Historical – Page 11 – My Good Reads

‘Murder’ – Sarah Pinborough

Some time after the events of ‘Mayhem’ we return to London. Many of the characters we met in that novel return, and we can see the impact of those events on their lives.

Following the loss of her husband Juliana has become an over-protective mother to her young son James. She is a husk of her former self, but she remains friends with Dr Bond – unaware of the role he played in James’s death. The three men involved in that evening have kept quiet about their involvement, and Dr Bond even dares to hope that he might one day marry Juliana.

Initially, everything seems rather dull. Everyone is going about their business and nothing particularly out of the ordinary happens (which, in light of what was happening at the time, is no bad thing). Then the battered body of a woman is found in a train carriage and it gets Bond thinking about the events of previous years.

In this novel we are introduced to Edward Kane, an old friend of James, and he asks Bond to look into some letters that James sent. In these letters, James talks of the Upir and the awful things it made him do. Bond appeases Kane’s curiosity with plausible explanations for these comments – but the information included within the letters’ pages opens up new questions for Bond.

Suddenly we are plunged into a horrific tale- where Bond learns of the extent to which those closest to him were caught up in the impact of the Upir’s existence. Unable to let this go, Bond continues to seek answers to his questions – with devastating consequences.

This novel was more focused on the personal decline of Bond, and it had less interest in some ways. There were minor irritations because of poor editing, but the story was a fascinating example of horror.

‘Mayhem’ – Sarah Pinborough

After reading ’13 Minutes’ on a friend’s recommendation and enjoying it so much, I wanted to try other books by Pinborough. It’s at moments like this that I’m tremendously grateful for public libraries!

What has impressed me with Pinborough’s writing so far has been the versatility she demonstrates. Common to the novels I’ve read so far is great characterisation, and this is no exception.

It’s very unlikely that you won’t know something of Jack the Ripper and his awful crimes. This is, indeed, part of the focus of ‘Mayhem’, but it is so much more than that. At the same time as the police were being taunted by the infamous Ripper, there was another murderer on the loose. Dubbed the Thames Torso Murderer, his modus operandi was to butcher the victims’ bodies and leave parcels of dismembered limbs for the police to discover. However, the heads were never discovered.

While this lesser-known story would have been interesting in itself, Pinborough adds in a fascinating supernatural element.

Initially I found the shifting viewpoints a little hard to follow, but as it becomes clearer how the characters link this became less of an issue. The main character of Dr Thomas Bond was intriguing. Initially sceptical of the potential for something ‘other’, I found his story absorbing. Following him around the opium dens of London, and getting caught up with some rather unusual characters, it was never totally clear how much of what he described was real, and how much was the imaginings of a mind overweight with tiredness and increasingly addicted to opium. As events draw to their thrilling conclusion I found myself trying to read more slowly to draw the experience out a little longer.

I can’t wait to see how Pinborough carries this story on in ‘Murder’.

‘The Next Together’ – Lauren James

The moment I saw the cover I knew this would be heavy on the romance (which is not a genre I’m overly fond of), but once I’d read the blurb I couldn’t wait to get started!

Katherine and Matthew are born over and over again. Each time they are born, they meet and fall in love. Something momentous takes place around them, and they die. Until the next time.

While Matthew and Katherine seem to have vague recollections of their shared histories, we are treated to seeing them interact in four very different periods in time. In 1745, they are involved in the Carlisle Uprising. In 1845, Matthew is a journalist sent to report on the conditions the soldiers fighting in the Crimea are experiencing. In 2019 – our closest future – they are scientists accused of terrorism and trying to manufacture a biological weapon. In 2039, they are lab partners who stumble across a link between themselves and them in the past (try not to think too much about the logistics) and they end up on the run.

Curiously, there is a very real sense of the characters being slightly different each time and this brought each period to life in a way that was fascinating. For me, the real pull was the little excerpts of what look like coding interspersed throughout the text which heavily suggest that someone/something is actually directly in charge of these characters’ experiences. The idea that they are being manipulated for some other purpose is intriguing, and there are definite hints that we will get some answers – and, no doubt, some new questions – in the sequel, due out in October 2016.

‘And I Darken’ – Kiersten White

I always come to wish with this kind of thing that I’d waited until the trilogy was out in full so that I didn’t have to suffer the agonising wait for the next part. When I saw this available on NetGalley I couldn’t resist…I’ve done it again!

Lada Dragwyla and her brother, Radu, are abandoned by their father Vlad and sent from their home of Wallachia to be raised in the Ottoman courts. Radu comes to love and cherish this alternative life, but Lada resents her position and is determined to get her revenge eventually.

From the moment of her birth, Lada is fierce. She defies all expectations for a young girl, and her father encourages this. However, it’s not enough. Vlad is a weak ruler and abandons his own children for his own political game.

There’s so much I could say about this sprawling epic, but I’m wary of giving anything away and ruining the experience for those who read it. It’s enough to say that I quickly became immersed in this world and was desperate to find out more about the rather toxic triangle that is formed between the siblings and Mehmed, the sultan’s son.

The political background to the story is fascinating, and even for someone who knows very little about this period in history there was plenty to keep me satisfied. At the fore was the emotional investment that I felt in these characters, but I genuinely am excited to see where this goes next.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy.

‘April Raintree’ – Beatrice Culleton Mosionier

A revised version of the novel In Search of April Raintree, written specifically for students in grades 9 through 12. Through her characterization of two young sisters who are removed from their family, the author poignantly illustrates the difficulties that many Aboriginal people face in maintaining a positive self-identity.

I knew nothing of this story before I received a digital copy from NetGalley.

This is a fictionalised exploration of some of the issues faced by the writer, her family and other Aboriginal people.

Perhaps this will have more resonance with readers who are aware of the Métis people, but I was fascinated by this story. We see the two sisters taken into foster care and, in their own way, dealing with prejudice and fear. April gets married and spends a lot of her life avoiding her cultural background. Her sister, who spent her younger years proudly announcing her heritage, becomes trapped by a lot of her own prejudices and fears.

Certain scenes within this novel were unflinching in their honesty and violence, yet they are vital for readers to gain any sense of understanding. This novel raises so many points for discussion and was an absorbing read. I think I will have to try and track down the original version.

‘The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer’ – Kate Summerscale

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy of this novel. Just as with ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher’, I was absorbed by this meticulously researched and fascinating story.

Set in 1895, we see 13 year old Robert and his younger brother, Nattie, spending money that it seems they should not have. They tell neighbours that their mother has gone to visit relatives in Liverpool, and they have been left in the care of a family friend. For ten days their behaviour is not seen as out of the ordinary. Our suspicions are raised by comments about a foul smell coming from the home and Robert pawning much-loved possessions to obtain money.

It is not until their aunt becomes suspicious and forces her way into the family home that we learn the source of the smell. The badly decomposed body of their mother is found upstairs in her bedroom, and Robert confesses to matricide.
Summerscale takes us through the trial at the Old Bailey and details of what happened next. This was packed full of information about the case, but it also included a wealth of details about life and attitudes of the time. We are told of the plea that Robert was insane, and I could not help but be shocked by the generally held beliefs about the effects of educating the poor.

When Robert is sentenced to imprisonment in Broadmoor, that could have been the end of it. What follows seems more a work of fiction, but we learn of the chance Robert was given to start a new life and the way he seizes this opportunity. This, for me, was what made the story special.

‘In The Shadow of Blackbirds’ – Cat Winters

Having read ‘The Cure for Dreaming’ by the same author it seems that Winters has an eye for period detail and is fascinated by the supernatural and its place in our world.

‘In the Shadow of Blackbirds’ is set in America in 1918, and the attention to detail is to be applauded. Through the eyes of sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black we see the effects of war, Spanish influenza and the Spiritualist craze on a small group of people. There’s a lot packed in here, and I felt the writer created an intriguing background to events.

The story itself focuses on Mary and what happens to her when she is sent to live with her Swiss aunt. Mary is scornful of her aunt’s fascination with the latest craze for Spiritualist activity and she is dismissive of the efforts of an old friend of the family, who is determined to prove through his photographs that ghosts exist. When Stephen, the man she loves, is killed in war Mary becomes reckless. She is struck by lightning, and then seems able to communicate with Stephen.

If you are not prepared to accept the characters’ interest in ghosts then I would imagine you will not enjoy this novel. Mary’s initial scepticism is challenged, and there were moments that I felt it was all too incredible. However, it was a story that engaged me from the start, and the light it sheds on the experiences of people in war was to be applauded.

‘Everyone Brave is Forgiven’ – Chris Cleave

When war is declared in 1939 Mary North, the daughter of a wealthy family, signs up to do her bit. She is assigned the role of teacher, which those who supervise her think she is wholly unsuited for and she is ordered to remain in London. Determined to do her bit, this fiery character seeks an audience with the education administrator and practically demands that he let her resume teaching those children not deemed suitable to be evacuated to the countryside. Tom agrees, and so marks the beginning of an unusual relationship.

Mary is passionate and her relationship with Tom becomes personal. This might have become a pedestrian romance in the hands of less engaging writers, but Cleave introduces a third character, Alistair, and thus begins a wholly engaging story.

The characters of Mary and Alistair are loosely based on Cleaves’s own grandparents, and the personal investment in this shone through in the tender portrayal of the relationship. Cleave is unflinching in his depiction of the wartime experience, and I felt the writing was evocative.

Though a happy ending seemed inevitable from the outset, I think that one of the strengths of this novel is the cast of characters surrounding our main trio. Throughout I was keen to know more about their experiences and how the war affected them.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

‘The Girls’ – Emma Cline

Due for publication in June 2016, this debut novel is definitely one to watch.

The opening of the novel creates a real sense of desire and perfectly recreates the intensity of being 14.

Evie Boyd is something of a spoiled rich kid, left pretty much alone by her divorced parents and not really fitting in anywhere. When she first sees Suzanne in a park the attraction is evident. Suzanne seems to represent everything that Evie wants but doesn’t have…freedom, confidence, a group etc. Slowly, Evie ingratiated herself into Suzanne’s group and we watch as she gets drawn under the spell of the charismatic cult-leader Russell.

After establishing this almost dream-like setting, Cline shifts her focus into the present. We now see Evie as an adult, alone. Here we learn a little more about what happened to Evie in the summer of 1969, and how her life was intertwined with some truly dark events.

Alternating the focus of the novel between past and present allows the adult Evie the opportunity to reflect on her experiences, but I wonder whether it keeps us just that little too distanced from it all. At times I felt we lost some of the innocence of young Evie as the adult narrator looks back on these times.

The novel is loosely based on the Manson murders, but I think the focus on Evie means this remains at the fore throughout. This was a complex and quite beautifully-written novel, and it seems an assured debut. My only reason for not rating it 5 stars was that I felt the ending was just a little too convenient for Evie.

Thank-you to NetGalley and Random House for the advance copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

‘Lies We Tell Ourselves’ – Robin Talley

Sometimes a book comes along that makes you want to grab strangers in the street, thrust it under their noses and urge them to read it. This was one of those books.

‘Lies We Tell Ourselves’ is featured on the Carnegie 2016 Short-list, and deservedly so. It tells the story of Sarah, one of the first black students to be enrolled in the all-white Jefferson High. While the details are fictionalised, they are heavily rooted in fact and this, for me, was what gave the book its main impact. Reading about the traumas faced by the students enrolled on a daily basis was deeply disturbing – and it really makes the reader question their beliefs and attitudes.

Upon first finishing the book I was awash with emotion. My initial thoughts veered between disgust, frustration, anger, respect and outrage. Talley highlighted just how amazing what some people go through to experience a basic human right is. As I read I felt more than little ashamed to be part of a cultural group that could ever think this kind of behaviour is acceptable.

Alongside the issue of racism, the story also focuses on the emotional impact on both female characters of coming to terms with their sexuality in a deeply religious context. Sarah was, for me, the stronger of the two main female characters. From the first time we see her trying to get into school to the day she leaves she shows compassion, intelligence and bravery. However, Linda was the character who seemed to grow and develop as she is challenged to question everything she has believed to be the truth.
Such an important book, in so many ways. I feel honoured to have read it.