Marta realises that the housekeeper had acted to avoid this, and she now warns Marta off: Vaughan Pritchard may be the heir to Fyneshade, but he is barred from the house, and Marta should not trust him, he is a devil. However, she uses none of the finess of Jane and more of the unpredictable actions of Bertha to get what she wants. m sure when I reread it then I’ll have changed my mind about the ending, and then I’m pretty sure I’ll change my mind again. The master is never here, the servants are keeping secrets, and the son and heir is banished to the stables.

Using the dark gift her Grandmere taught her, Marta intends to discover the secrets the crumbling house keeps behind its locked doors and secret passageways. Apparently, I read over the book's motto, which for a while made me think I had entered Brönte 'territory'. We get all of Marta's delicious arc from simple girl to a person she probably wouldn't even recognize in the end. Having had no idea of its connection to Fyneshade I can now say how much more enjoyable the ending was because of my familiarity with James’s ghost story.Grandmere is not a witch and neither is Marta but she should remember, says Grandmere, that stories often have great power. Then came the ‘real’ ending, and the questions I should have been asking myself from the start finally started making themselves heard. As holidays are rare things in my life, that can mean I sit on a longed for book for ages sometimes. However what makes this different in the gothic genre is the character Marta who is so unlikeable, usually we connect with the main character wanting her to overcome what life has thrown at her however it's difficult with Marta as she is conniving, arrogant, uncaring,. Fyneshade is a very well-written gothic novel which held my attention from the first word to the very last.

A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF 2023* 'A dark, inventive story' - SUNDAY TIMES 'A gloriously foreboding Gothic tale' - HEAT Many would find much to fear in Fyneshade's dark and crumbling. Marta finds herself drawn to Vaughan, despite the warnings of the housekeeper that he is a danger to all around him.

Marta experiences the house as a ‘maze of stone'; the house exudes an unusually hushed, and suffocating atmosphere. Deliciously gothic and exquisitely atmospheric, Kate Griffin’s new brilliantly inventive historical thriller was a veritable feast for the senses—with secrets, lies and morally ambiguous characters I couldn’t get enough of! With Fyneshade, Kate Griffin has crafted not only a true dedication to the legacy of gothic fiction, but also a modern addition to that great canon.

The author has written a prequel to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw with this incredibly ingenious and exceptionally beautifully written gothic tale.The lush, mysteriously suspenseful descriptions were to die for and really wouldn’t be out of place in a Brontë novel. In the final chapter, we have Marta reading a newspaper clipping describing the terrible end that she (may have) brought about at Fyneshade, a story that ‘in moments of darkness’ she feeds from. Marta’s attitude and behaviour towards children and animals was particularly disturbing and could trigger sensitive readers. Our protagonist, Marta, was raised as an orphan by her grandmother, a cunning woman versed in ancient and secretive occult knowledge. Perfect for readers of Laura Purcell, Jessie Burton and Stacey Halls, Fyneshade is a dark and twisted gothic novel unlike any you've read before.

but none of the ones I've read mention Jane Eyre, the debt to which was far more overt to my eyes: the governess, the housekeeper, the pupil, the sort of master, the dog, the secret in the locked wing. The story is linked to the famous story The Turn Of The Screw and I think if you like that tale then this will most certainly be for you. Marta believes she is destined for something much greater than being just the governess but her conceit might be her undoing. She was also downright cruel towards Grace at times, who was only allowed to go to the automaton if she did what Marta wanted. A gothic one - drenched rich in atmosphere and mood, it's a finely crafted drama perfect for fans of the classics, there's a final reveal for this one that Griffin takes delight in dropping on the reader.There’s nothing I love more than a book filled to the brim with secrets, creepy isolated house and shady characters you aren’t entirely sure of and don’t particularly like. I loved how Kate griffin builds the tension with each chapter and how she linked Marta’s story with the seasons of the moon. Three-dimensional and then some, the unlikability of her character is key to giving this much of an edge that separates it from the rest of the genre - usually the protagonist is likeable, not so here. Could Marta, rather than being a beautiful, alluring, bewitching and unique woman, really be a little brown mouse of a governess trying to glamorise her postings?