Synopsis
A gothic feminist body horror in two timelines revolving around three Anatomical Venuses—ultrarealistic wax figures of women—that come to life at night to murder men who have wronged them.
Seoul, present day. Antiques dealer Alys’s task is nearly complete. She has at last secured Elizabeth, the final anatomical Venus in a dangerously intertwined trio. Crafted in eighteenth-century London and modeled after real-life sex workers to entice male medical students to study female anatomy, these eerie wax figures, known as slashed beauties, carry unsavory lore. Legend has it that the figures are bewitched, and come to life at night to murder men who have wronged them. Now Alys embarks for England, where she knows what she must do: sever her cursed connection to the Venuses once and for all.
London, 1763. Abandoned and penniless in Covent Garden, wide-eyed Eleanor and another young woman, Emily, are taken under the wing of beautiful and beguiling Elizabeth, one of the city’s most highly desired courtesans. But as Eleanor is seduced deeper into a web of money, materialism, and men, it seems that Elizabeth may not be the savior she appears to be.
As past and present begin to intersect, it becomes clear that the women’s stories are linked in deeper, darker ways than it initially seems. And that the only method for Alys to end the witchcraft that binds her legacy is to gather all three models in one place and destroy them.
The problem is, Elizabeth is not ready to burn. Far from it. Centuries on, she is determined to rise again, and she will obliterate anything standing in her path. Including Alys herself.
Review
YALL.
Huge thanks to Berkley for the physical ARC. I originally saw the UK cover, which is wild, but I enjoy this one quite a lot too.
So right off the rip, I was drawn in by the comments on a feminist body horror, of wax models coming to life to dispatch men that have wronged them. And while that does happen, that’s not exactly what this book is about. This is an incredibly slow burn with an equally slow build. While this does teeter on the edge in the final act, I don’t know that I would call it a body horror…at least not in what I imagine is the typical sense. To me, this was an almost historical drama and horror, the tale of two women trapped by circumstance and a master manipulator.
Eleanor, after running away from home for love, then sleeping with the man only to be abandoned, finds herself in quite the bind. She cannot return home due to how she left, and 1763 London doesn’t look kindly on young women that are all alone. Here enters Elizabeth, a resplendent and well-mannered Lady, to sweep her off her feet. She speaks a big game about pretty things, about having money not just for needs but for wants. She is opening her own serail, a high class brothel, to be the first of its kind in London, and she thinks Eleanor is just the beauty she needs. There’s talk of a family-style existence there, of having people to lean on, and truthfully, as it stands, Eleanor is not exactly juggling options.
On the modern side of this split timeline story we have Alys, a high class antiques dealer, and the true driving force for the novel. We meet her, then learn of the wax Venuses and their entrancing abilities in short order, only to find out that she is being pushed (read: coerced) to destroy them ASAP. She agrees to do so in two weeks time, but the reader quickly learns that things aren’t so simple. While she is clearly a traumatized character with a hidden past, she remained this strong presence throughout the entire book for me.
I loved the different ways evil was showcased. Elizabeth is manipulating like someone that has always had the mind to put themselves ahead no matter what. She earns trust, builds a life for her girls, and then traps them. She then transcends time to appear as a witch or even an evil hag (to my mind), truly embodying the evil she has displayed. Then there are the men. And while this story operates around the idea of opening a brothel, there is not any actual sex work displayed. The men can easily be shown as deviant, misleading and misrepresenting women without having to go further. I also enjoyed the lack of there being more because it was never about it, or the men, it was all for Eleanor and Emily. And when the actual wax-figure antics finally began, I thought that how they were almost underused/under-shown really enhanced the impact. The thought of these women—so often ignored in every day life, or garnering attention they would never want (especially at night)—stalking devious men and waiting for the right moment to strike, was the perfect climax to a story filled with barely-tempered rage. And the visual of them dressed in all black brought to mind the Widow from season five of Slasher titled Ripper. The brutality present in this, while short, certainly equalled the likes of that show.
One thing I noticed right away was how spellbindingly well this was written. With a mix of short and long (longgggg) chapters, there is so much happening, with so much at stake, that even with things going slowly I was enraptured. This book is filled with so much history and life, and while it is absolutely destroying emotionally, it’s so well done as to make you end your read with a thank you to the author.
For me, this book tells the story of losing, or the loss of, autonomy. Or perhaps even the realization you never had it. As Elizabeth is slowly showing her true colors, there is this growing unease in atmosphere, truly driven deep by the two-week rush in the present day. Eleanor and Emily are not receiving the family camaraderie they were promised, and as seemingly nothing goes their way, their debt to Elizabeth is more of a chain than an opportunity. Then, with the novels more supernatural elements, the theme is nailed down by having them physically tethered to their wax figures. From a loss of autonomy to their souls being stuck in anatomical Venuses. With no choices of their own, with Eleanor not even able to speak on her own, there is a truly horrifying loss of self and autonomy. This is where there is true body horror. Lost to time and to self, but still present enough to know you’re being controlled. The idea of which is horrifying.
The ending featured several twists (some of which I had guessed, and others I hadn’t) and there are so many masterfully woven plot points coming back around that I was surprised in how it all finished up. Small details from throughout the entire story come back, some in major ways. The ending itself is even another tie back to the loss of autonomy, to losing free will. What must be sacrificed to finally be free? I find myself thinking the typical saying to finally be “set free” but even that feels like a certain amount of allowance comes from someone else…I’m still thinking about it every day, and I dare say this has become my favorite read this year.
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