Book Review: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

Why I am a Reviewer?

They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done?

1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning - slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.

For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.

But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?

This book has took me a while to review. There are things in this book that would like to read reviews and discussion about, because I'm not informed enough to comment on. I don't read a lot of Historica Fiction but the premise was intriguing and something I do read about in Contemporary books. Also, the cover has a skull on it which I love.

This book is told in first person reflectively, its meant to be Frannie Langton writing an account of her life as she waits for trial and eventually catches up. It's directed straight to the reader as if you are the lawyer defending her. There are also a few readings straight from the trial. The audiobook has two narrators, a man narrator for the trial parts and the author does the rest of the book. Both do a good job.

I listened to this on audiobook and some parts were kinda confusing, so I'm not sure if it was the text or if I had somehow missed something. I did go back but couldn't work what was meant to be happening. A lot of bad things, mysterious things are a reference and we never get clear answers about. So maybe this wasn't the best book for me to listen to and think that has made reviewing harder for me. I do consider the audiobook to be good. Maybe a duel read.

Fannie is definitely an unreliable narrator, in parts she doesn't remember and things she unwilling to disclose to us yet. This narrative is especially interesting as we have court testament going against her but these testaments are themself unreliable for the most part.

Overall, I give this 4/5 stars for Missing Scissors. There were things that would have liked a better answer on. This is a book that deals with the unvoiced generations of black women and the dominance of White men getting to have the final word on the major history which I appreciate. Part of this book is definitely that the writing is beautiful and deals with a lot of complex things. I guess my actual review, go read other reviews. I've been trying to write this for months.

Read: 24/3/2020 to 5/4/2020
Reviewed: 5/4/2020 – 13/06/2020
Medium: Audiobook
Published Date: 4/04/2020
Publisher: Penguin
Source: Library
CW: Racism; Slavery; Incest; Abuse; Sexual Exploitation; Death; murder; lynching; Abortion; unethical human experimentation; Drug Use;

Book Review: The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton

CW: Forced Prostitution mentioned; Threat of Violence; Suspensus Baby Deaths mentioned; Child Abuse; Death of a Parent/s; Accidental Deaths; World War II; Homeness from bombing;

The Attic will keep you safe.

My real name, no one remembers.
The truth about that summer, no one else knows.

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor in rural Oxfordshire. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins.

Over 150 years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist’s sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.

Why does Birchwood Manor feel so familiar to Elodie? And who is the beautiful woman in the photograph? Will she ever give up her secrets?

Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker's Daughter is a story of murder, mystery and thievery, of art, love and loss. And flowing through its pages like a river, is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the clockmaker’s daughter.

This book leaps through time all surrounding this house slash the ghost who haunts it. Though, we start with archivist whose marrying someone she clearly doesn't like. Mainly it's the house and the ghost haunting it Birdie, who had a sad life and now has a sad afterlife. The end. Okay, there' s more to it that. This is about the mystery about who Birdie was and how she died.

My library has this as Historical Fiction > Crime & Thriller, I guess because there don't have mystery section in the Historical bit for some reason. It's a mystery. Crimes happened, not thrilling at all. Aren't genres a beautiful weird thing. It's very slow-paced.

No idea why they went for this title. Yes, her father is a clockmaker but it's not really a big deal. He's not really ever in the book. There are no scenes with him, and him being a clockmaker plays a very small part of the book. It would be like if someone called my life story the Taxi Driver's Child despite dealing with my life now when both of my parents are no longer Taxi drivers.

The ending was kinda asinine. Obviously, with Birdie being a ghost you know she has to die at some point but the way it happens feels so forced, especially with no one realising what is going on. It feels like Morton decided how she wanted the book to go, but then half-arsed.

Her name is made to be such a big deal and it's never revealed publically despite one the character discovering it. Instead, it ends with a weak thing about how cheating is complicated. Sure, in the Victorian times where marriages were mostly about power. A lot of characters end up injured with no memory of how they ended up that way. How convenient.

I'm not gonna lie, I kinda got bored during the end of this, during the kinda epilogue bit. They are so many characters of characters and time periods. This is a long book at 17 Hours 3 minutes, so you do spend a big chunk with all of them. The question is why though? There's no meaningful link up. I thought the book would have ended differently, which would have been more satisfying.

I listened to the audiobook as read by Joanne Froggatt. She does a decent job. Googling her lead me to find out there are only 16 episodes of Dinner Ladies. Watching things randomly on Gold sure leads you to think there's more of something than there really is. 

Overall, I gave this book 3/5 stars for Plotful Head-injuries. This book is frustratingly lacklustre at the end. There are questions left in the air that don't make sense at all. 

Released: 1 October 2018

Read 15 January 2020, Reviewed January 2020.

Source: Library

Book Review: Fleshmarket by Nicola Morgan

Fleshmarket does not contain cannablism. Only Jokes about Cannabism,

"Footsteps echoed through the towering corridors as the woman walked...followed by her silent family. No One could touch her. She touched none of them. She was different. Robbie, young as he was, felt it...had felt her pain as if it was his. It had burned him and left its mark. The mark was the empty space where his real mother had been. The place where she had left him.'

It is Edinburgh, 1828 and Robbie is haunted by the horror of his mother's death at the hands of the famous surgeon, Dr Robert Knox. The Operation was intended to save her life. Instead it brought her intolerable pain before it killed her. Now her family is torned apart, and living in appalling poverty. A desperate Robbie is intend on Revenge on Knox. But how far is he prepared to go - and what will he lose in the process?


This is a book I wanted to read since 5th Nov 2007 when I heard about, brought it 7 years later and read it almost 10 years later. It sounded cooler, I tried to buy when I heard about it, but I don't think I had enough money on me. The lady selling the books also seem confused that I would want that one also.

So this book is about Robbie who blames his family's poverty on real historian person Dr Robert Knox. The book goes during the birth of Modern Medicine, as in they didn't know about bacteria and inflections yet. Nor much about the Human body as no one was willing to have their body cut for science as religion says that you need your body to rot for God for some reason.

This book does have lot questioning of God, because of the time period and the list of bad things that have happened to our main character. It's a few pages of the book, and think is reflective of the time the book is set. The bodies rotting for god does come into play of the plot. If you recognize Doctor Know, then you probably guess how it relates. I didn't and strangely I never guess what a book called Fleshmarket set in 19th century would involved such a famous Edinburgh thing so I will leave you to discover it or already know.

I think a big problem is that Robbie is a bit desperate to blame Knox for his problems that it comes across as dumb. Yes, he 14 and hormonal, but there's several "error of my ways" moments that happen in this book. He also abandons his 8 yr old sister several times, making him unlikable.

Overall, I give this book 3.5/5 stars for bread barrow. I prefer Nicola Morgan's The Highwayman's Footsteps series better than this book. It was okay, I don't know if Young me would have liked it better. If more a fan of historian fiction involving real people then this might be the book for you.

Book Review:The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

If they had only kept it in their pantaloons.


There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed...

On an autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of Amsterdam. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but instead she is met by his sharp-tongued sister, Marin. Only later does Johannes appear and present her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. It is to be furnished by an elusive miniaturist, whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in unexpected ways ...

Nella is at first mystified by the closed world of the Brandt household, but as she uncovers its secrets she realizes the escalating dangers that await them all. Does the miniaturist hold their fate in her hands? And will she be the key to their salvation or the architect of their downfall? Beautiful, intoxicating and filled with heart-pounding suspense, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth. 

This book was hyped way too much for what it is. A bad historical fan fiction, I listen to the audio book version of this from the library. I wish that meant I hadn't spent money on it and I haven't but I'm pretty sure I brought the ebook version at one point because voucher.

I'm not a big fan of historical fiction, except for Victorian Britain (that more to do with the insanity of the Victorians and the secret, weird stuff they got up to). I probably made a mistake in looking up the person this book is sort of based on. Sort of, in not all attempt to tell a possible story about the person with that name in history; the Petronella Oortman that did own a cabinet doll house and married Johannes Brandt. She was a rich widow, not impoverished upper-class teenager. The real Petronella sounds interesting. 

Not sure where the hype came from, because it originated from the Publishing world before the novel got this cool cover. The cover is fabulous and does deserve the hype. The novel in no way does. I think the setting of Amsterdam and some of the subject matter is what could sparked people's interest, but I had real hard time getting to the core of those subjects. The plot is actually dumb and depressing at the same time. This book needs plot re-haul. There something of an interesting story there, but things were set up and abandoned. If only one of the social justice plots had been taken, then maybe they would have been time to the explore the Miniaturist and not this thing where even the main character doesn't have time to think about it. The Miniaturist character was interesting but very little was done with it. I ran out of things to say that ain't big plot spoilers and there are sites that have done recaps.

I went on these recaps sites because I was super bored, but also intrigued. If this wasn't an audio book or if I had found something more interesting to listen to, I would not have finished this book and I would have not lost nothing or gain anything from doing that.

The character of Nella is boring. There is very little personality, she is a very Mary Sue with her 17-year-old peers. The reason this is not a YA book because it’s too boring to have any chance of keeping a teenager interested, also there is semi-graphic sex. There was attempt of character development, I could tell this was meant to be a coming age story for Nella. However, Nella was just unpleasant when she did show personality and dumb. I didn't like or enjoy any of the characters.

In terms of historical fact, it's as depressing as it should be. Women having no real option but to marry, and people are prejudice against the different. The fact that this book is so depressing is another reason I don't get the hype. There is also no real romance. Maybe because it is so different from most narratives about the past is why so people got behind it, but looking at reviews I don't see anyone truly love this book. The characters a very modern in the way they behaviour as well, but I don't know much much about Amsterdam past society structures.

The writing style was borderline modern poetic with random Dutch words in. I pick up no decent style from it, nor enjoy what we given. Burton might just need time and practice to developed her voice but right now there's nothing unique. Very bland, sometimes verges on purple prose. 

The audio book narration was bad for something read by the writer. Jessie Burton reads her own words without passion. I know she an Actor, so perhaps that's the issue with her reading that she did it like someone else work or this book is too boring for even the writer to convince me.

Overall, I give this book 2/5 stars for public sexcapade. This is Jessie Burton’s Debut so I won't be closing door to her but I don't know if I would bother with any more historical fiction from her. I do know her next novel is set (at least partly) in the last century. In theory this is a good, interesting book, but the execution needs development. I generally just don’t like historical fiction, nor weird fanfiction about real people, so this book was probably never going to be for me.

 

Book Review: The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan

Those ten minutes must be really disruptive for Bristol.

Two generations of women, and one house that holds the terrible secrets of their pasts 1922. Grace has been sent to the stately and crumbling Fenix House to follow in her grandmother's footsteps as a governess. But when she meets the house's inhabitants, people who she had only previously heard of in stories, the cracks in her grandmother's tale begin to show. Secrets appear to live in the house's very walls and everybody is resolutely protecting their own. Why has she been sent here? Why did her grandmother leave after just one summer? And as the past collides with the present, can Grace unravel these secrets and discover who her grandmother, and who she, really is?

This book begins with a strong start, but the plot is a bit of a mess and full coincidences. It's oddly reliant on Glimmers (seeing images of the "future"and just straight up lies. Who builds a plan for a grandchild on a image they had in their head before their actual child was born?

The characters are a bit meh. They are actually decent by themselves, but their relationships really take away from them as characters. I liked Harriet, but as grandmother she is terrible and it is a shame she lives in a age before there were decent therapists.

There is a plot point at the end of the book, that I just don't get. I think it was a weird addition to the story. Where other things are set up and we never get anything from it. 

I did like the switch between the present and the past, switching between the POV of Grace and Harriet. Also that we start and end in the middle of those times. Riodan has done a good job of making both narrators compelling and I remained keen to know both of their stories. 

Overall, I give this 3/5 stars for incest hints. There are lot of elements in this books that just don't merge right for me, mainly the glimmers. The rest of the novel is done well and captures the time period realistically.

I got this book for review off NetGalley and it was published by Penguin on 25 February 2016.  

(My review of this review I shouldn't use the word "bit" as much). 

Book Review: Devil in the Corner by Patricia Elliott

The horror of being unmarried Victorian woman is real.

Penniless, and escaping the horrors of life as a governess to brutal households, Maud seeks refuge with the cousin-by-marriage she never knew. But Juliana quashes Maud's emerging friendships with the staff and locals - especially John, the artist commissioned to restore the sinister Doom in the local church. John, however, is smitten with Maud and makes every effort to woo her.

Maud, isolated and thwarted at every turn, continues to take the laudanum which was her only solace in London. Soon she becomes dependent on the drug - so is this the cause of her fresh anxieties? Or is someone - or something - plotting her demise?
Is the devil in the corner of the Doom a reality, or a figment of her imagination?

The plot has moments of lacking and it is bit cliché. I found myself bored through certain parts. The pace is quite slow. Usually just waiting for something to happen. I do like the ending and it is a very Victorian. The major plot is well done, not overly obvious. There is a good build up. 

The characters are alright. They are Victorianly unlikable. I didn't care for the main characters much but that could be blamed on the fact that they're Victorian. It works for the book though when comes to plot thing. You do want things to turn out right for them. I did spend some time shouting at a certain character.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars for drug addiction. I did enjoy this book, I liked it. It’s just that there nothing brilliant about it. I do think this is a very good portray of Victorian culture though. That it is well done: Sexism and everything.

I got this book off NetGalley for review. It's published tomorrow by Hachette Children's Books.