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’.

#TheFascination @essiefox @OrendaBooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour #paperback

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 dark web of deceits, exposing unthinkable secrets and threatening everything they know…

My Review

This was one of my favourite books of last year. I simply adored it. I don’t read that much historical fiction, but when I do it has to be unique and something special and this is. It’s the third book I read last year which involves music halls, entertainers and ‘freak shows’, and The Fascination did not disappoint.

It’s mainly the characters – Theo Seabrook, disowned grandson of Lord Seabrook, the twins Keziah and Tilly, sold by their quack medicine-man father to the mysterious ‘Captain’, Aleski Turgenev based on real-life Fedor Jeftichew, better known as the Dog-Faced Boy, a sideshow performer in Barnum’s circus, Martha who hid her face because of a disfiguring harelip and Dr Eugene Summerwell, owner of the Museum of Anatomy in London, who becomes Theo’s employer.

But it’s not just the characters. The setting is just as important. Dorney Hall is the seat of Lord Seabrook, with its freakish exhibits, its dark secret corridors and the ‘satanic gatherings ‘where ‘persons of quality’ would meet to engage in sordid practices akin to the real stories of the Hellfire Clubs of the eighteenth century. Linden House is where the twins, Captain, Aleski and Martha reside, while the aforementioned museum contains strange items like swan’s wings for sale and displays so-called freaks of nature. The music halls and theatres such as the famed Royal in Drury Lane is where Tilly performs.

For those still inclined to witness the bizarre, Victor Wynd’s Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art and Unnatural History can be found in East London, while equally macabre displays are to be found in the Hunterian Museum, currently owned by the Royal College of Surgeons. With thanks to the author for these and many more historical details.

The story follows Keziah (the first person narrator) and her twin sister Tilly from when they were assisting their father in selling his ‘elixir’ said to cure all ills. Their mother has died and Pa has found himself another woman. The girls are displayed with claims that Keziah, who took the elixir was grown to a ‘normal’ height, while Tilly refused and was now the size of a small child. In fact it was the other way round and Tilly was hooked on the medicine (probably a mixture of laudanum and other substances).

When one night the twins decide to escape, Pa catches them, thrashes them and finally sells them to the ‘Captain’. In the meantime, Theo (he is narrated from the third person point of view) has been thrown out of his home, because his grandfather has taken a new wife, who has produced a legitimate heir. Theo is the bastard son of Lord Seabrook’s dead daughter, Theodora.

Theo goes to live with his governess Miss Agnes Miller, but after a few years finds employment with Dr Summerwell at the museum. And so the links between Theo and the twins begin to reveal themselves, together with all manner of dreadful secrets and terrible goings-on at Dorney Hall.

The story is interwoven with the tale of Snow-White and Rose-Red as Keziah remembers her Ma saying that it was ‘a mirror of their own lives’.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and then book publishers George Allen & Unwin, before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design. Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London.

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.