⋆⋆⋆⋆½
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read this ARC!
Content Warning: homophobia/lesbophobia, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, murder, animal death,
Sylvie Mothe was once a conwoman. Now, she's a Baroness, married to a wealthy man who loves her wholeheartedly -- but knows very little of her past. When the past comes barging back in, in the form of her sister, Charlotte, asking for her help one last time, Sylvie feels she has little choice, stuck between family and her husband, poverty and high society. Their mark is the formerly aristocratic de Jacquinots, who are convinced that they are being haunted by their great-aunt, brought down during the French Revolution. But as Sylvie and Charlotte fall ever deeper into the web that they are spinning, caught up in the dark secrets of their own family and those of the de Jacquinots, they will be forced to confront terrors far worse than ghosts.
A remarkable debut! As soon as I saw this was being pitched as "perfect for fans of Sarah Waters," I had very high hopes -- and speaking truthfully, very high expectations, too. I'm pleased to say that Spitting Gold hit its mark with almost complete perfection for me, full of twists and turns, and dark family secrets that will have you dying to pick it up again once you've been forced to sit it down. The writing is lovely, maintaining a period feeling throughout the book, without ever straying into being too dense or feeling as if the author is trying too hard to impart the sensation that you are reading something set in the 1860s. This is a time period and place rich with potential, haunted (both literally and figuratively) by the ghosts of the French Revolution, the Terror, and France as a rising empire, and Lowkis does an excellent job of making the most out of it.
At the center of the story are the Mothe sisters, born into Paris in poverty, inheriting their family's profession of mediumship. Neither of the sisters have ever seen a real ghost, and are firm skeptics, though Charlotte occasionally finds herself seeking out the other side beyond their cons, hoping to make some connection with their deceased mother. Sylvie is more practical, and it's this practicality that leads her into marrying a Baron and cutting herself off from her sister and father. The relationship between Sylvie and Charlotte is rendered with real emotion and complexity, and speaking from my experience, accurate in its depiction of sisterhood. There is love and tenderness between the girls, but resentment, envy, and sometimes ugliness, and I applaud Lowkis for allowing her characters to be fully realized -- and not always sympathetic.
The de Jacquinots create a fascinating counter to the Mothes, former aristocrats who cling to their nobility and the status afforded to them before the French Revolution. Florence and her brother, Maximilien, act as our guide into the family, and while both of their characters are fully dimensional and interesting in their own respect, their mother and grandfather, Ardoir, suffer some in comparison. They are not focal points in the book by any means, but I think it would have added to the intrigue had they been a touch more fleshed out.
All in all, this was a fantastic debut and perfectly suited to my tastes. I only knocked off half a star for some imperfections that are to be expected in a debut -- some plodding moments, some weak characterization at times, etc. -- but otherwise there are very few flaws to be found here. I cannot wait to see what Lowkis will put out next, and I'm definitely adding this onto my favorites list.
No comments:
Post a Comment