Synopsis:
In Victorian England, a savvy spiritual medium must outsmart the most important client of her career: a scientist determined to expose frauds like her.
But their game of wits has fatal consequences when a vengeful spirit answers their summons. If they cannot put aside their prejudices—and growing passion—and find a way to banish the ghost together, one of them could be its next victim.
Edition:
E-ARC via Net Galley
My Thoughts:
I don’t remember how I came to have this e-ARC (whether I requested it, if it was a Read Now title, or if I was invited to review it). To be honest, I read it quite a while ago. I’m just really REALLY far behind on writing reviews – there’s not enough time in a day! But, I do remember that I enjoyed The Haunting of Beatrix Greene quite a bit. More than I expected to, frankly. See, the 3 credited authors on the cover kind of concerned me. Would three people be able to seamlessly weave a narrative? Or would it just feel disjointed and weird? In this case, it was the former. I almost immediately forgot that there were multiple authors to the story. It felt cohesive, and not at all like there were too many cooks in the kitchen.
Beatrix Greene is a fun character. I mean, she’s a fraud, right? Who doesn’t like to see a plucky young Victorian woman trying to keep herself in a home without no man? I know I do. I don’t care if she has to defraud a few people to do it, either.
But even better than being *just* a fraud, Beatrix Greene is a fraud with a heart of gold (well, sort of). She doesn’t feel super great about defrauding sometimes vulnerable people, but she’s still willing to do it because she does feel super great about having a place to sleep and food to eat. And James Walker is a fun foil/potential love interest.
Basically, if you like the feel of gothic horror, but you (for some reason I can’t imagine) don’t like the pacing, Beatrix Greene might be your Goldilocks book. It has all the trappings of a gothic horror story, but the pacing of a serial. Because I think that is actually what it is, technically. So it’s gothic in atmosphere, but with a faster pace.
Rating:
Like I said, this was pretty good. Although admittedly, I didn’t 100% love the pacing. I wish it had been just a touch longer to better develop the characters. They were pretty good, but I just wasn’t super invested in them, you know? I think that could have been fixed by slowing it down and lengthening the story just a touch.
The Haunting of Beatrix Greene By Rachel Hawkins, Ash Parsons, Vicky Alvear Shecter Serial Box ISBN: 9781682108130 Published: October 28, 2020 E-book, Audiobook 111 Pages Note: it looks like another version (198 pages) was released in 2021 - I did NOT review that version, nor have I read it.
