Mrs England by Stacy Halls

Ruby May is a trained childnurse whose London family is going to emigrate abroad. But because Ruby sends her monthly wages to her mother, sister Elsie and brothers, she feels she cannot leave them and decides to stay in England. She ends up at Hardcastle House in a remote corner of the country as a nanny for Mr and Mrs England’s four children. But once there, the other servants are unfriendly to her and Mrs England herself shows little interest in her or the children. Ruby also brings her own secrets which she will have to face after a letter from her father arrives.

This is the third book of Halls that I read (after The familiars and The foundling) and I can say that I’m a huge fan of the kind of stories that she brings. Each time her books consist of a fine historical background with a ‘gothic’ mystery at its centre. In ‘Mrs England‘ the remote Hardcastle House is the ideal setting with strange inhabitants and their secrets as in any Gothic novel.

Ruby is a nice main character with whom you immediately relate. But she carries a past with her that sometimes makes you wonder about her motives. The story unfolds slowly. Or at least it felt slower than in Hall’s other books. But the story is well constructed. There were some elements that I guessed but some things you don’t really see coming. The ending is satisfying enough.

I think I found this to be Halls’ least interesting book so far. Maybe because the setting is more typically gothic and the pace was on the slow side. But I would definitely recommend her books, they are great reads. And I enjoyed reading about Mrs England and Ruby May. I’m curious to see which setting Halls will choose for her next novel.

This is book 10/20 for ‘20 books of Summer‘.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Have you read anything by Stacey Halls?

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The animals of Lockwood manor by Jane Healey

When WOII is luring around the corner, the Natural History Museum of London is looking elsewhere to store their precious collection of mammals. Hettie Cartwright is made director—as all men are going to war—of the new museum at Lockwood manor, an old country home with more than 99 rooms. Her reception by the lord of the manor is hostile. The only friend she can turn to is Lucy, the lord daughter’s. Lucy’s mother and grandmother have just died in a car accident and Lucy herself suffers from nightmares about a woman dressed in white and a blue room. When animals are starting to disappear or are changing places, Hettie wonders if this really is a haunted house after all.

Hettie has grown up in an unloved family and has always devoted most of her time to her work. However, as a woman she has little prospect to get promoted. But when all the men are called to war, this is her chance to prove herself as the responsible of the mammal collection. When soon after her arrival at Lockwood manor (the name being an allusion to Emily’s Brönte’s narrator in Wuthering Heights) animals start to disappear, she wants to preserve the animals and her promotion no matter what. She becomes obsessed. This sets her at hostile ground with Lord Lockwood and the servants of the manor.

The only person that seems to be friendly towards her is Lucy. But she’s a complicated character. Suffering from a sensitive nerving system and bad dreams, Lucy is afraid to leave her home and doesn’t dare to stand up to her father.

The animals of Lockwood manor is Jane Healey’s first novel and is set in the tradition of the great gothic classics such as Rebecca and Jane Eyre. All the gothic elements are there: a haunted house, a ghost story, family secrets, a young and inexperienced main character and a fire. However, I don’t think of this book as a merely gothic story. There’s also a heavy romance plot line.

The book has an original setting. The mammals and the home feature as real characters in the book. And while the story is set during WOII, the war is never really a part of the plot. Only just looming in the background. Chapters are alternating between Hettie and Lucy. With Lucy’s part being in diary form. I did enjoy Hettie’s perspective the most. I could relate to her and her fear and doubts felt real.

There’s a heavy sapphic romance in the book, which was a bit cliche done. I’ve recently read a range of books with the same theme (The crimson ribbon, The mercies, The testimony of Alys Twist…) and the plot felt a bit forced at times. I wanted to read more about the mystery that was hiding within the manor.

Jane Healey’s writing was ok. I had some trouble with the pace. Some chapters felt really slow, while the ending was quite sudden in its revealings. I’m ok with the ending, I had guessed some part of it, but it gives an explanation to most things that happened.

Overall, I did enjoy the animals at Lockwood manor and I’ll happily try one of Healey’s future works. The sound of ‘The Ophelia girls‘, which will be published this summer, already appeals to me.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Have you read this one? Any gothic recommendations?

The glass woman by Caroline Lea

Iceland. 17th century. After the death of her father, Rosa has to make a good marriage to help her impoverished mother. When the stranger Jon comes to her village looking for a new wife, only a few months after the death of his first spouse Anna, Rosa agrees to the marriage. After a three-day-ride to her new home, Rosa discovers the villagers are afraid of Jon and that there’s some mystery around Anna’s death. Why did Jon burry her on his own in the middle of the night? And what are the strange noises coming from the loft, that Rosa is forbidden to enter?

Nearing the end of year, I think I can say that this novel will be one of my favorite reads of 2020. The glass woman is a gothic romance novel reminiscent of Rebecca and Jane Eyre. It’s about a young woman that marries an older widower she barely knows anything about. Once married, he seems to hide a lot from her, not in the least the true fate of her predecessor. It all sounds very familiar.

But Lea writes her own gothic story in a unique setting. The hardships of Iceland, a rough and cold land. A country where religion is rising, but people still believe in the old myths and sagas.

Rosa is her own woman and has a strong character. I admire her strength. But she’s not perfect and makes mistakes. And that’s maybe what I loved the most about this book: all the characters are extremely human.

Until halfway the tension is built. You can’t trust anyone and have no clue what the hell is going on. It surprised me that the story took a turn when you get to read from Jon’s perspective. Suddenly you start seeing things in a different light. I couldn’t stop reading until I reached the end.

I loved the ending. It was fulfilling in a way that all my questions were answered. The glass woman is highly recommended for everyone who loves a gothic story or just wants to try something different.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

Frannie Langton is a mulatta slave at the Paradise plantation of Mr. Langton in Jamaica. As a mulatta and a house slave she doesn’t fit in, especially as she has learnt to read and write. When Mr. Langton wants to write a book about species, Frannie helps him with it and the two of them conduct some strange experiments. After a fire, Langton and Frannie leave Jamaica for London. Once there, he gives Frannie away to Mr Benham and she becomes a house slave again. She can’t remember anything when a few months later her mistress, whom she loves dearly, is found dead with herself sleeping beside the body. In jail, Frannie decides to write her story as it may be the only way to save her life.

I picked this book up at the library when looking for Bridget Collins’ ‘The binding’. Lured in by the beautiful cover and the promise of an original gothic novel, I immediately started reading it.

The story opens in London with Frannie in jail for the brutal murder of her owners, Mr. and Mrs. Benham. She can’t remember anything of that night and doesn’t believe she would be able to murder her mistress whom she loved with all her heart. So she starts writing her story from the beginning, when she was still a house slave at a Jamaican plantation.

I had expected much of this story, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. The story does have some gothic elements such as a murder, a household with secrets and some strange experiments, but I wouldn’t define it as the gothic novel I had hoped it would be.

The story itself is interesting enough, although I got the impression of having it read all before. There are a lot of predictable plot elements and some cliches. Frannie is a complex character and you don’t really get a grip on her.

What really put me off was the writing style. Collins writes in first person but it wasn’t always clear whether something was said in a dialogue or it were just thoughts of Frannie herself. I couldn’t follow what was said and done in some chapters. And especially when the trial begins, it all becomes a mess. Frannie appeals to a certain ‘you’, with which she means her lawyer and this strangely changes the whole narrative and style. There are some revelations at the end, but they couldn’t make up for the rest of the novel.

I must give Sara Collins credit for writing some beautiful lines about the importance of reading. The fact that Frannie has learned to read and can share that knowledge with Marguerite is an important aspect of the story. It makes her even more the outcast.

But in the end, I’m disappointed by this book. Yes, it has an original main character and it talks about slavery and racial debate, so in that sense it’s an important story to tell. But I couldn’t see past the messy writing style and had hoped that the crime aspect would take up a more prominent role in the book.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

What’s your favorite gothic novel?