The Fascination by Essie Fox

Book Blurb
Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.

Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.

Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.

But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…

My Review
I have read two previous books by Essie Fox and loved both of them, so I was excited to be asked to be part of the blog tour for her new book The Fascination. Like her previous novels there is a touch of gothic and mysticism in the plot. Twins Keziah and Tilly are alike in every way except that Tilly stopped growing when they were five years old. Theo has a completely different start to life being the grandson of a Lord, but it seems their lives are meant to cross, fate brings them together in this dark and unsettling read.

As I mentioned above Tilly and Keziah have a difficult start to life whereas Theo has a priviledged start, however they are more alike than they know. Tilly and Keziah are used by there abusive father to sell his ‘elixir, before being sold to the Captain who takes in those who are different. I loved Keziah, she was very protective of her twin and had to watch from the sidelines as her sister became a famous performer. She was never jealous or resented her sister’s success, instead encouraging her and supporting her. I did have empathy for Keziah, living in the Captain’s house where the other two residents are also seen as curiosities, where she wasn’t quite sure how she fitted in as so called ‘normal’ but as the book progresses it was wonderful to see her become comfortable to be just herself. Whilst Theo comes from a wealthy background his grandfather has a cruel streak as well which results in his being disinherited at seventeen. Essie Fox weaves their lives as slowly and intricately together over a number of years, bringing them together against a common foe.

Essie Fox always has a gothic and mystical feel to her books and they are in abundance in The Fascination. The focus is on the Victorian’s fascination with the ‘other’, meaning those with deformities, those who are different and seen as curiosities. There are some really dark places in this book that made my spine tingle in a bad way; the treatment of those who are different and how there were brothels for men with a predilection for boys and girls who are different. The writing is beautiful and evocative as she takes us on a journey from a the travelling fare, to elegant splendour of Dorny Hall, to the lights of Dury Lane, all beautifully imagined. The complex and compelling plot had me gripped from the start as like a spiders web that is delicately woven to trap and bring together all the different strands and characters together.

I adored The Fascination and even after I finished the book I was still thinking of Tilly, Keziah and Theo and their stories. This is a beautiful and bewitching story, with the darkness of the gothhic underpinning the plot. The charaters in their own right fascinating, complex and aimiable so you really feel like you know them by the end of the book. Atmospheric, evocative with a touch of menace this is a stunning read.

I’d like to thank Orenda Books and Anne Cater for inviting me to be part of this blog tour in return for my honest review.