Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Molly Pohlig's The Unsuitable is a fierce blend of Gothic ghost story and Victorian novel of manners that's also pitch perfect for our current cultural moment.

Iseult Wince is a Victorian woman perilously close to spinsterhood whose distinctly unpleasant father is trying to marry her off. She is awkward, plain, and most pertinently, believes that her mother, who died in childbirth, lives in the scar on her neck.

Iseult's father parades a host of unsuitable candidates before her, the majority of whom Iseult wastes no time frightening away. When at last her father finds a suitor desperate enough to take Iseult off his hands--a man whose medical treatments have turned his skin silver--a true comedy of errors ensues.

As history's least conventional courtship progresses into talk of marriage, Iseult's mother becomes increasingly volatile and uncontrollable, and Iseult is forced to resort to extreme, often violent, measures to keep her in check.

As the day of the wedding nears, Iseult must decide whether (and how) to set the course of her life, with increasing interference from both her mother and father, tipping her ever closer to madness, and to an inevitable, devastating final act.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

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.

Publishers 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.

Kirkus Book Review

A young Victorian woman avoids marriage at all costswhile being haunted by her dead mother."You killed me, remember that." Pohlig's debut novel opens with a conversation between Iseult Wince and her mother, who died giving birth to her. The midwife had to pull her out, leaving Iseult with a neck scarwhich is where she believes her mother's ghost lives. At 28 years old, she is nearing spinsterhood, and Mr. Wince, her father, desperately wants to marry her off. The idea of marriage terrifies Iseult; she sabotages nearly every setup and keeps a little black book called "The Unsuitables," where she details her failed suitors. Mr. Wince is ruthlessly cruel to his daughter. His emotional abuse is unending to the point that even Iseult hopes he will hit her: "She wished he would, so their mutual hatred could at least be tangible instead of just another ghost in the house." Luckily, she has Mrs. Pennington, her housekeeper and surrogate mother, who provides some of the kindness and emotional nurturing Iseult has been deprived of. Eventually, Mr. Wince finds a willing admirer in Jacoba kind fellow outcast with a unique condition: His skin is silver. The forced engagement and impending wedding sends Iseult into further free fall. Her mother's voice gets stronger and more cruel. Whether it's with sewing scissors or pins, Iseult's way of coping with her mother's voice is self-harm and mutilation. Unfortunately, the novel is bloody and graphic in a way that sometimes feels gratuitous. Though there are moments of humor and levity, they are rare. Once such moment is when Iseult wonders what may be expected of her after marriage: "She had received the usual sex education of a moderately privileged Victorian womanthat is to say, none." Despite a pitch-perfect final scene, the strange, grotesque novel has too much narrative fluff.Bloody and bizarre. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.