Michelle Lovric

I picked this up from a load of donated books...and it's MUCH better and VASTLY more literary than I expected.
This is a SERIOUSLY weird tale, told by five separate people in consecutive sections.
First we have arch-fiend, Venetian nobleman MinguilloFasan. Repulsive, warped ...and with an unpleasing penchant for collewcting books bound in human skin ...he is not pleased when he gets a baby sister.
And then we have the lovely Marcella, a hapless victim to her evil brother's torture.
Well meaning show more servant Gianni, who- under a cover of obtuseness- onserves his master's misdeeds.
Heroic young doctor, Santo Aldobrandini,enamoured with poor Marcella- but powerless as she is committed to a lunatic asylum...and ultimately to a nunnery in Peru.
And lastly, perhaps the most grisly creation in literature, warped Peruvian nun, Sor Loreta - an aspiring saint despite her murderous and psychotic intentions towards those around her. Much self-flagelation and much worse...
Couldnt put it down ...highly original and well researched. show less

So I picked this book up because I hoped it would have mermaids and yes, it totally did have mermaids in, but that was not all! It had everything: mermaids that swore like sailors, evil seagulls, ghost both evil and nice, cats of all sizes with WINGS, statues coming to life, werewolves, darkelves, a great evil returning from beyond the grave, sharks ... basically it had so many magical creatures I lost count and it was amazing.

Venice is in trouble, and Teadora is the only one who can save it show more from turning into a swamp and having everyone dying. With the help of a magical book (YES, magical book!) and her snobbish but brave friend Renzo she sets out to stop a great evil ... by cursing at it.

I love long children's fantasy books. They have all the twists and turns and magic of any good fantasy book, but you don't have to deal with the dark and edgy topics of rape and shit that adults feel they need to include to have a good time. It's just fanastical story WITH MERMAIDS WHO SPEAKS LIKE PIRATES. I mean I can't stress that part enough.

Loved it. I really did. show less

"This is going to be a little uncomfortable" is one of the opening statements of this book and it's true. Told from five alternating view points this historical story of obsession, madness, self-delusion and love is definitely an uncomfortable read.

I really don't want to say too much about the story or characters because I think it would be better left unsaid. All I can say is that this is one of those books that makes evil compellingly readable. Lovric successfully uses the five distinct show more voices to develop her story which is rich in historical detail. Set in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century moving between Venice and Peru we follow as Marcella Fasan tries to survive her psychopathic brother, Minguillo.

Not an easy read but if you fancy something that leaves you needing a long shower after turning the last pages you won't go far wrong in reading this. show less

Even amid the potato famine in 1850s rural Ireland, the seven Swiney sisters are gifted with an abundance of glorious curls. After one of their number, Manticory, narrowly escapes assault because of her red locks, and desperate to leave the abject poverty of their Harristown hovel behind them, the eldest sister, Darcy, comes up with a cunning plan: to sing and dance on the stage and show their hair to a paying public, at a time when the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood immortalises long hair as show more the essence of femininity in literature and art, and when a decent woman is only supposed to expose the glory of her full head of hair to her husband in the privacy of their own home. By virtue of the sisters’ final act of follicular exposure, there is a whiff of scandal and notoriety about their stage act, and they – predictably – very quickly earn countrywide fame and a fortune besides. But at what point does the Swiney Godivas’ exploitation of a male obsession turn against them, and they become the exploited? As the sisters discover to their cost, celebrity is not all it’s cracked up to be.

As the author helpfully points out in the Historical Notes section at the end of the novel, and despite its highly original feel, the tale of the seven Swiney sisters is actually inspired by the Seven Sutherland Sisters of Niagara County, New York State, in the second half of the nineteenth century. This fictional portrayal is narrated in the first person by Manticory, the middle sister with the Titian locks, and tells the story of the seven sisters from their fatherless childhood in rural Ireland during the potato famine to their reaching adulthood and retiring to Venice in the 1870s. Manticory is an aspiring writer who seemingly confides in the reader by entrusting them with the real biography of the so-called Swiney Godivas, which is rather different from their projected and public image, split as they are into two sisterly tribes with Darcy being the feared head of the household whom no one dares to contradict, even their harassed mother. All the sisters, as well as the characters entering into their lives, are wonderfully realised with distinctly different personalities, and Manticory’s compelling narration had me entranced from the first page; the inventive invectives exchanged in an Irish twang between the sisters or Darcy and her archenemy Eileen O’Reilly are particularly enjoyable, but there is heartbreak, loss and poignancy too (the passages describing the victims of the potato famine are brief but extremely powerful, and for me will provide the mental picture of that dark period in Irish history for a long time). Written in beautiful prose to savour, Michelle Lovric has created unforgettable characters and land- and cityscapes that are rich in colour, texture and atmosphere. But there are also darker undercurrents at play here about obsession, the price of fame and celebrity and exploitation in its many forms. Yet I cannot wholeheartedly award it the five-stars rating it should be due as there are a few plot strands that are rather over the top in my opinion, especially towards the end of the book, and the final resolution to a particular problem is resolved rather too neatly to be entirely believable.

In short, an immensely enjoyable, affecting and thought-provoking novel to treasure which I will doubtless pick up and read again. Four and a half stars.

(This review was first written as part of Amazon's Vine programme.) show less