While the pacing and overall story of this historical fiction novel was enough to keep me engaged for the entire read, the novel (when taken as a wholWhile the pacing and overall story of this historical fiction novel was enough to keep me engaged for the entire read, the novel (when taken as a whole) is really just an average read, at best.
New Orleans is an exciting and mysterious city, filled with hidden nooks and crannies that contain some of the kookiest of surprises. This novel doesn’t treat New Orleans as a city that is a character in and of itself, which is sad. This novel is very character-driven, but I sadly didn’t see many facets of them. I think some may disagree with me, but it seemed to me that when the main characters (in their inner monologues) tried to show us who they were through their own memories of the lives they had lived so far, the way they were raised, and their hopes and dreams, it was all simply the same themes painted over and over again.
I also didn’t enjoy some of the resolution to this book. Some of it seemed unrealistic, and some of it seemed overly idealistic for the time.
Overall, it was an average historical novel with an overdramatic plot.
Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for allowing me early access to this novel. Due to personal policy this review will not appear on social media or bookseller sites due to the 3 star or lower rating. ...more
When I think a book is going for an overall feeling of terror and trauma, I don’t expect the vast amount of both to occur really late in the game. ThiWhen I think a book is going for an overall feeling of terror and trauma, I don’t expect the vast amount of both to occur really late in the game. This book, while well-researched and well-written, suffers from uneven pacing and repetitive inconsistencies in tone that mangle what could have otherwise been a horrific and thrilling adventure and exploration novel.
What bothered me even more than this was how let down I was with the promised exploration of the transgender main character’s gender identity and how they (and others) all dealt with it. It seemed the topic only ever came into play when something epically awful involving the ship, the dogs on the ship, or the weather were not doing something awful on page. Jonathan, the main character, doesn’t even seem to think about the topic much, even though we are living this tale through his eyes and thoughts. I would expect a transgender stowaway on a ship to be constantly worried of discovery. I would expect anxiety, constant vigilance, constant fear of discovery; but it felt like (until later in the book) the only concern Jonathan had was with their childhood friend Harry seems to keep viewing him as a woman simply disguising herself as a man than a man who was born into the wrong body and has actively decided to embrace their gender identity.
All in all, the book had a lot going for it, but it could’ve been better.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. As per personal policy, this review will not be posted to any social media or bookseller websites. ...more
“Against the haystack a girl stands laughing at me, Cherries hung round her ears. Offers me her scarlet fruit: I will see If she has any tears.” - D. H. “Against the haystack a girl stands laughing at me, Cherries hung round her ears. Offers me her scarlet fruit: I will see If she has any tears.” - D. H. Lawrence
Sarai Walker says in the acknowledgements for “The Cherry Robbers” that the poem “Cherry Robbers” (from which this stanza comes from), was the main inspiration for what became the tale of the Chapel sisters and their untimely deaths. Other inspirations were, of course, Sarah Winchester (of the Winchester Rifle fortune and the now-infamous San Jose tourist attraction that used to be her home) and Georgia O-Keefe (famous artist known to most for painting portraits of flowers that also greatly resembled biological female genitalia).
To me, the book also has a sort of claustrophobic, humid feel that I associate with the movie “The Virgin Suicides”, a dreamy sense of females set apart in their own world I associate with the movie “Heavenly Creatures”, and, of course, (as even the books points out), that sense of intense sisterly push-and-pull dynamics that comes with having a gaggle of daughters that’s so familiar from “Pride and Prejudice”. There’s also intense themes running through the whole book about the loss of identity for the wife that comes with marriage and childbirth, the common phenomena (that persists to this day) of not listening to women when they speak their truths or sometimes even just when they speak, of men always thinking they know better than women, about women not feeling complete without marriage and children and the social pressure that tells them they are less without these things, and about how women who are in any way different will always be looked at askance by society. Some of the rest of it, well, it’s going to be left up to the reader to interpret. Violence, intercourse, innocence, and death. These four things are all intrinsically tied together in this novel, and how you interpret the connection will go a long way into how you view this whole novel and how it will feel to you at the end.
For me, this was a page-turner. I couldn’t put it down. It’s exactly the type of gothic, haunted house, psychological family drama I like to devour in one piece. I knew where it was going, but that was absolutely okay with me, because like the protagonist, I faced it with a sense of staid inevitability. As she told the story and expunged her demons, I cried for her and her sisters and her mother and for myself, in a way. If I had been alive in the 1950s I’d probably have been in a sanitarium. I’m not exactly what they call stable, and some of the prescriptions I take hadn’t even been invented back then.
Being a woman with a science degree myself (I mention this often in my reviews of books that include geography as a component of the plot, since that Being a woman with a science degree myself (I mention this often in my reviews of books that include geography as a component of the plot, since that was my field of study), I love books of the STEMinist persuasion, and this book is no exception. Part historical crime fiction and part closed loop mystery, this novel has a curious charm about it even as it reminds us of just how bad discrimination is academia was toward women in the 1920s (it’s still bad today, of course).
I’ve become a bit wary of novels taking place in the 1920s as of late, as they seem to be full of cliches and stereotypes of the decade without taking into account not everyone spoke the same, imbibed or partook of the same drinks or substances, or dressed the same. I was pleased Khvavari chose to forge a different path than a lot of authors and not indulge in the same tired cliches. It made for refreshing dialogue and thoughtful prose.
Seeing as the novel is set in 1923 London, there was no doubt Khavari was going to have characters in her novel that had either seen battle in WWI or had relatives that had been killed there. After all, between soldier deaths and civilian deaths, the UK and Northern Ireland lost nearly 1.4 million people in the war (this is, of course, nothing compared to the Russian losses or the untold number lost in the Armenian Genocide). Brothers, fathers, and sons were all lost. Estates, inheritances, and titles were all thrown into disarray. The 1920s were a time of upheaval all over the world. Khavari is sensitive to the topic without tiptoeing around it, respective without kowtowing. It was appreciated.
Lastly, I appreciated the great amount of attention paid to the importance of empirical research, even if it’s gained through less-than-ideal means. Science is nothing without methodology, people!
Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for granting me early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
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