GENRE: Historical Fiction
SETTING: England, 1850
MY GRADE: B
SYNOPSIS: London. 1850. The Great Exhibition is being erected in Hyde Park and among the crowd watching the spectacle two people meet. For Iris, an aspiring artist, it is the encounter of a moment – forgotten seconds later, but for Silas, a collector entranced by the strange and beautiful, that meeting marks a new beginning.
When Iris is asked to model for pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost, she agrees on the condition that he will also teach her to paint. Suddenly her world begins to expand, to become a place of art and love. But Silas has only thought of one thing since their meeting, and his obsession is darkening . . .
MY THOUGHTS: I enjoyed this even though it was slow-moving and nothing happened until the end. It wasn't as suspenseful as I'd expected and hoped. I disliked the ending more than I liked it. Timespan is about two years.
I really liked black-haired 39-year-old Silas Reed and his disturbed mind and bad deeds. We got a little background information on his childhood but I'd have liked some, any at all, about his adulthood. We know his occupation but that's it. He's odd and reminds me of the lead character in Perfume. I wish he'd have had more interaction with Iris. I think he met her twice briefly.
Iris Whittle is twenty-one and has a twin sister, Rose, who was disfigured by smallpox a few years previous. They have red hair and green eyes. Rose is jealous, and judgmental, of Iris and doesn't want to be apart from her. Iris has a twisted collarbone and Silas is fascinated by it. I really thought Rose would try to make Iris's life miserable once she quit working at the doll factory but sadly, she didn't. I also thought the same of their pill-popping, laudanum sipping boss, Mrs. Salter. She's abusive (pinches the backs of their arms) and more could have been done with her character. I'm not sure why their parents were in the story. We met them once and I think Iris once got a letter of disapproval from them once. I just didn't see the point of mentioning them at all, especially since they didn't live at home. Iris's love interest, Louis, is bland as can be. I thought he'd be a bad character for some reason but he wasn't.
I like the street urchin Albie, who's age was never given. He's a good person. He was suspicious of Silas from the start but was given no reason for feeling that way. The author should have given him a reason. I don't like that he had only one tooth because that's the only adult tooth that grew in. I thought that was ridiculous. I assume his sister is either the blond or "white-haired" woman at the end of the story who had a child and worked for Iris or Rose since the author made a point to tell us she was blond the last time she was mentioned.
So, the book was interesting, albeit a bit boring, and so much more could have been done with every single character. I don't think any of them were well developed. The title doesn't suit this either since nothing happens at the doll factory, which seems more like a shop anyway.
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