell comes across as a diligent fix-it man and while he makes a few enemies along the way, courtiers soon show deference to him:

"He, Cromwell, is no longer subject to vagaries of temperament, and he is almost never tired. Obstacles will be removed, tempers will be soothed, knots unknotted. Here at the close of the year 1533, his spirit is sturdy, his will strong, his front imperturbable. The courtiers see that he can shape events, mold them. He can contain the fears of other men, and give them a sense of solidity in a quaking world: this people, this dynasty, this miserable rainy island at the edge of the world." Page 427

Despite his abilities, Cromwell is unable to persuade Thomas More to take the Oath of Succession which recognised the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn, their children as heirs to the throne and acknowledging the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England, thereby denying papal supremacy.

Thomas More explains his predicament:

"You cannot compel me to put myself in hazard. For if I had an opinion against your Act of Supremacy, which I do not concede, then your oath would be a two-edged sword. I must put my body in peril if I say no to it, my soul if I say yes to it. Therefore I say nothing." Page 513

The scholarly debates between Cromwell and More were fascinating and More's eventual execution for treason at the end of Wolf Hall was a harsh blow to Cromwell.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel could be one of the best books I've ever read and is an automatic nomination for My Top 5 Books of 2026. Fortunately I still have two more books to go in the series and up next is Bring Up the Bodies but now, no more for lack of time.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins is a dark and mysterious dual narrative novel and I received it for Xmas in 2024.

Sophia Ashmore-Percy accompanies her husband to Kratos, a remote Greek Island in the 1820s and records her experiences in a journal. Her husband is seeking to capture a rare specimen to study and their relationship breaks down as his obsession intensifies.

Decades later in Victorian England, Henry Latimer is an Aurist working at Argyll's shop when he meets Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy, who invites him to Carthmute House to treat his deaf daughter. While there, Henry learns more about Sir Edward's factories and the production of Telverton silk.

Named for the town where his factory is located, Telverton silk is made from the silk of the mythical Pseudonephila spider. One side of the silk has the ability to block all sound, whilst the other side contains a mysterious warp and whisper. Those exposed to the wrong side of the silk can hear whispers, suffer headaches, or develop an ill queasy feeling with some even questioning their sanity.

Henry becomes obsessed with the potential applications of the silk, readily ignoring the side effects:

"Silence is not only silence, sir, it is attention - it is sanity. It is sleep for infants, medicine for invalids, rest for the working man - it is money for the man who must think or starve. We build walls to shelter our bodies from the world, but we leave our minds open to assault on every side. The Telverton silk, sir, is not a gimcrack. It is the greatest discovery of our age." Page 55

The factory buildings where the unique silk is harvested and woven is extraordinarily loud and sends their workers deaf due to the machinery deployed in the production. As I was reading about the brutal working conditions, it brought to mind the exploitation of child labour in the cotton mills during the industrial revolution.

Both Kratos and Telverton in Northern England are fictional, however this frees the author to create dark and gothic settings in both locations. Despite a real fear of spiders, thankfully I didn't have any nightmares about the mythical creatures at the heart of The Silence Factory but I did find myself wishing I could hold Henry's small square of Telverton silk for just a moment.

Bridget Collins has a knack for producing dark tales that straddle multiple genres and feel unique to her writing style. The Binding was brilliantly unique and made my Top 5 Books of 2019 list, and I thoroughly enjoyed The Betrayals in 2020, giving it 4 stars in my review. The Silence Factory is completely different again; it's historical fiction meets gothic fantasy and I highly enjoyed it.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Woman in the Seal Skin by Lauren Keegan

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *

Orkney is made up of approximately 70 islands and is located off the north coast of Scotland. It's an isolated part of the world and with an average yearly temperature of 8 degrees celsius I can only imagine how inhospitable it must have been in the 17th century. The Woman in the Seal Skin by Lauren Keegan is set in Orkney in 1695 and is a dual narrative told by our main character Malie and her friend Henrye.

Malie's father is a fisherman and after her mother slipped into the sea and was never seen again, he raised Malie and her brothers alone. Brought up listening to tales of selkies, Malie has always been told her mother was a shape-shifting woman who shed her seal skin to seduce her father.

"Selkies slip from their seal skins and seduce lonely fishermen, but a Finnman takes the form of man and seduces lonely wives. Men, women and the sea, all at their mercy." Page 46

Living on the coast, Malie has an affinity with the sea and now that she's married and expecting her first child, she finds it difficult to resist the pull of the water. With little to no female agency in a male dominated family, Malie is also in an oppressive marriage with few real friends to confide in or lean on.

"My elder brothers circle us like a shiver of sharks." Page 295

The weather is harsh, the living conditions are rough and Malie's life feels stifled and unendurable at times. In fact the harsh environment and desperate conditions reminded me of The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, set in Norway in 1617.

I read this atmospheric book while on a cruise and being on the ocean certainly enhanced my reading experience. Admittedly, the temperature was warm and humid and I wasn't suffering any of the deprivations Malie was facing on a daily basis, but the author was still able to make me feel cold, hungry and fearful just the same.

"While there was once only fear bubbling beneath my skin, there is something else rising to the surface. Something fierce and uncontrollable. Something wild. Something that simmered in my mother's body too. I believe it's rage." Page 150

The Woman in the Seal Skin by Australian author Lauren Keegan is an historical fiction novel set in Scotland about nature, folklore, motherhood, loss, resilience and domestic violence and will appeal to fans of Hannah Kent and Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: A Far-Flung Life by M.L Stedman

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House *

A Far-Flung Life by M.L Stedman is going to be in My Top 5 Books of 2026 list, without a doubt. I finished it last month and I still have a long reading year ahead of me but this Australian historical fiction novel blew me away.

Stedman begins this family saga with the history of the MacBride family who took up country in Western Australia (WA) in the 1800s and established Meredith Downs; an outback sheep station. We join the current MacBride family in 1958 and the author provides an excellent overview of the brutal and unforgiving landscape, describing the fierce nature of the heat, the sun, the wind and the rain and their power to both nurture and destroy.

"Everything that can do you good can also do you harm here - that's just the way of it." Page 7*

The MacBrides have worked the land for generations and family is everything, so when an unexpected tragedy takes place - mentioned in the blurb - the trajectory of their lives takes a dramatic turn. A Far-Flung Life is a generational family saga about life, love, purpose and family that also carries more than its fair share of secrets, heartbreak and loss.

Somehow the beauty of the landscape, the ever present demands of Meredith Downs and the resilience of the characters prevent the narrative from becoming too bleak or dispiriting. By contrast, I felt hopeful, optimistic and energised by the steadfast and inspiring characters doing their best to move forward.

As a kid, my family lived in outback New South Wales for 2 years and we had friends who owned vast sheep stations so I read about the diaries and ledgers of Meredith Downs with great interest.

"There are the ledgers; the wool returns; the vermin records; the Field Book of Meteorological Observations for the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne; the cricket score books; and the little greasy shearing tally books stained with lanolin from pulling them in and out of a shirt pocket as you count the wool clip run by run, shed by shed, day by day." Page 49

Diaries are kept of every day events including sheep bought or sold, new motor vehicles, paddock rotations, staff changes and more to enable the station to provide information to the tax man, Lands Department or Undersecretary for Lands in the case of drought relief.

In addition to being character-driven, the novel seems to be a deep reflection on the inevitable passage of time and its impact on the landscape and the people who inhabit it.

"On any old outback property, you can see them, the skeletons of dreams. Houses long abandoned, windmills rusting, fence posts splintered, tank stands collapsed: every one of them was once a hopeful beginning." Page 64

The ready understanding that many generations have been before us and we will soon join them in history is something I love about Ken Follett's novels. He also writes about the passage of time and the evolution of families from generation to generation and it was brilliant to read such an accomplished Australian point of view of our colonial history.

"Every wreck, every ruin is the vestige of a dream, lasting long after the body of its dreamer has been received back into the earth with love or remorse or indifference." Page 64-65

A Far-Flung Life is being promoted by the publisher as 'the biggest Australian novel of the year' and I wholeheartedly agree. I was moved by the characters and their individual plight, and felt a genuine connection to Meredith Downs despite being a proud city dweller and reading this at sea while on a cruise.

In 2012, I read and reviewed The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman and gave it a glowing 5 star review. In an interview with Good Reading recently, I was impressed to read about the detailed level of research Stedman has been conducting since then in order to write A Far-Flung Life and it's definitely been worth the wait. Stedman now has two stellar Australian novels under her belt and I'm sure this is going to be another huge bestseller.

Highly recommended and you can read an EXTRACT here.

* I read an ARC so the page numbers quoted may vary in the final copy.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola

In 1857, Audrey is on her way from London to the Isle of Skye to interview for the position of Assistant to a collector of folk tales. Miss Buchanan is a spinster and folklorist and rarely leaves her family home of Lanerly Hall; a dilapidated estate owned by her brother.

Some of Mr Buchanan's tenants (referred to as crofters) have been evicted, and Mazzola doesn't shy away from the effects of the Clearances in Skye around this time. The landscape is bleak and the crofters are struggling to make a living and keep food on the table, regularly relying on superstition and folklore rather than religion. Miss Buchanan recognises that local folk tales aren't being shared as freely within the community any more and the displacement of crofters from the land to make way for sheep farming means these stories are being lost.

The crofters distrust their landlord and believe there's something evil about Lanerly Hall so Audrey's job is to earn their trust and record as many stories as she can.

I enjoyed the descriptions of Lanerly Hall but when a local girl washes up dead on the beach nearby and another goes missing, the crofters believe it to be the work of faeries. Meanwhile, Audrey believes someone is responsible and we're given a number of potential suspects.

"Better to be terrified than miserable. If the reality is that people die of starvation and illness, drown themselves out of shame, or leave their impoverished homes in search of a better life, then maybe it's preferable to think that the fairies are taking people away to serve some greater purpose." Page 131

The author creates a dark and foreboding gothic atmosphere full of superstitions, myths, folklore and fairytales. In her historical note at the end of the novel, Mazzola explains the idea for this book came from the West Ham vanishings in the 1880s where a number of children and young adults disappeared from the East End of London. She also shares that the many folk tales relayed to Audrey in the book are adaptations of real folk stories which helped to ground the book firmly in 1800s Scotland.

The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola was an enjoyable historical fiction mystery and will appeal to fans of books like The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry and The Good People by Hannah Kent.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

I enjoyed The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab so much that it made My Top 5 Books of 2021 so I decided to give her 2025 release Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil a try. First and foremost, this is a well written historical fiction novel with multiple female character points of view. All three characters eventually intersect in this plot spanning multiple centuries and multiple countries.

Alice is our contemporary character in 2019 and a student at a university in Boston. Feeling adrift, a one night stand changes the course of her life and sets her on a path of regret and revenge. In 1521, Maria is aged 10 years old and living with her family in a small town on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We meet the third character Charlotte/Lottie later in the book and we pick up her backstory from 1827 in London.

This is a character driven book about these three women:

"In fairy tales, big things happen in threes. Three children. Three beds. Three roads. The third bite is poison, the third gift is great, the third door always leads home." Page 338

Now that I've set the scene and have your attention, it's time to drop a bomb... this is a sapphic vampire romance. Yep, you read that right. The paranormal romance genre rarely features in my reading schedule but I took a chance on this based on the strength of the author's writing. And I was right!

The writing in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is beautiful. The personal challenges and internal struggles faced by all three women kept my attention and the gothic setting was sublime. As they age over decades and centuries, vampires in Schwab's world start to lose touch with the values and characteristics that made them human.

"Now and then, she wakes to find another little corner of her emptied, some aspect crumbled away in sleep. Perhaps it was a shard of insecurity. A sliver of regret. Sabine probes her mind, trying to find the nature of the absence, like a tongue searching for a missing tooth, but never does." Page 265

Schwab addresses the topic I was most interested in when reading the Anne Rice Interview with the Vampire series: what is it like to be immortal? (Don't worry, there are no sparkly vampires here). The author examines the toll it takes on all three of the characters, including the challenges they face maintaining their existence in the world without revealing their secret nature and evading the dangers that pursue them.

This statement from a male vampire to one of our characters reminded me of the relationship between Lestat and Louis:

"If you wish to stay, then you may do so as my guest, and I will be your gracious host. But you will live as I do, by a certain set of rules. There will be no skulking about in shadows, no victims stolen from the street and cast in the canal. I will show you how to savor every soul you take. How to claim space, and bend minds, how to enthrall, enchant, and masquerade. How to be the last one they think of when the bodies go missing." Pages 206-207

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a unique genre-blending novel that defies easy categorisation and will appeal to a range of readers as a result. Straddling historical fiction, fantasy and queer romance and championing strong feminist characters, this book may appeal to you even if you don't like vampire novels. And if you believe books about vampires aren't for you, consider this:

"And here is the awful thing about belief. It is a current, like compulsion. Hard to forge when it goes against your will, but easy enough when it carries you the way you want to go." Page 401

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab is about female agency, love, power, hunger, control, rage and revenge and is highly recommended for Anne Rice fans.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Cape Fever by Nadia Davids

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *

Cape Fever by Nadia Davids is a gothic tale of desire and revenge set in 1920s South Africa. Soraya is hired as the live-in house maid and companion to Mrs Hattingh in a grand house in an unnamed British colony which could easily be Cape Town.

The novel begins in a seemingly familiar upstairs downstairs historical fiction style plot I've read and loved before. The list of daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly chores Soraya is expected to carry out feed this fascination and the class distinction is clear.

Separated from her betrothed and letting Mrs Hattingh believe she can't read or write, Soraya accepts a generous offer from her employer to write a letter to him once a week on her behalf. This becomes a weekly ritual for both women that seems genuine and generous in the beginning as they sit together, read his reply and compose a response.

"It's as though she's shown me a door, told me about the riches that lie beyond it, opened it very slightly, enough for the warm gold glow behind it to spill out, just a little, with both of us knowing she can shut it whenever she likes." Page 73

Soraya comes from a Muslim community and the juxtaposition of the two cultures is ever present, with Mrs Hattingh continuing to assert her dominance and superiority at every opportunity. The writing is evocative and I particularly enjoyed her description of smells. I'm going to include the full quote here so that you can enjoy it and I can read it again and again in the future.

Soraya notices that in big houses with high ceilings and long corridors, the smells of people disappear into nothing.

"In the Quarter, smells stay. There's the smell in our houses of incense burning both now and fifty years ago, of a thousand meals past and the ones bubbling on stoves this minute. Sticking to every wall, woven into every curtain, the reek of chopped onions and pressed garlic, the trace of scattered methi, diced chilies, dried bay leaves; of spices - whole, roasted, ground, cast in hot oil - and of meat braising, bones boiling, fat spitting, broth cooking, sugar burning, rose water steaming, tea brewing, mint leaves just torn, ginger beer just poured. It's the smell of more in good times and of keeping an eye in lean ones. In our house, also, the whiff of my mother's soaps, the sweet jasmine my father planted at the front gate, the sticky heat of my and my sisters' sweat, the rush of the tides my brother brings back with him from a day at the beach and the fish he carries, still on the hook, sea fresh, glassy-eyed, salt crusted, scales shining." Pages 30-31

After reading this I desperately wanted to visit Soraya's house and inhale some of those scents, and absorb the swirl of life and history that had taken place there.

Constantly in each other's company, Soraya is unable to leave her position as her family desperately need her wages to get by, yet the relationship between the two women slowly begins to sour until it reaches an exciting and unexpected climax.

"She walks away, her slight frame straight, arms soft and graceful, once a girl who would have practiced with a book on her head, and I marvel that she can so easily show me her back when the kitchen is full of knives." Page 151

Cape Fever by Nadia Davids is a slow burn gothic psychological suspense thriller about class, colonialism, power, loneliness, love, loss, grief, secrets and betrayal and I loved it. Highly recommended.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★