I enjoyed this, but felt that the narrative pay-off didn't live up to the expectations that Perry had created.
I loved the main character -- a young woman who had endured an abusive marriage (in the way that Victorian women just had to endure, with no other choices available to them), who is freed by the unexpected death of her husband. Her joy -- and slight hesitancy -- and her new-found freedom (and wealth) is a delight: she (and the reader) can hardly believe her luck. That the Evil Husband didn't break her, didn't kill her, didn't get the chance to write her out of his will, and leave her destitute, as a final cruelty from beyond the grave (any one of those things, and worse, he might have done) is amazing, and she almost finds it hard to credit her luck. The Evil Husband is such a malign presence that I kept waiting for his death to be a trick, for him to appear at her door, thoroughly alive or perhaps undead, demanding to reclaim her, his fortune, and their child.
Because it could have been that kind of novel, and almost is one in which the magical is lurking just on the margins, and anything might happen. I wish Perry had gone with that a bit more -- nailed her colors to the mast, and leaned a little bit more in toward the magical, instead of carefully adjusting her ideas, and bringing it all back around to the sensible and"literary." No sea monsters to see here, everyone! Just move on ....
I loved the main character -- a young woman who had endured an abusive marriage (in the way that Victorian women just had to endure, with no other choices available to them), who is freed by the unexpected death of her husband. Her joy -- and slight hesitancy -- and her new-found freedom (and wealth) is a delight: she (and the reader) can hardly believe her luck. That the Evil Husband didn't break her, didn't kill her, didn't get the chance to write her out of his will, and leave her destitute, as a final cruelty from beyond the grave (any one of those things, and worse, he might have done) is amazing, and she almost finds it hard to credit her luck. The Evil Husband is such a malign presence that I kept waiting for his death to be a trick, for him to appear at her door, thoroughly alive or perhaps undead, demanding to reclaim her, his fortune, and their child.
Because it could have been that kind of novel, and almost is one in which the magical is lurking just on the margins, and anything might happen. I wish Perry had gone with that a bit more -- nailed her colors to the mast, and leaned a little bit more in toward the magical, instead of carefully adjusting her ideas, and bringing it all back around to the sensible and"literary." No sea monsters to see here, everyone! Just move on ....
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