the butcher's hook
Touted as a dark, sexy, feminist novel, I was very interested in what this book had to offer. To my delight, it didn’t disappoint.
Anne Jacob is expected to marry well and allow her parents to make the choice for her, as the oldest daughter of a respectable Victorian family. However, a chance encounter with the butcher’s boy changes the course of Anne’s destiny. Victorian London is captured very vividly and it’s clear that the author did the proper research on the subject.
Anne is a great main character, because the author isn’t too concerned with making her “good” or even whether or not she’s particularly nice, which made her fun to read about. Getting into her head and following her as she makes some rather drastic decisions in the name of both love and revenge meant that I never got bored of her inner musings. The novel is also engaging because you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, which is a pitfall for a lot of authors, particularly if romance is thrown into the equation. The novel taking a darker turn was an exciting twist and it was entertaining trying to guess what would happen next, as well as being able to feel Anne’s lust for Fub and growing anger towards her stifling situation with each passing chapter, as well as the anticipation of her getting caught.
Admittedly, the book isn’t perfect and I feel like the ending does trail off on something of an anti-climax, but this isn’t an uncommon problem with books and while I hoped for less of a vague ending, it still fit in with the story well. I would definitely be interested to read more from Janet Ellis, because I loved this, particularly impressive considering that this is a debut novel.
BOOKS
words: SASHA HUGHES