Published By: Sphere
Pages: 512
Released On: 20/02/2025
Paris, 1789. The Oberst Factory, which crafts exquisite wallpaper for the most fashionable French homes, is a place shrouded in mystery. Most enigmatic is the woman pictured in each of its prints, rumoured to be the late Mrs Oberst, who died in peculiar circumstances.
When sisters Lara and Sofi arrive there for work, they quickly form a friendship with Josef Oberst, the motherless heir to the factory. Whilst Sofi’s political fervour intensifies, Lara is disturbed by the uncanny way her life appears mirrored in the wallpaper. Meanwhile Hortense, Josef’s spoilt aristocratic wife, is similarly unnerved by the scenes that line the walls of her new home. With the mobs growing ever more violent, is she in danger of meeting the same untimely end as the last Mrs Oberst?
As revolution blazes across France, the lives of Sofi, Lara and Hortense are set to collide in unimaginable and irrevocable ways. Can they change what lies ahead, or are some patterns destined to be repeated?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Sphere for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I’ve been seeing proofs of this go out to people for ages and I admit I was soooo jealous as it sounded right up my street and so audibly squealed when I was sent a digital copy!
Firstly, may I just compliment the cover – it really is very beautiful.
People who have read my reviews before know I generally dislike books any longer than 450 pages (and even that is at a push). It’s not that I have a problem against long books in themselves, it’s just I’ve only ever read a handful of those that warrant being that long. And so I’m always apprehensive starting a long book, but I was hoping that the positive reviews I was seeing would counter this.
The attention to detail Lora has gone into is so impressive. I don’t know her background, for all I know she might own a wallpaper making business, but the amount of research I’m sure she had to do to get this as detailed as it is seems immense. It does mean I found it a little slow to get going because there was so much specific detail, but overall I came to appreciate the level of detail as it means you can get absorbed more in the story.
Alongside our main story, we also have snippets from characters in Versailles. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really sure what those bits were about and how they linked to begin with, but once the two stories start to mix, then it becomes clear and I began to enjoy them.
Our narrators are three women: sisters Sofi and Lara, and aristocrat Hortense. I love reading books that are set in a time where women were subordinate, but with characters who use their voice to stand up for what they think is right. I did initially struggle to differentiate Sofi’s voice with Lara’s, but once the story gets going, and the two sisters start down very different avenues in their lives, then the differences become clear and the characterisation became deeper and clearer. I didn’t like Hortense for the majority of the book (and I think most readers will feel the same). I suppose I did soften around the edges on a couple of occasions, but overall I felt she was a nasty piece of work, but I’m aware a lot of that will come frrom her background.
The wallpaper itself is almost another character. It helps make that which starts as an interesting historical novel, become this gothic, thrilling, political adventure through the French Revolution of the late 1700s.
There are some difficult topics covered: misogyny, racism, feminism, crimes, violence, abuse, death, rape, but they’re handled all very well, and they’re balanced by feelings of love and friendship and family and belief.
I said at the beginning of this review that I feel rarely do long books warrant being that long, and that’s why I generally don’t like them. I did twist and turn whilst reading this. I loved it, let’s just say that, I thought it was so rich in detail, character and action, and was really enjoyable. A great promising debut and I think it’ll do really well upon publication. But at times I felt it was just a smidge too long, mainly at the start. So maybe if the first 1/4 of it was just a little quicker, getting to the action quicker, then it might not have been an issue. But to contradict myself here, without that introduction, without that detail and characters and backstory, then we wouldn’t have really cared for the characters later on. So I’m on the fence. It’s not a negative because most people I speak to love a long book, it’s just my preference.
The ending was absolutely lovely. Not necessarily 100% happy or uplifting, but perfect for the story and the characters. Such an impressive debut and I’ll be looking out for her future work.
Books By Your Bedside 