This is how I come to kill my father. It begins like this.
The Girl From Rawblood is a historical Gothic thriller following several intertwined families which seem to be cursed. It jumps back and forth in time and from character to character, but is never confusing and is always intensely engaging. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, because so much of the fun is discovering how the pieces fit together and seeing what happens next. I will say that it involves a mansion which is haunted by... something.
It's one of the best books I've read this year. After I read Ward's Sundial and then The Last House on Needless Street,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cahn and I read this together, starting chapters at the same time and chatting on messenger.
This was extremely fun and at some point we will do it again with Little Eve, which is the last Catriona Ward book we haven't read yet. I loved her other two books, but I loved Rawblood the most.
It has a very timeless feel; a lot of it could have been written in any era of Gothics and ghost stories, though it's more graphically violent than would have been written in the 1800s, and involves explicit rather than implicit queerness.
It has approximately three shocking twists per chapter. It's a Gothic which packs in every possible Gothic trope you can imagine. But it's not just about twists. There are multiple narrators, all very well distinguished and most narrated in a very individual style. Ward did an amazing job not only of differentiating them, but of getting me emotionally invested in almost every single character. It's also an extremely emotional book.
Some of it is very difficult to read. There are cruel experiments on rabbits, including a passage which I skipped entirely once I saw where it was going. There's also an extremely upsetting section set in an insane asylum, which is even more awful than you might imagine.
But it isn't all horror. Terrible things happen to the characters, and many of them do terrible things, but almost always out of love; often misguided or twisted or obsessional love, but love nonetheless. In an afterword which is well worth reading, Ward says that she doesn't pity her characters because she feels that they lived full emotional lives and loved and were loved, which is the best that anyone can hope for.
Though much of the book is tragic, I didn't find it depressing, other than in certain specific sections. It's more of a wild, intense ride. I found the ending very moving and, depending on your interpretation and perspective, hopeful and satisfying.
Now let's talk about the twists. Seriously don't click on the cut if you intend to read this book.
( Read more... )
I am now completely obsessed with Catriona Ward. I look forward to reading Little Eve and her book that's forthcoming next year.
Content notes: EVERYTHING. Animal harm and cruel experimentation, cruel treatment of people in historical mental asylums, child abuse, violence, rape, miscarriages/stillbirths, probably more things I'm forgetting.
The Girl From Rawblood is a historical Gothic thriller following several intertwined families which seem to be cursed. It jumps back and forth in time and from character to character, but is never confusing and is always intensely engaging. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, because so much of the fun is discovering how the pieces fit together and seeing what happens next. I will say that it involves a mansion which is haunted by... something.
It's one of the best books I've read this year. After I read Ward's Sundial and then The Last House on Needless Street,
cahn and I read this together, starting chapters at the same time and chatting on messenger.This was extremely fun and at some point we will do it again with Little Eve, which is the last Catriona Ward book we haven't read yet. I loved her other two books, but I loved Rawblood the most.
It has a very timeless feel; a lot of it could have been written in any era of Gothics and ghost stories, though it's more graphically violent than would have been written in the 1800s, and involves explicit rather than implicit queerness.
It has approximately three shocking twists per chapter. It's a Gothic which packs in every possible Gothic trope you can imagine. But it's not just about twists. There are multiple narrators, all very well distinguished and most narrated in a very individual style. Ward did an amazing job not only of differentiating them, but of getting me emotionally invested in almost every single character. It's also an extremely emotional book.
Some of it is very difficult to read. There are cruel experiments on rabbits, including a passage which I skipped entirely once I saw where it was going. There's also an extremely upsetting section set in an insane asylum, which is even more awful than you might imagine.
But it isn't all horror. Terrible things happen to the characters, and many of them do terrible things, but almost always out of love; often misguided or twisted or obsessional love, but love nonetheless. In an afterword which is well worth reading, Ward says that she doesn't pity her characters because she feels that they lived full emotional lives and loved and were loved, which is the best that anyone can hope for.
Though much of the book is tragic, I didn't find it depressing, other than in certain specific sections. It's more of a wild, intense ride. I found the ending very moving and, depending on your interpretation and perspective, hopeful and satisfying.
Now let's talk about the twists. Seriously don't click on the cut if you intend to read this book.
( Read more... )
I am now completely obsessed with Catriona Ward. I look forward to reading Little Eve and her book that's forthcoming next year.
Content notes: EVERYTHING. Animal harm and cruel experimentation, cruel treatment of people in historical mental asylums, child abuse, violence, rape, miscarriages/stillbirths, probably more things I'm forgetting.
