THE GIFTS

  One of several bloggers who over 14 days will be participating in this Blog Tour. Today {the 3rd day of the Tour) its my pleasure to be sharing my thoughts on ...

THE GIFTS by LIZ HYDER.

Genre ... Historical Fiction/ Magical Realism

Publication Date ... 1st September 2022 (Paperback release date)

Publisher ... Manilla Press, Bonnier Books UK

Standalone Novel

Estimated Page Count ... 400

Author Content Warnings: Violence/Domestic Abuse

Order Link: https://loom.ly/HMM25ks 

A young woman staggers through the woods. Something is happening deep inside and as she's thrown to her knees in agony, the world around her stops. When she comes to, she is astonished at the sight of her shadow - it has wings.

Meanwhile when rumours of 'fallen angels' cause a frenzy across London, a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune will find himself in the grip of a dangerous obsession, and the women he seeks in the most terrible danger . . .

THE GIFTS is the astonishing debut adult novel from the lauded author of BEARMOUTH. A gripping and ambitious book told through several female voices and set against the luminous backdrop of nineteenth century London, it explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the knife-edge roles of women in society and the dark danger of ambition. ... Synopsis

The bark is rough under her hands, scratching at her palms and fingers as she stumbles between the trees. ... First Sentence, Page 183

He plans to keep as much of his routine as he can in order to avoid suspicion, paranoia softly rising within him. To keep his angel from the servants' ears and eyes, he laced her beer with just enough laudanum to keep her quiet. ... Memorable Moment

My first thoughts, what a striking cover {the image shown here does not do it justice}, but not to get carried away, never judge a book by its cover and all of that ...

A young woman staggering through the woods. Wings, she has wings? Told through several female voices. Ooh! As anyone who follows Pen and Paper knows I love strong female voices; fingers crossed, these characters have strong voices. This sounds like my kind of read, and yet ...

 

What I strongly feel will be one of those so-called Marmite books that readers will either love or not. For myself, alas I'm afraid I fell into the second category.

A tale of Gothic magical realism set largely in Victorian London at a time of medical and social advancement. With its exploration of women in a patriarchal society, racism, religious fanaticism vying with science, everything about this book told me I should have really enjoyed it and yet, in the minority if my friends who have read the book are anything to go by {they are all raving about it}, I was distinctly underwhelmed.

Told from multiple points of view, not something I necessarily struggle with but the fact that the narrators would often change, seemingly on nothing more than a whim, mid-paragraph did make for confusing reading.

But most of all {and I'm sure many animal lovers will emphasise with me when I say this} quite early on in the book there is the depiction of a dog being experimented on for medical purposes which, way too graphic, quite frankly turned my stomach. And as a result I found I couldn't really relax into the book for fear of more of the same. Something that wasn't helped when, hardly surprisingly, little more empathy was shown to 'his angels', I found myself with such an all compelling desire to see the surgeon in question get his comeuppance that I found it difficult to concentrate on anything else.

Though not hugely into comparing books to other books I was struck by how strikingly similar The Gifts was to The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry {see my review here}, another book that, not particularly to my taste, was widely hugely well received as I'm pretty sure this will be.

About Liz Hyder ... Liz Hyder has been making up stories for as long she can remember. She has a BA in drama from the University of Bristol and, in early 2018, won the Bridge Award/Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Award. Bearmouth, her debut young adult novel, won a Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Branford Boase Award and was chosen as the Children's Book of the Year by The Times. Originally from London, she now lives in South Shropshire. The Gifts is her debut adult novel.

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