Madness Between Light and Dark by Kathlaine C Gill and D Clark Gill
| Madness Between Light and Dark by Kathlaine C Gill and D Clark Gill | |
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| Category: Historical Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Luke Marlowe
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| Summary: | |
| Buy? | Borrow? |
| Pages: 354 | Date: January 2018 |
| Publisher: Palmetto Publishing Group | |
| ISBN: 978-1641110709 | |
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It's 1912, and at New Hope Sanatorium, Christine Agnes Tupper is fast growing up. Abandoned there by parents who were ashamed of her hunchback, she's nevertheless grown up to an intelligent girl with a good heart. Her encounters with the inhabitants of the asylum swiftly take her on a fascinating, thrilling and sometimes terrifying journey of self-discovery, allowing Agnes to prove that, even with a twisted spine, her heart is in the right place!
Hunchbacks have, in recent years, moved from being figures of fun to rather more sympathetic characters - whether in recent, relatively kind adaptations of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in the Tudor detective Shardlake of CJ Sansom's bestselling series, or here - where the authors are never shy of mentioning the physical limitations on Agnes, but also constantly celebrate her beauty and kind personality. She's an admirable lead, and her wide-eyed wonder provides a lens that views the inhabitants of the asylum with fear, but also kindness and compassion - ensuring that the reader feels the same way. The plot follows Agnes as she is abandoned at the Asylum - and how she soon becomes a vital part of the machinery of the old building. The very nature of the setting ensures that there is an unsettling sense of threat that pervades every page of this book - one that the authors are not afraid of building and playing with as the plot moves forward.
It's a good job the authors came up with Agnes as the lead and blessed her with so much personality, as without her this story would struggle - it's extremely gothic, and can at times be a little repetitive in terms of the interactions with the inhabitants of the asylum. Agnes allows the authors an opportunity to play with the textures a little bit more - weaving light and dark together to create something that's immensely readable and builds to an explosive climax.
Many thanks to the publishers for the review copy, and for further reading I'd recommend the Sansom series - dark tales with a compelling character at the forefront who also struggles with similar physical limitations to Agnes - first in the series is the ideal place to start! You might also appreciate Age of Assassins by R J Barker. You might also enjoy The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton.
You can read more about Kathlaine C Gill and D Clark Gill here.
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