Firstly, the UK cover is both stunning and deceptive. If the library copy I borrowed had been the US edition, I think I would have passed. I thought I was getting another Brontë detective novel, a la Bella Ellis, and not whatever this was.

Secondly, what the hell did I just read? Werewolves and ghosts and Catholic sects, oh my. I won't ask why the Brontës were the main characters - that's what drew me in - but honestly, the plot was an insult to even Wuthering Heights, never mind Anne, Charlotte and Emily. And the author just - throws the reader in the deep end. Emily comes across a wounded man bearing a two-pronged knife at Ponden Kirk and tries to help him before going for back up. When she gets back, he's vanished but left his weapon, which she shows to her father. The Rev launches into a tale about a little dark haired child brought over from Ireland, who may or may not have been a werewolf, and all hell breaks loose. After that, I lost track.

Emily is the lead sister yet again, and she is both nonconforming and unrelenting, I'll give her that: 'Emily thought of the ways in which she was indeed already set apart. The idea of marriage and children had never held any attraction for her, and conviviality of the sort going on in the bigger room beyond the door at her back was unfathomable: dissipation, in every sense. The people of the village, and of the remote busy world, were ciphers - their motives, if any, only to be guessed at. Her strength and firm identity thrived in solitude.' Charlotte is either absent or opposed to her sister's behaviour, and Anne is quietly curious. Branwell - hoo boy, I forgot possession in the description above! - is not himself for much of the story, either. Emily's dog Keeper is the best of the supporting cast. I didn't really get a sense of the siblings' personalities or the Yorkshire setting, because the focus is heavily on the contrived supernatural plot. Werewolves as a horror device are ridiculous - overgrown dogs controlled by the moon and stopped by silver bullets - but the breath-sucking ghosts were cool. And on a nitpicking level, the constant reference to mid-nineteenth century women 'grabbing their coats', like the Brontës wore Barbour jackets, was jarring.

Note to self: pay better attention to the blurb in future. ( )

The Brontës were beset by werewolves. Who knew? Emily kicks werewolf butt to save the souls, if not the lives, of family members. For big Brontë fans, not me, this may be full of either disgusting or delightful tidbits, depending if you like your stories straight or revisionist. ( )

A gothic horror thriller set in Haworth in the 19thC starring the Brontës! They are fighting against the curse of the werewolf and encounter all types of supernatural and fantastical figures. It’s a race against time to stop a religious cult resurrecting something not very nice buried under an ogham inscribed slab in the church. Strange goings on in Yorkshire!

I wasn’t sure about this book when I first started it. The combination of the Brontës and werewolves didn’t really gel for me. So I parked the idea of the Brontës to a certain extent and just went with the flow. I then ended up enjoying it. It’s an unusual tale and very imaginatively written. I loved Keeper the dog, such a hero! It gave an interesting insight into the three sisters and their brother. I thought their individual personalities shone through very well. I wasn’t so keen on the idea of werewolves roaming the wild and wonderful Yorkshire Moors, it could put you off a relaxing walk through the gloriously colourful heather! I don’t think the sheep would be too keen, either. Nevertheless it had an exciting plotline and it kept me turning the pages. I would recommend it to historical fantasy fans, particularly those who like some extra magic mixed in with their reading. ( )

I obtained this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Tim Powers, and was looking forward to this! Given the synopsis, I was half-expecting this to be part of the Romantic Poets and Nephilim sequence, but it seemed more of a stand-alone even though it shares the time-period and subject matter of the previous titles. When I started reading it, my initial reaction was that this would work as a Liminal (table-top roleplaying game) campaign!

It did suffer from a number of fairly obvious typos which I trust will be fixed prior to publication, but they were few enough not to distract from the story (apart from one which made a sentence look like gobbledegook). Unfortunately, this knocks a star off my rating, along with the PDF format (which doesn't always work well on an ereader).

Powers evokes the terrain and weather of the Yorkshire Moors very well, and I saw no obvious errors in the geography and geology (as a child, I used to holiday in what is now the Yorkshire Dales National Park and have a vague memory of my mother taking me to Haworth).

The story is a historical fantasy, retelling the lives of the Brontë siblings with supernatural explanations for their various illnesses and eccentricities. It is very well done, and is set in Haworth between Elizabeth Branwell's death and Emily Brontë's death (the book ends with the latter), although the main action is roughly 1843-1847. The main focus of the action is Emily Brontë, with the other siblings and their father as less in focus.

Recommended.