Books by Catriona Ward
“Rawblood is told by different narrators through different timelines, spanning from the early Victorian era up until 1910 or so. It is centred on this 11-year-old girl, Iris, who lives on an isolated estate known as Rawblood. Here are Gothic themes: the big, crumbling house—which is on Dartmoor, in this case—and for generations, the family has been haunted by a curse, which is: if you love or marry, ‘She’ comes. And that means a violent early death for everybody involved. So this girl grows up under the control of her manipulative father, who uses the curse to control her. As she matures, she begins to question the history she has been told, and the nature of the supernatural haunting. It’s told through fragmented memories and unreliable narration. There are shifting timelines. And it creates the sense of increasing dread that is incredibly resolved at the end.” Read more...
Historical Novels Set in the Victorian Era
Virginia Feito, Novelist
Interviews where books by Catriona Ward were recommended
Historical Novels Set in the Victorian Era, recommended by Virginia Feito
The Victorian era—defined by its imperial ambition, strict moral and social codes, and flashes of brutality—serves as fertile ground for historical fiction, argues Virginia Feito, whose acclaimed new book Victorian Psycho satirises the hypocrisy of the age. Here, she recommends five boundary-pushing novels that expose the darker underbelly of a most mannered age.
