Rating: ★★★
I remember clearly when this book was released because it was absolutely everywhere. It caught my eye from the very beginning, with its striking cover and rave reviews, but it wasn’t until I heard about the series adaptation of it that I finally picked up my copy and read it. I was super excited to delve into Victorian England and a tale of mystery and suspense, but unfortunately this just didn’t blow me away as much as I was hoping it would.
This book follows Cora Seaborne, a wealthy widow with an interest in palaeontology, who heads from London to Essex following tales of a sea serpent haunting the village of Aldwinter, taking with her her young son and his nanny. At Aldwinter, she finds a clash of the minds: the villagers believe that strange occurrences around the village are due to a magical creature being sent to punish them for their sins; local vicar Will Ransome believes that they have nothing to fear, and that the events are nothing but coincidence; meanwhile Cora believes there is a perfectly reasonable and scientific reason behind them: a real life creature.
To be honest, I think my slight disappointment with the book came from the fact that I went into it expecting a bit more of an adventure vibe to the novel. Instead, this is much more an internal drama, exploring the different ways that characters deal with crises and fear, as opposed to an actual hunt for the cause of the strange events around town. The book did handle these topics well and it was an interesting book to read, but in terms of feeling excited at the plot, this book didn’t quite do it for me.
I did enjoy the wide range of characters in this book, and the fact that the book is split between Essex and London. As can sometimes happen with this type of book however, I found myself more interested by the secondary characters than the primary characters. This isn’t necessary a problem, as it more goes to show how well Sarah Perry fleshes out her characters, but at times the book felt like it was stretched too thin, trying to follow too many storylines and none of them in enough depth. As much as I enjoyed the character of Cora’s son’s nanny and her involvement in politics, for example, in hindsight, I would have rather developed the storylines in the village, and explored some of the more gothic elements to the plot.
All in all, this book was neither fantastic nor terrible, but it was a bit of a let down. There were many elements of this book that I liked but I feel like they didn’t quite mesh well, and as a result, the slow-ish plot felt like a struggle at times.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Ink Drops Books 