Iris and her sister Rose work at Mrs Salter’s doll factory. Iris meets Louis who is apart of the Pre Raphaelite Brothers.
Louis wants to paint Iris and Iris wants to learn how to paint. She leaves the doll factory to model for Louis.
Silias is a taxidermist. He has a creepy job and is a strange man.
Soon it is the opening of Crystal Palace-the great exhibition. New wonders of the world bring exciting times. You can feel the buzz of energy from what they are about to see at the exhibition. Silias has some of his work on display and wants to show Iris.
Silias admires Iris but Louis has beaten him to her in Iris’ mind. Will Silias let this be? Will Louis by Iris' hero?

This historical thriller is an enjoyable and gripping read.

If you were a night-time wanderer on the streets of London in 1850, perhaps you would have passed the faintly lit window and seen the girl inside. She sucks at the tip of a brush, dips it in the flesh-coloured paint and streaks the white page in front of her. As the lifeless dolls look on, she undresses. Shame mixes with the colours on the page while she thinks of the man with the curly brown hair, watching her through the mist-coloured window.

This girl is one of twins. Both have a deformity, and both are doomed to ceaseless days of providing one little lifeless body after another with a face and a dress. Women in 1850 do not have much of a choice - other than earning a living off the bastards who drop their breeches far too often. Their lives are intermingled with others in the city such as the street urchin who finds dead animals for the man with the strange chemical smell. One twin breaks out of the life that seems predestined for a woman in Victorian times and she chances her reputation on a bohemian set who form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Their world is centred on the Great Exhibition and they aspire to see their artworks hung in the great hall. Seemingly, she is free from her mundane prison, but the man with the strange smell lurks in the shadows. He is consumed by his thoughts of her, and his shelves of stuffed mice and jars of little brown orbs no longer draw him home. Painstakingly he works on his conjoined pups; if they are accepted for the Great Exhibition it will be the culmination of his life’s work. He has dreamed of the moment when his mastery in reconstructing their miniscule skeletons will be admired by thousands. The Lepidoptera must be completed too. He sends the street urchin on the hunt for specimens, but all of this becomes meaningless. Instead, he must formulate the plan that will bring her to him and keep her captive forever.

In my opinion, this novel is deserving of a four-star rating chiefly because Macneal captures the intensity of her characters. In the antagonist, she has masterfully created a deranged soul who makes your hair stand on end. In fact, you feel his presence keenly. Furthermore, her portrayal of the one-dimensional lives of women in this era is heartfelt and the reader will champion the girl who defies convention and takes the unbeaten path. At times I felt that the plot dwindled a bit, but for the most part, this historical thriller is an enjoyable and gripping read.

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Ange

The Doll Factory is a masterpiece. The characterisation, the plot, the setting and descriptions add up to an unputdownable reading experience. I felt that I knew each of the characters and always believed the actions they took. I could visualise their physical appearance and could almost hear the dialogue. The plot unfolded expertly; the tension slowly built until the point when it was obvious something traumatic would happen; it was thoroughly creepy in places. The descriptions of everyday life in Victorian London really evoked how thing must have been; the smells, the poverty, the cruelty and the unfairness, contrasting those who have with those who don't.

Thanks to Picador and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The book started well for me. The descriptions of Victorian London and the stories about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood held my interest.....but I felt that it fizzled out a little. A long drawn out story without any real surprises to the plot. Not for me I am afraid.

Iris is a poor girl working in a shop painting the faces of porcelain dolls. She dreams of a better life for her and her sister, Rose. Rose has had smallpox and is horribly scarred, Iris has a damaged collarbone. When Iris is asked to model for an artist, Louis, she seizes the chance to escape her life and further her ambitions of painting more than dolls. However her unusual beauty has attracted another man, Silas, and he is altogether more sinister.
As a book about the underbelly of Victorian London, the story is fairly successful. It pulls together the fads for art, featuring the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and the more macabre, taxidermy. It also looks closely at the fate of the poor (Albie and his sister) and the struggling but honest, Iris and her family. I didn't find the romance between Louis and Iris particularly believable, and Silas is a rather one-dimensional villain until his backstory is explored in the final quarter of the book. In fact although the first part of the book drags a little it switches into a full-blown gothic nightmare for the final third and the pace fairly rattles along.

Victorian pastiches are among my very favorite things to read, but (not least because I have an MA in Victorian Literature) I’m awfully picky about them. This one’s a winner, perfect for fans of Michel Faber, John Fowles, and Sarahs Moss, Perry and Waters. It’s set over a year and a half in the early 1850s and focuses on the Great Exhibition and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but it also rootles around in the everyday world of poorer Londoners: the sort who scrounge a living by making taxidermied curiosities, running errands or writing letters for the functionally illiterate. Iris Whittle dreams of escaping Mrs Salter’s Doll Emporium, where she and her smallpox-scarred twin sister, Rose, spend their days tediously painting faces, and becoming a real painter, and when (fictional) PRB artist Louis Frost takes her on as an artists’ model and offers to give her painting lessons too, it looks like she’s home-free. But she has a stalker, a lonely lowlife who’s constructed a whole fantasy universe around Iris returning his love, and the book gets a lot darker than I expected as this plot thread plays out.

At first I thought the title was inappropriate given how soon Iris makes her escape from Mrs Salter’s, but the deeper I got into the story the more I realized it’s a metaphor for the demands society places on women – and a passage like this tells you it’s not merely a comment on the Victorian period, but just as relevant today: “she has been careful not to encourage men, but not to slight them either, always a little fearful of them. She is seen as an object to be gazed at or touched at leisure … something for which she should be grateful. She should appreciate the attentions of men more, but she should resist them too, subtly, in a way both to encourage and discourage, so as not to lead to doubts of her purity and goodness but not to make the men feel snubbed.”

It’s a sumptuous and believable fictional world, with touches of gritty realism that remind you it really wasn’t such a nice time to live in, especially the fate of various animals and the character Albie, who’s most like Jo the street-sweeper from Bleak House: the urchin with the heart of gold. He’s a toothless orphan who just wants to protect his prostitute sister and have enough money left over for some false teeth. If some characters seem to fit neatly into stereotypes (the fallen woman, the rake, etc.), be assured that Macneal is interested in nuances. This is a terrific debut novel full of panache and promise, and one of my top 2019 releases so far.

I loved this richly evocative tale set in Victorian London of Iris, a talented artist who is taken out of poverty by Louis, a rich pre-Raphaelite painter. Her rags-to-riches story seems almost too good to be true - a new (scandalous) role as an artist's muse, a huge increase in salary, a love affair with a soon-to-be widowed man - yet there's a shadow hanging over Iris' happiness and he goes by the name of Silas...

I have to say how beautiful that book cover is. Just glorious. Like the novel, it juxtaposes the beauty, art and grace of the period with the claustrophobia, death and creepy gothic sensibilities of Victoriana - and I can't get enough of it. The writing within the book is also hugely evocative and has a bit of everything - sex, obsession, art,  death, taxidermy, disfigurement, filth, light, sadness, romance... and a wombat. Everything felt very authentic to the time period even though the story of a woman striking out on her own felt very modern.

The characters were beautifully depicted, with an attention to detail that made them jump off the page. I could see the dirt under Silas' fingernails, the emerald green on Louis' painting, the crimson lips on the doll that Iris was painting. I loved the use of the Great Exhibition as a backdrop to their lives - again, a juxtaposition of all that light and ingenuity and modernity sat right next to the filth and decay of the London slums.

Yes, the writing was a little slow in places but I can forgive that, since this is the author's debut. I loved the use of detail, the setting and the characterisation and I thought that the constant playing with light and shade, love and obsession, hope and despair was inspired. Elizabeth Macneal is clearly a writer to watch out for.

Set as the Great Exhibition is being erected, Iris and her twin sister, Rose, work in a doll shop, painting porcelain dolls. Iris wants more from her life, and longs to paint pictures, works of art - not dolls. She leaves her apprenticeship in the shop to become a model for an artist (Louis), who promises to teach her to paint.

Parallel to this storyline is that of Silas, a taxidermist, and Albie, a street urchin who supplies him with the animals that he stuffs. Albie is the character who eventually connects Iris, Silas and Louis.

What starts as a relatively light hearted story, becomes something much more macabre - although I did feel quite anxious about the precariousness of Iris’ new way of life and job (but I think I’ve read far too many stories set in this period of fallen, abandoned women). She’s an admirable character, though. She’s brave and sticks to her guns, she is kind-hearted in her dealings with Albie, and even though her sister makes it very difficult to be nice to her, she is always thoughtful and generous to her as well.

Silas on the other hand, is very concerning. He made me feel supremely uncomfortably throughout. His obsession with Iris is very worrying, and his attitude towards other people is equally so.

The Victorian atmosphere and the scents, sights and crush of people in London are so well described in this book, as are the characters. I spent most of this book holding my breath (or so it felt - obviously not though!) and expecting the worse - the tension and menace becoming more and more unbearable as the book progressed. And I loved every minute of it - I’ve already bought it as a birthday present for a friend!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book to read and honestly review.

Expectations for Elizabeth Macneal’s debut were high – an early draft of The Doll Factory won the 2018 Caledonia Novel Award and television rights to the historical novel were snapped up months before publication. From the publisher who gave us Jessie Burton’s hugely successful The Miniaturist, The Doll Factory has featured on every ‘must read’ list since the start of 2019 and thankfully justifies the hype.

Set in Victorian London the story follows Iris, an aspiring artist who works in a doll making shop with twin sister, Rose, and Silas Reed, a reclusive, disturbing collector and taxidermist. The sisters work in Mrs Salter’s Doll Emporium, making intricately painted dolls for rich children. Deemed too unattractive to be marriage prospects by their parents, the pair seem destined to live out their days toiling under the tyrannical Mrs Salter.

When Iris is approached by Louis Frost, an artist in need of a model, she agrees on one condition: that Louis teach her how to paint. Iris becomes muse and pupil of the member of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and revels in her new creative endeavours. The relationship becomes more of a partnership as Iris starts to flourish as an artist and the book explores talent, ambition, familial obligation and the limitations imposed on women in the Victorian era.

There’s a thread of eerie threat running though the story as our protagonist is stalked by Silas, who has been obsessed with Iris since a brief meeting at the future site of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. Silas’s obsession extends to wondering what Iris would look like as one of his taxidermy subjects in passages that provoke shivers. Silas is the embodiment of disenchantment, resentment and entitlement and his creepy characterisation is wonderful.

The pacing and rich, atmospheric prose in this novel are perfect. Macneal describes the world of visual art so well the reader can see every colour and brushstroke and there is a sense the author must have an artistic background. The Victorian era and pre-Raphaelite movement are vibrantly depicted, with pithy observations that you will want to re-read as the action zips along. The final third of the novel is so engrossing it makes it difficult to put the book down. A triumphant debut which will make for a sumptuous, visually stunning TV production.

1850s London, a young girl with a spinal deformity and a love of art, an up and coming artist, and a taxidermist. What could go wrong...
The concept of this book is so interesting! I have only one complain (and will address this first), and that is that once the *event* has occured, the book becomes a little slow. The writing really slowed down for me and I struggled to get to the event and then read through it. I didn't have this issue leading up to the event and afterwards so that was a real pity. I also wished that there had been more time within the book after the event rather than it just stopping.
However, this is a lovely historical fiction that delves into the darker truth of humanity whilst retaining some of the purer and more loving aspects of humanity.
I give this book 3.5 out of 5. I enjoyed it, but it was pulled down by the slower ending. I'd definitely keep an eye out for anything else Elizabeth Macneal releases in the future.

Set in period England, I found this an unusual read. Iris and her twin have been dealt a poor hand in life that lands them working in a doll shop for a cruel mistress. But fate lands her the attention of two very different men. The one, Louis, is a handsome, talented artist who thinks Iris would make the perfect model for his next painting. The other is Silas who earns a living as a taxidermist and desperately wants a connection with Iris.

I would hate to reveal too much. The book kept my interest and I believed the world it had been set in and the characters created. And yet although beautifully written, something was missing.

I have seen this much written about, much praised slice of dark Victoriana compared with books like The Collector, The Crimson Petal and the White, and Fingersmith. Though I don’t think this book is in that class, I can see why the comparisons have been drawn, and it holds a dark and compelling story that has much to say.

At the centre of the story is Iris Whittle, who spends her days working at a Regent Street doll shop, painting features onto china faces, and her nights in the cellar where she secretly works on her own art. She wants more from life, but she has ties and she doesn’t know how she can move foward.

Iris fall into the line of sight of two men, and each of them in attracted by her appearance and sees a way to use her to achieve an ambition of their own.

Silas, Reed is a taxidermist and the proprietor of a shop of curiosities. When he sees Iris he is reminded of a long lost childhood friend, and he comes to believe that she was put in his path for a reason and that she was made for him.

Louis Frost, a fictional member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, is out in London with Dante Gabriel Rosetti and John Everett Millais, and when they visit Silas’s shop in search of props, he is complaining that he cannot find the right model for a new work.

Silas, eager to make an impression on his customers, tells them about Iris. They visit Regent Street, and they gaze at her through the window.

When Louis approaches Iris to be his model, she knows that she has a chance to work towards her own ambition as he works towards his. Her agreement is subject to Louis teaching her to paint.

He agrees, thinking that the request is just a girlish fancy, or maybe a way to see how much he really wants her; but in time he realises that she has talent and ambition. Louis begins to see Iris in a different way; and to value her for much, much more than her appearance.

But when the painting of her is exhibited Iris feels that she has become nothing more than an object to be gazed upon by men, and that she has been trapped in a golden frame.

Meanwhile, Silas’ obsession with her has been growing. He has been watching her, and creating an idealised picture of a woman who will adore him and fit perfectly into his life.

When they meet for the second time Iris doesn’t remember Silas, but she learns that he remembers her very well and that he has been making plans …..

The story that Elizabeth Macneal tells is cleverly constructed, evocatively written, richly detailed, and it has much to say.

I could see the depth of her research, I could feel her love of her subject matter; and she brought her fiction and real history together in a way that felt completely natural and right.

The use of three narrators was a very clever choice. It shines a light on those three, and each of them has a distinctive point of view, and brings something different to the story and the things it has to say.

What a creepy tale is ‘The Doll Factory ‘by Elizabeth Macneal. It is a strange and compelling mixture of creepy taxidermy, the painting of doll’s faces and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artists, combined with stalking and kidnapping. I finished it not sure whether I liked it or not. Some parts are beautiful, some are horrifying.
It is London 1850. Queen Victoria is on the throne, the Great Exhibition is being built in Hyde Park and a team of men are searching for wonders to display. Iris and her sister Rose work at The Doll Factory shop, painting personalised faces onto dolls, and sleeping in the attic. They survive but can only dream of having enough money to open their own shop. Iris is desperate to be a real artist. Silas Reed’s Shop of Curiosities Antique and New is popular with Victorian ladies buying dried butterflies and artists wanting stuffed mammals and rodents that can be copied and incorporated into their art. Silas and Iris are linked by Arnie, a young boy who scratches a living by sewing dolls clothes for The Doll Factory, and sourcing recently dead animals for Silas to stuff. When Iris meets Louis Frost, PRB artist, the circle is complete and the threat becomes darker. A two-headed dog, Silas’s most prized handiwork, is selected for display at the Great Exhibition. Meanwhile Iris leaves The Doll Factory to model for Louis, receiving free art lessons from him in lieu of payment. Albie suspects Silas of unnatural interest in Iris and tries to warn her but she doesn’t take him seriously.
I could have done with more of the art, less of the taxidermy and dead animals; but’s that’s just me. It was a long build up to the attack, which made me wonder if this started life as a historical novel about Victorian artists with the distinctly modern psychological thriller narrative layered on top at a later date. But it is a thought-provoking book about the unfairness of poverty and the blithe lifestyle of the rich; about women’s rights and lack of opportunities; and about the power of love and how obsession can turn into possession. The beautiful cover does not hint at the darkness and often gruesome writing inside.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal is one of the best books I read so far this year. It captivated me with its tale of Iris, the young woman who worked painting dolls in Mrs Salter’s Dolls Emporium, but who dreamed of being an artist. It tells of her involvement with the Pre-Raphaelite artists – in particular with Louis Frost (a fictional character) who attracted by her beauty and her red hair wants her to model for him. She agrees, despite the disapproval of her parents and twin sister Rose, on the condition that he teaches her to paint. Meanwhile Silas Reed, a taxidermist and a collector of curiosities, worships her from afar and fantasises that she returns his love.

But it’s much more than my brief outline conveys. This is historical fiction that transports me back in time and place to the 1850s when the Great Exhibition is being constructed and then opened to the public, a time when the young artists who had recently formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, first formed in the summer of 1848, are challenging the art world with their vivid paintings, at once both stylised and naturalistic. The descriptions take me straight into London of the early 1850s with all its sights and smells, its squalor and bustling crowds as people go about their daily lives.

There are some really memorable characters, such as ten year old Albie, who collects dead creatures for Silas. He lives with his sister, a prostitute, in a ramshackle house down a dead-end alley and with just one tooth he dreams of buying a set of false teeth. Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt also appear alongside the fictional characters and I loved all the details about their paintings, and their fascination with wombats. Rossetti owned two wombats – the inspiration for Louis’ wombat, Guinevere, who lives in his studio.

As I read on I began to feel a growing sense of menace and the tension between the characters rose almost to an unbearable peak as the book reached its conclusion. It’s full of atmosphere, dark and gothic towards the end as it reached its climax – and left me wanting more. It’s wonderful – historical fiction, art history, and a love story as well as a dark tale of obsession, pulsing with drama, intrigue and suspense. I loved it!

Many thanks to the publishers, Picador, for my review copy via NetGalley.

Iris & Rose work for Mrs Salter creating high quality china dolls. The twins were once very close. Iris has a deformed shoulder, which had made her th less attractive twin until Rose's smallpox left her disfigured. This has made her bitter & reclusive. Iris dreams of being an artist & painting more than doll's faces & hands.

Silas is a strange man. He is obsessed with skeletal abnormalities & make skeletons & taxidermy models. When he sees Iris at the Great Exhibition he becomes obsessed with her.

Iris also attracts the attention of Louis, one of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood who decides she is exactly the model he need for the picture he hopes to get accepted. At first Iris is reluctant- posing for an artist- even modestly dressed would be a great scandal, but when Louis offers to teach her to paint & his sister offers her accommodation she scandalises her parents & causes a rift with Rose by following her dream.

This book really drew the reader into 1850's Victorian London. It captured the sights, sounds & smells of the era. I almost had to come back to reality when I stopped reading! I loved this story. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book

DNF 42%

Another one that NetGalley made me want to read. Described as Picador’s most spectacular debut of 2019, I really was looking forward to it.

It takes place in London in 1850 where the Great Exhibition is underway and searching for items for its hallowed halls.

Silas, who deals in the macabre art of taxidermy, meets and becomes obsessed with a beautiful aspiring artist called Iris. Iris is selected to model for pre-raphaelite artist Louis Frost and she agrees if she can have lessons in how to paint. But as she learns and grows in her art, Silas grows ever more desperate for her and his obsession starts to darken.

Historical fiction isn’t really my forte but I adore Regency romances. I was pulled in by the idea of a dark twisted affection growing into something scary, playing out on the field that I usually love.

Iris and her twin had a fantastic backstory and many of the social norms of that era were things that I was well aware of from my Regency readings.

But I found the prose too flowery and I couldn’t stop my brain from wanting the romance aspect to come to the fore. Several of the characters were intriguing and I often thought of Sweeney Todd as I was reading it but I still couldn’t quite settle in. I might try to give it another go but, for now, I think I’ll shelve this one.

I absolutely loved the writing style and was surprised to find that this is a debut novel.

The descriptions were beautiful and I could really imagine the London of 1850. I read very little historical fiction but I was drawn to the description of this book. The character building was fantastic, especially Silas, a lonely and mysterious taxidermist.

The reason for rating this three stars is that I struggled at times with the pacing. Initially it moved very quickly but from the middle onwards it seems to stall, despite a lot happening. I also wasn't expecting it to take the turn that it did.

I loved the cover of this book but didn’t realise until I finished it just how much of the story is captured in the globe. When you do know, then its contents become so much more sinister. Set in 1850 debut author Elizabeth Macneal brings to life a bustling London with its sweatshops, wheeler-dealing kids and local psycho in this gothic tale of horrors.
The story is told by three of the characters, Iris a beautiful woman that was destined to see her life out painting faces on dolls but she is a gifted artist, a rough diamond that just needs the polishing to achieve her hidden potential. Albie, a child much older than his years with a dream of owning a set of teeth to replace the ones he doesn’t have any more after more than one mishap. And finally Silas, a collector, maker, and seller of unusual things. This sad, lonely rather disturbing man gave me ‘a fifty shades of’ experience, the sort that turns your hair gradually to white with the last 50 pages of the story. Oh my is this creepy!
The three main characters all have their own desires and obsessions, Iris to paint, Albie his teeth and Silas something much darker as I found out from the chapters about their past and present lives. This is captivating reading that made me curl up a little tighter on my sofa and snuggle into a comfort blanket. The contrasts of the gloom and filth are set against a background where thousands of pounds were being spent in Hyde Park erecting The Great Exhibition but it gave even the poorest a buzz. The working classes and the wealthy were miles apart, with huge sums of money changing hands that would have kept a family out of poverty for years.
This is a stunning debut not to be missed. I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

I loved the cover of this book the story itself is a slow burner it took me awhile to get into, but i wanted to find out more about the interesting yet dark characters.

Twins, Iris and Rose both work as doll maker's apprentices; making bespoke dolls for the upper classes. They always dreamed of running their own shop but since Rose's engagement was broken off her aspirations have dimmed leaving her relationship with her sister frayed. Iris longs to be an artist and via odd-job boy Albie and taxidermist Silas she's introduced to Louis Frost, an artist in search of a new model who agrees to pay for her modelling services and become her mentor.

It had me completely hooked for the last section; if I'd of been reading a physical copy it would have been difficult not to flick to the back few pages to find out the main characters fates. I felt the pace built really well throughout the book, starting off slowly, introducing each character in their individual worlds and starting to build as they become more interconnected. Despite being quite a dark thriller in places there's also a great uplifting feeling that comes from Iris' journey and ambitions as an artist. Would highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for early access to this in exchange for an honest review.