CW: In the author’s words: ‘mild, non-graphic sexual harassment of both a female employee and a child’ More on that in the review though.

I hadn’t intended on reviewing this book. I absolutely devoured Half a Soul and this book was set in the same world, so I planned a few happy evenings of returning to that world. Perhaps my memories of Half a Soul aren’t accurate, but I didn’t expect to have my feelings hauled over the coals in this book so I felt compelled to review it. If you are looking for a comforting or cozy reading experience and a HEA, then this is not the book for you. If you are looking for an unsettling Gothic faerie tale, then you’ll love this book.

The blurb presents a rather sanitised version of events. The reality is a lot more grim. This is no faerie adventure caper. Oh no, it’s disturbing and emotional. Going into this story unprepared certainly made the twists and turns more compelling, but I would have liked to have a clearer idea of what lay ahead as I now sit writing this review somewhat shell-shocked.

As with all good Gothic stories, it starts with a creepy mansion in the countryside. The opening line says it all: ‘The hundred eyes of Witchwood Manor loomed above, grinning through torrential rain’. So far, so creepy. This building is extra creepy as it seems to be haunted by fairies and ghosts alike, although the true, full story of the house is only revealed towards the end of the book.

In fact, that is true of all aspects of the story. The mystery is maintained right until the very end. In addition to the complete history of the house, the characters’ true backstories are also only fully revealed in the last chapter or so. If you find this ‘not knowing’ suspenseful-in-a-good-way, then it will delight you. For me, it just left me with a gnawing fear of what’s to come and a frustration with flying blind in the story. And although it certainly may be that that is exactly what a good Gothic story needs, it wasn’t the reading experience I was anticipating

Winifred is taken on as a governess for a rude, entitled adolescent. Very quickly it is revealed that Winifred is no governess, but rather a “black magician” coming to the aid of a dowager who had been kind to her as a child in a children’s home. The dowager has asked Winifred to keep her grandson safe from faeries until he leaves for Eton in September. Winifred is strong of mind and resourceful. She’s a straight talker and I really enjoyed her approach to things in the book. Side note: In the cover copy, we learn that the grandson is kidnapped by faeries, but this only takes place halfway through the book. Quite a lot happens before that. Conversely, Winifred’s black magician status is revealed almost immediately.

The first person that Winifred meets at Witchwood Manor is Mr Quincy, the butler. But the skeleton (human) staff swear that there is no butler and hasn’t been for weeks. There is a romantic subplot to this story, but it is very minor and only really kicks in near the end of the book. Personally, I struggled to get on board with Mr Quincy’s twitching rat’s tail.

As for the book’s content warnings, the on-the-page action is mild as sexual harassment/assault goes, but I actually struggled more with Winifred’s fear of the perpetrator in question. Her frozen powerlessness comes through so viscerally that it unsettled me more than the passages describing the sexual harassment itself. The perpetrator walks that excruciating line between being ‘polite’ and issuing threats. The words that he says sound threatening to Winifred, but she doubts herself because the words are ‘polite’ enough that nothing is overt. Winifred is also acutely aware of how precarious her safety is with this perpetrator because if he were to decide to become violent there would be no help for her in that moment (or perhaps after it too).

I am undoubtedly too delicate in my sensibilities to survive an unnerving Gothic story with monsters aplenty. That being said, I absolutely devoured this book. Do I plan on reading the next in the series? I don’t think so. This story ends with a HFN but there are larger plot points with some serious monsters that remain unresolved. Honestly, I don’t think I have it in me to read stories in which it always feels like a losing battle because ever more monsters appear.

This book was tough to grade because it’s undoubtedly well-written (or it wouldn’t have freaked me out the way it did) but it’s difficult to give a mark to ‘creeping dread’. In the end, I needed to recover from the experience of reading it, and so I make a cautious recommendation to my fellow readers: be aware that the cover description doesn’t fully indicate the level of tension inside. This was not the book for me, but I suspect this may be the perfect book for many of you!