August Reading Wrap-Up 2019:

I’ll keep the introduction short. Here’s what I read in August and how I thought about them!

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ILL WILL BY MICHAEL STEWART | 1 STAR:

Heathcliff has left Wuthering Heights and is travelling to Liverpool in search of his past. Along the way, he saves Emily, the foul-mouthed daughter of a Highwayman, and the pair journey on together. Roaming from graveyard to graveyard, making a living from Emily’s apparent ability to commune with the dead, the pair lie, cheat and scheme their way across the North of England.

The great thing about Wuthering Heights is the many silences. Writers can fill these gaps with any story they wish to tell. Sometimes, though, I wish these silences would be left alone. I hated the way Heathcliff was characterised, I felt the race narrative wasn’t done appropriately or sensitively, and the misogynistic undertones was strong in this one. I *really* didn’t like this one!

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‘THE WITHERED ARM” BY THOMAS HARDY | 1 STAR:

A jealous lover’s curse and an ingenious party trick feature in these two suspenseful stories set in Hardy’s imaginary Wessex.

I listened to this one via audiobook. I wasn’t that fussed by this story, though. Short stories don’t really do it for me, anyways, and Hardy is very hit or miss. I was a little confused throughout.

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The Confessions of Frannie Langton:

Well, what a compelling story.

It’s 1826. Crowds gather to watch Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, go on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning – slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth. For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London. Could Frannie Langton have murdered the only person she has ever loved?

I have been waiting, ever so patiently, to get my hands on the paperback edition of Sara Collins’ debut novel. I love murder mysteries set in the nineteenth century. There is something so fascinating about them. Despite being a century of progression in terms of detection and policing, there is a darkness that still shrouds the century, making it the perfect atmosphere for a chilling story like this. Collins’ definitely didn’t disappoint. She kept me in suspense the whole way through. Never did it become predictable. Never did it become boring. Never did it falter. It was convincing, emotive and powerful.