The Fascination by Essie Fox (Paperback Release)

 

The Fascination by Essie Fox.

Published in paperback 6th June 2024 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…

Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn't grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father's quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.

Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.

Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.

But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…

Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London – and darkness and deception that lies beneath…

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Identical twin sisters Keziah and Tilly are like two peas in a pod, but an incident when they were five-years-old meant Tilly never grew another inch. Their manipulative, drunken father spotted a business advantage in their physical disparity, travelling countryside fairs for them to be gawped at while he peddled his addictive remedies to the unwary. When Keziah and Tilly are fifteen, their father sells to a mysterious man known only as Captain - a move which introduces them to a very different kind of family, and a chain of events that brings danger and darkness their way...

Theo's mother died in childbirth, so he was raised by his callous, grandfather Lord Seabrook - a man with very particular vices. Theo's only friend is his kindly old governess Miss Miller. When his grandfather remarries, he banishes Theo and Miss Miller from Dorney Hall and forbids them ever to contact him again. Theo's hopes of becoming a surgeon are dashed, and his future looks bleak, until he finds employment with Dr Summerwell at his Museum of Anatomy in London, and meets Captain and his unusual, theatrical ‘family’.

The story is told beautifully via the narratives of Keziah and Theo, who capture your imagination from the very first page. Through them Essie Fox brings the darker sides of Victorian entertainment alive from the points of view of the performers (both willing and unwilling), their clientele, and those who enable their weird, wonderful, and often debauched, pursuits. This is a world where the public are titillated by anyone deemed a 'freak', and willing to part with their cash for a glimpse of something shocking - or maybe more, if the price is right.

Against this backdrop, Fox conjures up deliciously Gothic storylines full of period feel that immerse you in the era. She fills them with characters that leap from the page as living, breathing people to stir your emotion. There are villains and heroes enough to make this novel a highly entertaining Victorian melodrama, and Fox's writing ties you irrecoverably to the fates of Captain's little family, and the troubled Theo. 

Fox weaves themes of loss, obsession, love, acceptance, and reconciliation throughout, and explores some very interesting aspects of the notion of 'fascination'. I love the way she also examines so many facets of the world of medicine during the Victorian age, and the myriad practices that existed on its fringes too, forcing you to think about the performance aspects of their work - and the macabre acts indulged in by some of those acknowledged as doctors. And the way she holds the secret of Theo's feelings of kinship with those deemed 'freaks' until almost the very end was very cleverly done.

I adored everything about this book, especially the way Fox channels some of my beloved Victorian authors in constructing a story that easily holds you as fast as anything Wilkie Collins could have written. The nod towards the adventures of the notorious Fanny Hill, and the history of the author's family, is a delight too. If Gothic done well is your bag, then this is absolutely the book for you!

The Fascination is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

**Review first published for the hardback release of this book in June 2023.

About the author:

Essie Fox was raised in rural Herefordshire, on the borders between England and Wales.

After studying English Literature at Sheffield University - where she fell in love with the Victorian novels that would go on to inspire her writing - Essie moved to London and worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, then a job in book publishing ... before a career in commercial illustration under the name of Sarah Bengry.

Always an avid reader, Essie is now writing Victorian gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the 2012 National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. This was followed by Elijah's Mermaid, and then The Goddess and the Thief. The Last Days of Leda Grey was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month.

A new novel, The Fascination, is coming out in June 2023. This story features the Victorian country fairgrounds, the glamour of the Drury Lane pantomimes, and an anatomy museum in London's Oxford Street.

Essie has been a guest on many UK radio stations, has lectured at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and at the National Gallery in London, as well as appearing at many literary festivals and events.