A review by rcsreads
The Beetle by Richard Marsh

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Beetle was released in the same year as Dracula and outsold it at the time. I think the main reason it hasn't stayed the test of time as well is because it's massively racist. It's very much steeped in Victorian Egyptomania and post-colonial fears; and there's a lot of Orientalism and othering of anyone who's not a posh English person. The main villain is Egyptian and part of a weird cult called The Children of Isis. They like to make human sacrifices and they prefer to use white, English women. This makes zero sense as they're clearly supposed to be following an ancient Egyptian tradition and there weren't a lot of British people kicking about Egypt 3000 years ago!
It's a shame the main premise is so problematic because it was incredibly readable, a real page turner. It lays down a really good mystery at the start and there's enough peril that I needed to know what was going on. Also, the main female character is a badass and does as she pleases and makes the men treat her as an equal. They all wanted to marry her and she could have done better!
The actual Beetle is super creepy and there's a lot of people hearing the faint whirring of wings that's surprisingly scary. Also at one point it crawls onto a man's face and I'm amazed he didn't just die from it being so gross!
It's a weird tale worth reading and looking at in it's wider historical context. Obvious trigger warnings for racism and also for sexual assault.
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