Synopsis
As fascination turns to obsession, two women drag each other into an academic horror of forgery, murder, and rage, destined to be devoured by readers of Plain Bad Heroines and If We Were Villains.
Archivist Celia Kiel has spent her life on the remote campus of Basin College in the Southern Ozarks. Once a jewel of women’s higher education in the South, the school now molders on its mountaintop, its endowment thinly supported by the bequeathed estate of 19th century writer, Beatrice Donahue. Celia guards the legacy of this venerated, yet scandalous author, who has been the object of her illicit desire since childhood.
When the administration announces the college’s imminent closure, Celia discovers a manuscript pickled in formaldehyde, and with it, a chance to save the only home she’s ever known. She will forge Beatrice’s infamous lost work, a spellbinding horror written toward her life’s tumultuous end. To do it, she is forced to recruit her professional rival, literature postdoc Joan Harriot, who has both an astounding talent for mimicry and a dark secret of her own. As their world closes in and the ghosts of the Victorian past encroach, their creative collaboration spirals into an obsession more twisted than even their beloved Beatrice could have penned.
Review
A huge thanks to the publisher for the ARC! I love the coloring chosen for the cover, and Connors of all kinds (first or last name or writing duos) must stick together. I was an instant “yes, please.” I really love the title, too, and the multiple meanings it could have here.
Celia is Basin College’s archivist. While the college was once a success, it has been in decline for years, and rumors of closure have been popping up more regularly. As the stalwart protector of author Beatrice Donahue’s home and legacy, Celia is dead set on stopping this. After a too-stern talking-to with the headmaster almost leads to her premature firing, she stumbles upon something that might just save them all. A manuscript, hidden for years in formaldehyde, previously undiscovered. Even the announcement of such a piece could be enough to drum up donors and support; there’s only one problem: it may be too damaged to salvage. Enter Joan Harriet, Celia’s once-nemesis-turned-last-hope, a writer with the uniquely necessary ability to imitate the late author. Is prolonging her legacy a worthy reason to possibly defile it? Is that protecting it?
This feels like a fictional blend of Can You Ever Forgive Me?’s forgery and the dark, obsessive atmosphere of a sapphic academia novel. While Celia and Harry are not students, this perfectly blends the gothic feel with an academic edge. The house and its somewhat sordid past had me waiting for jump scares at every turn. I was picturing something similar to Flanagan’s Hill House or King’s Overlook Hotel in design, and I love that.
Right off the bat, the writing really pops in this one. The second-person POV, which I rarely experience, felt refreshing and new all at once. Not only is the writing speaking to the reader, but the dual POV really showed off the ability to create two distinct styles. Those two voices really worked for me, especially as a stepping stone for the characters, but also as a way to engage in the general vibe being created. Celia and Harry are coming from different worlds, with shifting and evolving opinions; both have been attached to the late Donahue, though for drastically opposite reasons, and now they are colliding (both in terms of work and … after-work activities). For me, Celia is the stronger of the two creations. She’s steadfast in her belief in the college and the author’s work—in both their necessity and importance—and feels a genuine responsibility for it. And though she’s admirable, she represents how the things or ways you’ve always known are not necessarily the correct ones.
Harry, who is hiding from her own sordid past, is stylized just to be the opposite. Loose with the rules, with “morals,” with her words. She’s not afraid of turning heads or offending others, and she’s not particularly a fan of Donahue. She is actually brought on at the college at the undermining of Celia’s vote. So why is she there? Well, to do that very undermining! By no means do I think she’s an empty or bad character; she just suffices to fill a role, whereas Celia leads the band. She can represent the corruption of Celia as well as the freeing of her, and I think both work well simultaneously. Without her, Celia has no plan, or at least not the ability to pull it off. I think the two played off each other well, and although I typically could do without sex in books, they certainly were heated together.
While the novel takes its time building this great atmosphere, slowly creeping its way to more uneasiness and even some real otherworldly stuff, the ending left me a little confused. During the winter months, the school is forced to close for six weeks so that no one is traveling up the treacherous mountain. Celia has offered to do so alone for years, but this year, Harry has agreed to stay, both to avoid her personal issues and to work on their project. A single location, forced proximity, and the added layer of isolation made it almost an academic The Shining—which sounds and is really great. The ending just kind of falls flat after all that is said and done, though sadly. Not so flat as to be a dud, but flat enough to curve my enjoyment for sure. It’s strange; every moment, every single page leading up to the last had me fully engaged. I was locked in, ready to find out if Celia and Harry would go through with the plagiarizing, or more importantly, if whatever was tormenting them would allow them to. I was hooked by the cave and the lake and the house and all the little uncertainties. But the ending leaves readers hanging, and that just didn’t work for me. In a sense, its unanswered questions link to the life of Donahue, the author who started it all and left so much unsaid, but though I can see and draw that line, I’m not positive I’m sold.
I do wonder why Celia couldn’t have just presented the board with the discovery. A new manuscript, though in pieces, would have been an incredible discovery after so much time. Considering it was a long-lost work from the author only adds to my line of thinking. Finished or not, donors or support for the school would likely have gone up. Attendance too; if students could study at the college where a living classic was being reconstructed, I’d imagine. Perhaps that’s the whole crux of it though; maybe Donahue or the house was whispering to Celia, was sending her on that treacherous path from the start. Regardless, this is a novel I haven’t quite gotten out of my head yet. It’s crept in, made a cave for itself within me. And THE scene with Celia’s foot is one I will remember for a lifetime.
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