Publisher's Weekly Review
Pohlig's uneven debut fuses romantic comedy and gothic horror in a tale of family trauma. Iseult Wince, an unmarried 28-year-old woman, lives with her cruel father, Edward, and nurturing housekeeper, Mrs. Pennington, in late 1880s England. Iseult, convinced she murdered her mother Beatrice during childbirth, spends her days conversing with the dead woman in her mind. When Beatrice's voice overwhelms her, Iseult finds relief by stabbing herself with needles and other sharp objects. Edward, meanwhile, determines to rid himself of his lone daughter and hosts a series of dinners with potential suitors. All result in failure until Iseult meets Jacob Vinke, the son of a lawyer, whose skin holds a glint of silver due to treatment for a medical condition. Jacob's family, recognizing their own damaged goods, decides to take on Iseult as daughter-in-law, and as she and her fiancé near their wedding date, Beatrice crowds Iseult's head with worry, Edward belittles her, and Mrs. Pennington works overtime to keep her on track to escape her father's torture. While repetitive chapters with Iseult and Beatrice break the spell of the Victorian ghost story, Pohlig handles the wry set pieces of ill-fated courtship with aplomb, and the novel eventually gains momentum through a bloody series of twists and turns. Pohlig's antimarriage plot will interest fans of revisionist gothic fiction. (Apr.)
Booklist Review
Iseult Wince's dreadful father is determined to marry her off before she ages out of the market. Despite her wealth, a combination of unassuming physiognomy and social awkwardness limits Iseult's prospects. She also has another problem: the ghost of her dead mother, Beatrice, is dwelling inside her, constantly speaking. Iseult can only quieten the voice through self-harm. Others view Iseult as mad, but one unique man has prospects as dismal as her own and is willing to consider the match. As marriage plans progress, Beatrice grows increasingly hateful, driving Iseult to desperate acts. It is difficult to watch people who should love each other treat each other cruelly, and this is the relationship dynamic between Iseult and both her parents. Depictions of self-mutilation are graphic and disturbing. Beatrice manifests in the text as stream-of-consciousness intrusions; one can understand why she drives Iseult to distraction. This suspenseful, occasionally darkly humorous, distinctively written novel is equal parts Victorian horror and cry for independence. Those strong enough to handle its visceral content will find an absorbing read.
Library Journal Review
DEBUT Iseult has endured a painful life, both emotionally and physically, believing that she caused her mother's death in childbirth and that her mother's ghost lives inside the scar on her neck. Iseult spends many hours talking to her mother's spirit and trying to free her by repeatedly slicing at the scar. Now approaching 30--a spinster by Victorian standards--Iseult is under pressure from her father to marry. He views his awkward, difficult daughter as a burden, and he's elated to finally find a suitor who isn't scared away by her unusual behavior. The impending nuptials lead Iseult to behave in increasingly violent and unpredictable ways, as she struggles to make a last gasp at regaining her agency. VERDICT A weird and bloody ghost story combining the terror of mental illness with body horror that, while set in a gothic world, features a sensibility more at home in the 21st century. Similar in appeal to the intense psychological suspense of Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger mixed with the real-life horror of the domestic abuse and self-harm at the heart of Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects.
