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snugglekittyThis book is deeply, deeply bizarre. I picked it up because it was recommended on the Booksense website, which I like to read, and because it is Victorian. I really like Victorian books, especially when they have sexual elements. This is partly because I like sex a lot and like reading about it, and partly because the Victorians were so obsessed with sex that books that are set in Victorian London, yet don't have any "perverts," "natural children," or "fallen women" in them don't ring quite true to me.
The opening of the book is somewhat standard. The young and beautiful plantation heiress, Miss Temple, has just been jilted by her fiancee. She is a logical woman and determined to not let this ruin her life. She decides to follow him so that she can understand his behavior, on the theory that once she understands what happened, she will be able to put it behind her easily and go on with her life. But even the simplest plans have a way of going awry. Within a few chapters, Miss Temple has discovered a side of London she never imagined, full of sex, murder, and straaange medical experiments. She teams up with a scholarly assassin and a royal doctor from Germany, as they struggle to overcome a hidden cabal bent on changing the world.
This book went in directions I had never even dreamed of. I promise, if you read this, you will never think about Victorian suspense the same way again. Five stars.
The opening of the book is somewhat standard. The young and beautiful plantation heiress, Miss Temple, has just been jilted by her fiancee. She is a logical woman and determined to not let this ruin her life. She decides to follow him so that she can understand his behavior, on the theory that once she understands what happened, she will be able to put it behind her easily and go on with her life. But even the simplest plans have a way of going awry. Within a few chapters, Miss Temple has discovered a side of London she never imagined, full of sex, murder, and straaange medical experiments. She teams up with a scholarly assassin and a royal doctor from Germany, as they struggle to overcome a hidden cabal bent on changing the world.
This book went in directions I had never even dreamed of. I promise, if you read this, you will never think about Victorian suspense the same way again. Five stars.
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Date: 2006-10-16 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 11:14 pm (UTC)