Angelica takes place in Victorian England and chronicles the marriage of Constance and Joseph Barton and life with their 4-year-old daughter, Angelica. The book begins with Constance's story--the ghost story. Strange things begin happening when Joseph demands that Angelica no longer be allowed to sleep in a bed at the foot of theirs. She's moved into her own room, much to Constance's dismay, and it's really difficult to explain the myriad events that occur from that point on.

Without giving too much away, Constance and Joseph's marriage begins falling apart fast, with Joseph portrayed as an abusive husband who believes Constance should perform her "wifely duties," even though another pregnancy would surely kill the frail woman. To avoid this, Constance finds every excuse to sleep in Angelica's room--the biggest excuse being some sort of demonic entity that takes on the appearance of Joseph. Constance discovers that whatever plays out between her and Joseph is eventually played out by the entity. Confusing, I know.

The story is then told from the point of view of Anne Montague, the former actress turned ghost hunter hired by Constance to rid the Barton house of the paranormal activity. In Anne's version, you find out she's not who she says she is, and she believes the "paranormal" activity is Constance's way of coping with Joseph's allegedly inappropriate relationship with his daughter.

The story then shifts to Joseph, and after the way he was portrayed in the previous tellings, I was certainly looking forward to this one. Was Joseph an abusive husband and father? Was he really connected to the entity tormenting Constance and Angelica? Was there an entity at all--or was Constance simply going crazy? Or is she pretending to go crazy as a means of getting rid of Joseph? This is another one of those books that turns everything you thought you knew on its head. Believe me, by the time I finished Joseph's version of the story, I didn't have a clue what I knew. But it's not one of those books you want to abandon due to confusion.

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Moody, evocative, true to its Victorian setting, mysterious, satisfying.

In this multi-layered and psychological Gothic ghost story, nothing is quite what it seems. Constance and Joseph Barton have one living daughter, Angelica, after a long string of disastrous miscarriages. Constance has been warned that another pregnancy would likely result in her death and has spurned her husband’s physical advances for the four years since Angelica’s birth. When Joseph finally insists that Angelica must move out of their master bedroom and into her own chamber, Constance fears for her life in the face of her hot-blooded husband’s desire. Soon, she begins to see a blue phantom hovering over her daughter’s bed at night and believes it is Joseph’s wrathful lust made manifest, threatening Angelica’s life in order to clear a path to Constance. Joseph reacts angrily when Constance expresses her fears about the ghost, and Constance seeks solace and aid from actress-turned-spiritualist Anne Montague.

The story is told four times, by Constance, Joseph, Anne, and, finally, an adult version of Angelica herself. With each retelling, more details come to light about just what was going on and the reader’s allegiance subtly shifts each time. Were Constance’s fears justified? Was Joseph a cruel madman, or was Constance suffering a psychotic break? Did Joseph have immoral designs on his daughter as Anne believed, or did events in Constance’s past influence her views of the present? Complex and deliberately paced, “Angelica” depicts the psychology and repressive social mores of the Victorian era with satisfying depth and intelligence. ( )

This book is described as a ghost story. It is a ghost story only in the sense that two of the characters, Constance, the wife, and Joseph, the husband, are haunted by their relationship with their parents. A better description of this book would be psychological mystery or thriller. We delve into the psyche of a Victorian era family; the husband is quiet and inaccessible, the wife cowers within her sphere, and the child is spoiled and runs the household with her beguiling ways. We see their lives through four different narratives; the wife, the spiritualist, the husband and the grown child. Each sees the situations of their lives very differently. The wife sees her husband as a tyrant that she must protect her child from. The spiritualist feels she is helping the mother, but is really manipulating the situation for her own selfish gains. The husband is clueless to his wife’s emotional needs. The child only wants the attention of the three adults. Inevitably, the combination of these different and opposing perspectives leads to tragedy. ( )

I liked this book, because of the four narratives that each give another version of the same story. Original and well written. Maybe it's the translation, (Dutch), but I thought the style was a bit boring and overdone.
This book makes you think and rethink some situations, which makes it almost interactive. ( )