The Bedlam Stacks: From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Product Information

Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you to the publishers!]

Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.

Browse reviews by Period

Conflicted in almost every way. Its pace, its subject matter, its characters--all of these facets have both lots of positive points in their favor but yet almost as many strikes against them. The writing is very good; descriptive without being exhausting, beautiful without turning purple. I enjoyed the writing on its own very much. But the story. Bedlam is a village, also called New Bethlehem. The author's imagination and world-building skills make it one the most astonishing creations I have ever found in fantasy. The characters here are interesting enough, though at times their words didn't seem to suit the time period. There's also a guest appearance from a character those who've read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street will recognise. A sweet inclusion, but ultimately just another weird moment for me. I cannot pin down what this story was trying for. At this point I should explain that this isn’t a sequel or part of a series, that there is a character who appears in both books, but that this is a different story set at a different time in that same world. I was too caught up in the wonder of what I was reading to ponder the serious questions, but I saw that they were there and they gave the story weight without ever weighing it down.

The relationships in the book are very...unsatisfying. Nothing comes of much of them, or they're handled almost superficially. I'm all for slow burns but not if they fizzle into nothing, not if you build up a sort of almost super-human devotion and allow it to go absolutely nowhere. At the heart of this is colonialism, with all its horrors. This is the summation of colonialism in the novel:

Navigation menu

The whole pointlessness of the plot did bother me, as there seemed to be no real goal. There was obstacles as they appeared, but no real drive behind the story to hold the interest. First of all, I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I nodded. He could have. But it felt good to have stood in front of him without flinching and, however stupid it was, I wanted to do it again. I was drawn into this story from the very beginning – I loved the way that the fictional Tremaynes were insinuated into the family history of the real Tremayne family that used to live at Heligan – but even if I hadn’t known that very real place, where the lost gardens are open to visitors, I still would have been captivated.