Published By: Picador
Pages: 336
Released On: 01/02/2024
London, 1850. Constance Horton has disappeared.
Maude, her older sister, knows only that Constance abandoned the apothecary they call home, and, disguised as a boy, boarded a ship bound for the Arctic. She never returned. ‘A tragic accident’, the Admiralty called it. But Maude Horton knows something isn’t right.
When she finds Constance’s journal, it becomes clear that the truth is being buried by sinister forces. To find answers – and deliver justice for her sister – Maude must step into London’s dark underbelly, and into the path of dangerous, powerful men. The kind of men who seek their fortune in the city’s horrors, from the hangings at Newgate to the ghoulish waxworks of Madame Tussaud’s.
It is a perilous task. But Maude has dangerous skills of her own . . .
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Picador for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Well…this is a bit of alright isn’t it?!
At the beginning of the book, we get a small prologue if you will, a pre-chapter, which starts with a bang. And then chapter one is where we meet our Maude Horton, and again, we’re thrust straight into the heart of the story and it picks you up and you just want to stay for the whole journey – which, if you’re like me, will be a short one as you just can’t face putting it down.
I love the poetic feeling of the description: from the colours of glass bottles, to the scenes coming from a pharmacy, to what you see in a reflection – it’s just gorgeous. Describing something in written form can be difficult, as it can so easily feel like reading a list, and that’s a bit boring, but to create such beauty in the simple, Lizzie has excelled at that.
I read an e-copy, but having seen the beauty of the physical book, I will have to buy myself a copy once it’s released to have on my shelf as it’s just gorgeous.
If I’m honest, I never knew that a book so heavy on detail regarding a ship expedition could be so gripping! I don’t know much, if anything really, about old ships and voyages and whatnot, but I found out there’s quite a lot in this book that’s true to life, if given slight artistic licence, which I liked. It sent me on a real Googling black hole.
The crux of the story is split into two formats: the present scenes from Maude’s point of view, and then diary extracts from the voyage of the Makepeace. This is a really great way of portraying the story, as we get multiple POVs, and we get to see how the past is affecting the present without having to have clumsy flashbacks.
It’s more detailed than I thought. Yes we have the main story, but we get someone else’s too (I won’t spoil who or what or where), which was great as it makes it more 3D. Not that the main story is flat, absolutely not, it’s fabulous, but by adding these extra layers, this depth, it become even better to lose yourself in.
I love reading books set in a time where women were subservient, to be seen and not heard, and we have a female protagonist here who is anything but the expected. It made her very powerful and it’s very easy to root for her. The men, on the whole, come off worse in this book (there are some exceptions) with the women – two in particular – holding the narrative together. It’s a wonderful balance of power and expectations.
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a “be tucked up in bed by 9pm because I’m cold and I tend to be awake by 5am” kind of woman, and because of this, I rarely read late into the night. But this one, I just couldn’t put it down and was reading it well past 10pm (I know this doesn’t sound late but I’m an old lady in a young woman’s body so go with it). It just grabs you and it becomes a need, rather than a want, to finish it.
I was sad when I finished it. The world Lizzie has created is not always a good one, and yet I didn’t want to tear myself away. Definitely one for the 2024 release highlights!
Books By Your Bedside 