August 5, 2013
In 1867 England, 21-year-old Eliza Caine is left completely alone in the world when her father suddenly takes ill and dies. In a fit of melancholia, she responds to an advertisement for a governess to care for a pair of children in the wilds of Norfolk. When she receives a positive response, Eliza realizes that her life is about to undergo a cataclysmic change: she has never been out of London, she has never been a governess, and she knows nothing about Gaudlin Hall—which turns out to be an imposing pile of a building, spine-chillingly odd, unsettling, and spooky—or her new employers. Drawing sometimes excessively on Rebecca, Wuthering Heights, and the works of Wilkie Collins and Dickens, Boyne (The House of Special Purpose) creates a subtle, satisfying tale of ghostly terror.
August 15, 2013
Standard gothic fare, from the frisson of cold hands on one's throat to creepy ghosts. It's 1867, and teacher and narrator Eliza Caine is grieving the recent death of her father. She rather impulsively decides to leave her position as a teacher of young girls in London and pursue a governess's position in Norfolk. The oddness begins when she finds out that the advert she'd responded to in the paper was placed by the previous governess rather than by the parents of the two children at Gaudlin Hall. When Eliza arrives, she finds two precocious children: 12-year-old Isabella and 8-year-old Eustace, both bright and both very strange. Eliza also discovers that there are no parents or guardians in sight, and the people in the village become downright uncomfortable when Eliza brings up this delicate topic. To her dismay, she also discovers that in the previous 12 months, she's been the sixth governess to tend the children. Gradually and reluctantly, a few acquaintances open up about the goings-on at Gaudlin Hall. Eliza discovers that the first governess, Miss Tomlin, had been brutally beaten by Santina, Isabella and Eustace's exotic and obsessed mother. In the same attack, she battered her husband beyond recognition, and in a bow to Jane Eyre--and for a time unknown to Eliza--the children's brutalized father is found to be still living at Gaudlin Hall, tended by an irascible nurse. Although Santina was executed for the murder, her spirit still roams the hall, interfering with Eliza's attempts to tend to her charges. Boyne saves a nice surprise for the last word of the novel, but otherwise, this is not edge-of-your-seat scary.
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October 1, 2013
When Eliza Caine's father dies unexpectedly in 1867, Eliza is left on her own in London, and as a result, she impulsively answers a somewhat cryptic advertisement seeking a governess at Gaudlin Hall in Norfolk. However, before she ever sets foot in Gaudlin Hall, a mysterious force seems intent on harming her. Eliza's situation becomes even more baffling as she discovers that her two young charges, Isabella and Eustace, are living on their own in the manor house, their parents mysteriously absent. Everyone she meets wants nothing more than to avoid talking about Gaudlin Hall and its residents, present and past. The only thing that Eliza is certain of is that there is an entity in the house that wants her dead, and she must uncover the secrets of the house if she wants to protect the children and escape the fate of her predecessors. VERDICT While the title is rather uninspired, Boyne's (The Absolutist) latest work is anything but. In this tribute to the classic 19th-century ghost story, Boyne follows in the footsteps of his literary forebears as the novel invokes elements of Charles Dickens (who makes a guest appearance), Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre), and Henry James (The Turn of the Screw). With well-drawn characters and surprising twists, this book will appeal to fans of horror and historical fiction as well as anyone who likes a good ghost story.--Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 15, 2013
Eliza Caine is orphaned at 21 when her father succumbs to the flu after he insisted on attending a reading by Charles Dickens in cold, wet weather. She is bereft and, like most heroines of the time, without resources. She has lost her home, and so she leaves her teaching job to take a position as governess to two children in Norfolk. The advertisement is somewhat irregular, but she summons her courage and travels to what should be her new life. But secrets and mysteries abound. There are no parents present, and no servants to speak of. No one will share any information, and terrible things keep happening. Isabella seems old beyond her years, while Eustace is sweet and lovable. Through dogged pursuit, Eliza ferrets out the horrific truth and survives the malevolence of the presence that haunts the house. As the fearful situation grows worse, Eliza finds a strength that is unexpected for her time and place. Does she solve the puzzle, and do she and the children survive? A perfect, shivery gothic tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)
January 27, 2014
In Boyne’s thriller, 19th-century England is infused with the supernatural. Narrator Larkin—born in America but raised in England—effectively captures Boyne’s characters, particularly the manner in which both class and gender shape daily life. In giving voice to protagonist Eliza Caine—an unmarried, young schoolteacher who becomes a governess to a wealthy rural family shrouded in mystery—she ably conveys the character’s stoic practicality and idealistic yearning for social acceptance and economic freedom. Larkin also does a masterful job rendering the male voices, especially prominent village figures such as the barrister and clergyman, both steeped in the male privilege of the era. Yet, the most memorable aspect of Larkin’s performance is her eerie portrayal of the two young children at the center of the otherworldly forces that Eliza encounters. An Other Press paperback.