Review: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (#Ad)

I received this proof for free from Picador for the purposes of providing an honest review.

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Published: 6th February 2020 | Publisher: Picador | Cover Designer: Katie Tooke | Source: Publisher
Kiran Millwood Hargrave's Website

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Arctic town of Vardø must fend for themselves.

Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband's authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa sees something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God, and flooded with a mighty evil.

As Maren and Ursa are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them, with Absalom's iron rule threatening Vardø's very existence.

Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, The Mercies is a story of love, evil, and obsession, set at the edge of civilization. From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features dead animals, including discussion of slaughtering, skinning, and butchering reindeer; vomiting; breastfeeding, and the implication that it's shameful to breastfeed in public; fatphobia; use of the word g*psy, but approproate for the time; racism against the Sámi people; miscarriage; consensual f/f sex scene; numerous examples of unwanted, painful sex within marriage (not considered rape for the time); predatory looks and rape hinted at; mention of someone being burned as a child by another child throwing boiling water over them; mention of torture through branding; torture through forcing someone's head under water; ducking - binding an accused witch and throwing her into the water to see if she drowns of floats; suicide; manslaughter by blows to the head, murder by strangulation, and murder by burning at the stake.

Review: The Golden Key by Marian Womack (#Ad)

I was sent this review copy for free by Titan Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.

The Golden Key by Marian Womack

Published: 18th February 2020 | Publisher: Titan Books | Cover Designer: Julia Lloyd | Source: Publisher
Marian Womack's Website

An extraordinary, page-turning Gothic mystery set in the wilds of the Norfolk Fens from the BSFA-shortlisted author.

London, 1901. After the death of Queen Victoria the city heaves with the uncanny and the eerie. Séances are held and the dead are called upon from darker realms.

Samuel Moncrieff, recovering from a recent tragedy of his own, meets Helena Walton-Cisneros, one of London’s most reputed mediums. But Helena is not what she seems and she’s enlisted by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens.

But the Fens are a liminal land, where folk tales and dark magic still linger. With locals that speak of devilmen and catatonic children found on the Broads, Helena finds the answer to the mystery leads back to where it started: Samuel Moncrieff. From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features the word g*psy, and prejudice against the traveller community, misogyny of the time, animal cruelty, animal death, people in a catatonic state, child death, mention of abusive marriages, child abuse, mention of death by suicide, and problematic language around suicide.

Done With Rowling

Trigger Warning: Transphobia. 

Once Upon a Bookcase is a book blog. A book blog that promotes diverse books. It was also a book blog where I was very vocal about my love of the Harry Potter books. Because of this, I feel it is important that I speak up regarding J.K. Rowling's recent transphobic tweets and essay on her website. I am absolutely disgusted. I am horrified at the pain and suffering trans and non-binary people are experiencing because of her transphobia. I am so damn angry.