Everything is covered in cold, white snow in this novel of family trauma and intrigue in 1908 Wisconsin. Goolrick was inspired to write this book after coming across Michael Lesy's Wisconsin Death Trip, a photographic collection of residents of this area in the early 1900's with stories from records and newspapers of the subject's stories. …
Category: book reviews
The Somnambulist by Essie Fox
Written by blogger The Virtual Victorian, this book tells the story of a 17 year old girl, Phoebe, coming of age caught between her strictly religious mother and beloved opera performer aunt. When her aunt kills herself after seeing a man from her past at a performance, family secrets start to emerge. Based in the …
The Seance by John Harwood
A girl with a tragic past inherits a crumbling house whose previous owners have all disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The Victorian era saw a mania for Spiritualism, a practice in which people would consult a medium during group sessions, and attempt to contact their departed loved ones. The tricks and practices that mediums undertook to dupe …
The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
A snappy, romantic tale of family secrets and restoring houses, this book is about a pretty realtor, Melanie, who inherits a crumbling mansion in Charleston from an old man she only met once. The house seems full of mysteries and secrets, but then, so is Melanie: ever since she was a little girl, she's been …
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
As my more regular readers will be aware, this year I set myself the goal of reading all the novels of Charles Dickens novels that I had not already read. When Hard Times arrived, the third to last volume on the list, I was surprised by how thin it was, Dickens books tend to be …
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
A seven year old girl from Ireland lands on US soil in 1791 as an indentured servant. Taken to a plantation in Virginia, she is cared for by the owners illegitimate daughter by a slave girl, called Belle, and slowly builds a home and a life amongst the black slaves. But as she grows up, …
The Vanishing Witch by Karen Maitland
Set in the 1300's, a beautiful, wealthy widow comes to the small town of Lincoln with her children, shadowed by a mysterious one-handed man. When she starts up a friendship with a wealthy merchant, she soon worms her way into his heart, and as his wife starts to sicken, tongues start to wag. Is this woman using …
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Based on real characters, this book fictionalises the lives of Sarah Grimke, daughter of a plantation owner, and a slave in her household called Handful. Both women refuse to be put into the box prescribed them, and fight for the lives they believe they can and should live, in the process challenging society and finding …
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
I set myself the task this year of reading the remaining Charles Dickens novels that I hadn't already read before. I love a Victorian serialised novel, and Dickens rarely fails to disappoint. One of his less famous works, Dombey and Sons follows the life of Paul Dombey, a wealthy merchant whose sole aspiration in life …
Ticker by Lisa Mantchev
This book was so much fun. It's only short, I ripped through it in a day, and when I bought it I didn't realise that it was meant perhaps for a young adult readership. I just liked the premise for the book: a girl with a clockwork heart must race against time to rescue her …
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