by Alexis Henderson
Published : 6th October 2022
Publisher : PenguinRandomHouse
Format : Kindle, Audio, Hardback, Paperback
Genre : Gothic Thriller
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Synopsis
WANTED: A bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have a keen proclivity for life's finer pleasures. Girls of weak will need not apply.
A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power, in this dark and enthralling Gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.
Marion Shaw has been raised in the slums, where want and deprivation are all she knows. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a strange advertisement in the newspaper, seeking a 'bloodmaid'.
Though she knows little about the far north - where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service - Marion applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself at the notorious House of Hunger. There, Marion is swept into a world of dark debauchery - and there, at the centre of it all is her.
Her name is Countess Lisavet. Loved and feared in equal measure, she presides over this hedonistic court. And she takes a special interest in Marion. Lisavet is magnetic, charismatic, seductive - and Marion is eager to please her new mistress. But when her fellow bloodmaids begin to go missing in the night, Marion is thrust into a vicious game of cat and mouse. She'll need to learn the rules of her new home - and fast - or its halls will soon become her grave.
My Review
- What a book. This is the second I have read by this author and let me tell you I literally jumped at the chance to read it as the first ( The Year of the Witching ) was so good.
The story is told from the perspective of Marion. A young girl who lives in the slums of the south with her brother working her fingers to the bone to keep them both alive. Realising this isnāt the life for her she replied to an ad in the paper for a position of a blood maid in the north.
I loved this premise. The suffocating atmosphere of her home life and the desperation and cruelty of her brother force Marion to make a drastic change in the hopes to improve her life.
Marion is promised all the things a poor girl desires if she completes her seven-year tenure so upon arriving at the House of Hunger immediately she is put in front of Countess Lisavet so she can taste her blood. This begins Marionās new life.
This story was creepy, eerie, chilling and at times terrifying. The Countess isnāt who she appears to be, the house has far darker secrets than Marion or any of the girls that are hired there believe. Cecilia, the first blood maid goes missing and the blood maids who are now her friends mysteriously start to age and decline Marion can not help but try and discover the darkness that surrounds them.
My belly was filled with dread towards the end of the story and the brutal horrors that awaited them.
This is an enchanting story that on the surface seems to illuminate our main character but soon we discover it can destroy her from the inside out in a dangerous game they are all unknowingly playing.
Itās gory, itās dazzlingly terrifying and the world the author has created is so vividly lush and decadent that you canāt help but be drawn into his hypnotic grip.
Definitely a must for the spooky season.
Thank you so much @penguinrandomhouse for this thrilling copy.
Q. Would you trade being poor but leaving family and a friend over a new start, a new job and a better life?
Rating
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