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anouk90's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
susan_ok's review against another edition
1.0
I'm sorry to say I cannot finish this. I'm not so down with the overwrought female and creepy uncle. And I needed something to happen more quickly. The Victorian horror is one of my favorite genres so I'd usually be really interested in this. But it's just not doing it for me. And I had such high hopes.
beastreader's review against another edition
1.0
Someone is murdering women. The murderer however does take the time to nicely arrange the women by braiding their hair and stuffing the end of the braid in their mouth.
Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her Uncle. She is supposed to be a proper lady and that means she does not have much of a life. With lots of time on her hands, Catherine soon finds herself drawn to the murders. Catherine starting writing about the murders. However, Catherine’s writing brings her into the killer’s sight.
This book sounded really good as it might still turn out to be good but for me, I found myself struggling to get into this book. In fact I sadly had to give up after only making it to page 66. The writing just seemed too monotone for me. There was nothing interesting about the story. I did not feel anything for the murdered women. This I felt was an important aspect of the story as this is the mina focus of what the story is about. If I do not feel anything for the women then there is no point in going any further with the book and trying to discover why the women were murdered.
Missing: A more interesting cast and a quicker story line pace.
Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her Uncle. She is supposed to be a proper lady and that means she does not have much of a life. With lots of time on her hands, Catherine soon finds herself drawn to the murders. Catherine starting writing about the murders. However, Catherine’s writing brings her into the killer’s sight.
This book sounded really good as it might still turn out to be good but for me, I found myself struggling to get into this book. In fact I sadly had to give up after only making it to page 66. The writing just seemed too monotone for me. There was nothing interesting about the story. I did not feel anything for the murdered women. This I felt was an important aspect of the story as this is the mina focus of what the story is about. If I do not feel anything for the women then there is no point in going any further with the book and trying to discover why the women were murdered.
Missing: A more interesting cast and a quicker story line pace.
erikadawnbraham's review against another edition
4.0
I quite enjoyed this book. It's not your typical Victorian era novel. It isn't about being a proper lady and finding love, it is about a very twisted main character who gets wrapped up in the murders in London. It had me not wanting to put the book down. It's definitely a little weird at parts but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
pea_nut18's review against another edition
2.0
I found it difficult to keep up with the switching of characters throughout the book. I was really hoping to enjoy this book more because I enjoy reading this era but was overall disappointing.
debjazzergal's review against another edition
4.0
Very well written and thoroughly researched. Intricately plotted. Overall a great read.
leavingsealevel's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh.
I swear there is not a single likeable character in this book. NO ONE.
I swear there is not a single likeable character in this book. NO ONE.
litwrite's review against another edition
3.0
This was heavy but kind of in all the wrong ways. There was this air of drudgery in the entire novel which really felt like suffocating which I guess goes along with the plot of the book, but really I felt less like it was about the plot and more about the prose which seemed really overworked to me.
[a:Sarah Waters|25334|Sarah Waters|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1208970232p2/25334.jpg] gets mentioned a lot when trying to pigeonhole this book and I do see where that comparison is coming from but I feel like Williams is a lot less successful in writing about the same sorts of things as Ms. Waters. If anything, I would say this book reminded me more of a highbrow attempt at [b:My Sweet Audrina|805023|My Sweet Audrina|V.C. Andrews|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1178550284s/805023.jpg|2702382], with all the gaslighting and the 'what happened to my family' drama. I found the first 50 pages to be very dull, with a pick up in the middle where things got quite exciting for a while, and then ultimately it just fizzled out again at the end which I found to be pretty lackluster.
I do, however, love that cover.
[a:Sarah Waters|25334|Sarah Waters|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1208970232p2/25334.jpg] gets mentioned a lot when trying to pigeonhole this book and I do see where that comparison is coming from but I feel like Williams is a lot less successful in writing about the same sorts of things as Ms. Waters. If anything, I would say this book reminded me more of a highbrow attempt at [b:My Sweet Audrina|805023|My Sweet Audrina|V.C. Andrews|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1178550284s/805023.jpg|2702382], with all the gaslighting and the 'what happened to my family' drama. I found the first 50 pages to be very dull, with a pick up in the middle where things got quite exciting for a while, and then ultimately it just fizzled out again at the end which I found to be pretty lackluster.
I do, however, love that cover.
alexblackreads's review against another edition
1.0
Usually when I give a book one star, there's a certain amount of hate involved. But this book didn't even inspire hate. 350 pages and the only time I came even remotely close to caring about a character is for about twelve pages when Constantine was speaking the most obvious truths and pointing out several flaws in the book. This happened around page 100 and I was shocked that there was almost something resembling a personality. But that quickly passed.
This was just a convoluted mess that fell like it was trying to be literary and failing spectacularly. 250 pages in and I didn't know who the characters were or what was going on or why anyone was acting the way they were. I love theorizing in books and can't help myself from guessing plot twists and endings, but I didn't in this. I didn't care. The amount that I did not care about literally anything in this book was astounding.
This was just a convoluted mess that fell like it was trying to be literary and failing spectacularly. 250 pages in and I didn't know who the characters were or what was going on or why anyone was acting the way they were. I love theorizing in books and can't help myself from guessing plot twists and endings, but I didn't in this. I didn't care. The amount that I did not care about literally anything in this book was astounding.
smashbooks's review against another edition
1.0
This jumped a lot for me. I always try to finish books. I needed to know who the killer was. After I found out, I gave up. Awful. Very disjointed. Sad I wasted my time.