I loved this book. it's a great mix of different genres, from thriller to historical fiction.
The book is dark, atmospheric, enthralling, entertaining. It's page turner that you cannot put down.
I loved the characters, well written and fleshed out, some of them are not easy to forget.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

An interesting and we'll researched debut, but I found it difficult to engage with any of the characters, and felt there was little originality in the plot, particularly the ending in the cellar.
Thank you to netgalley and Picador for an advance copy of this book.

A story about love and obsession in Victorian London at the time of the Great Exhibition. Beautiful, richly detailed writing with some disturbing and chilling moments. Recommended.

I loved this book far more than I thought I would. It's dark, mysterious and a bit macabre. It's based around 2 sisters, pre-raphalite painters and a taxidermist. It is set in the late Victorian era and there is no hiding from the reality of life in the alleys amongst the poverty and prostitution.
A good read with twists, turns and intrigue.

This is a very well written brooding creepy tale of art, taxidermy, and dolls. Or what I call a Tuesday.

It's atmospheric, gothic and a little bit twisted. It's not my favourite recent historical fiction, compared to Essex Serpent, Mermaid and Mrs Hancock or The Binding, but an excellent addition to the genre.

London, 1850. The Crystal Palace is being built, in anticipation of The Great Exhibition – where science meets art, literature meets industry and the painters of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood are beginning to emerge.



Mrs. Salter’s Doll Emporium. Iris and Rose, sisters working brutal hours painting dolls faces and making their clothes. Iris longs to escape, and pursue her dreams of being an artist. When she is offered a job as an artist’s model, much to the disapproval of her parents and sister, Iris leaves – the opportunity is too good to miss, especially with the promise of being able to paint for herself as well.



Silas Reed. Taxidermist. Obsessive. Stalker. Determined to make a name for himself, Silas works alone in his dingy shop, fantasising over opening his own museum, and paying street urchins to being him the dead bodies of animals for him to stuff. A darkness lies over Silas, which consumes him after a brief encounter where he meets Iris.



A detailed and well written historical fiction novel, which tips over into thriller territory. A fantastic debut.

Pre-Raphaelite 1850's London meets dark and sinister thriller.

Set in London at the time of The Great Exhibition Elizabeth Mcneal's debut novel blurs fiction with the founding members of The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

A very atmospheric read, it describes 1850's London superbly. The two opposing sides of London life are very well reflected. The squalor and dire living conditions of the poor and the energy and opportunities of the rich.  The characters jump off the page with their love of things such as art, curiosities and taxidermy and their day to day goings on.

Me meet Iris, who along with her sister Rose, works in a doll shop under the supervision of mean Mrs Salter.  Instead of painting doll's faces day after day Iris dreams of becoming a true artist. To paint!  She meets the Pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost who asks her to become his model, in exchange for painting lessons, Iris agrees.  Leaving behind her old life she enters a world she has dreamed of and quickly becomes part of the lives at Grower Street.  The story unfolds with Iris agonising over leaving her sister behind as her life changes for the better and we meet some wonderful characters along the way.

The decadent artists, Albie, the wonderfully portrayed, lovable young boy, taking jobs here and there to find money for him and his sister and the decidedly sinister Silas, living in his equally dark and sinister world.  After a brief introduction to Iris, which she quickly forgets, Silas becomes obsessed and this wonderfully researched book turns into a frighteningly, chilling, pacy thriller.

If you've read and enjoyed books such as The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, The Miniaturist and The Taxidermist Daughter you will like this.

Unfortunately, this book is not for me. The tale is very dark and cruel, and I was simply not enjoying it at all. In fact I was dreading going back to it when I wanted to read. So reluctantly I had to give up on this one, as reading has to be a pleasure in life for me, not a chore. I’m sure there will be many people who will enjoy it, just not this reader, I’m sorry to say.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to try this title.

Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres, and I especially like books which do not flinch away from the harsh realities of the time in which they are set. The Doll Factory is such a novel, which follows the lives of Iris and Silas, bound together only by his infatuation with her. Iris is a strong, intelligent woman who has, in many ways, freed herself from the constraints of society by giving up her respectable post in a doll shop, abandoning her sister in the process, and becoming a model for an artist. The author uses Iris to narrate on society as a whole, how many aspects have not changed between the 1800s and now, and the theme of setting ourselves free is woven into the pages.

An engaging and brilliant novel, The Doll Factory shall join the ranks of some of the best historical fiction novels of our time, and I look forward to the author's next venture.

Iris and Rose work painting dolls faces and making their clothing day in and day out, all Iris wants is to be an artist and secretly paints self portraits if an evening.
One day Albie introduces her to Silas a taxidermist wanting to make it big, this chance encounter leads to a dangerous obsession with Iris with devastating consequences.

Iris is offered the chance to leave the doll factory and become an artists model casting her from her family and the doll factory for ever.

A really intriguing read with dark undertones. I really enjoyed this book.

This is an unforgettable piece of chilling and gothic historical fiction, the debut from Elizabeth Macneal, set in the Victorian era. She writes an atmospheric and beautifully constructed story of art, ambition, a deranged obsession, love and horror, amidst the poverty, class divisions and entrenched inequalities, squalor, culture, scientific developments, and the prevalent social norms and attitudes of the time, such as the way women were treated. Iris and her sister, Rose live humdrum lives painting dolls for the laudanum addicted Mrs Salter. Life has not been easy for the sisters, Iris has ambitions to be an artist, but is not supported by her family in this. It is 1850, the year of the Great Exhibition, and Iris has what is for her an inconsequential encounter with the odd and strange Silas, a troubled taxidermist with his shop of curiosities, visited by the medical profession and artists. For the lonely Silas, it is to mark the start of an all encompassing obsession that is to become increasingly delusional as in his mind, Iris feels as he does.

Iris encounters the Pre-Raphaelite artist, Louis Frost, who wants Iris to model for him, and which provides Iris with the opportunity she has been seeking to escape her suffocating life and social class and, realise her dreams. She asks Louis to provide her with art lessons, and he acquiesces, with Iris painting in secret. In a increasingly dark and disturbing narrative, Iris begins to have increasing feelings for Louis, but the disturbed Silas has other plans. The author skilfully captures this historical period with her rich and evocative descriptions, the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, the science, and in her diverse cast of characters. Her characterisation of Silas is stellar, he feels like a real and authentic character in all his madness, and I adored the young bright street child, Albie, with his understandable desire for a set of teeth. I found this a gripping story, particularly in the last part where it becomes more thriller than just pure historical fiction. It is an unsettling and disturbing immersive read, with its elements of horror, ideal for those who love historical fiction set in Victorian times. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.

It is 1851, the year of The Great Exhibition in London. Iris, an aspiring artist, meets Louis Frost, a pre-Raphaelite artist, and agrees to become his model on the condition that he will teach her to paint. Iris had given a choice and she has snatched it. It is the beginning for a new life. Her world began to expand with a sense of freedom that she had never felt before. It’s a freedom that terrifies her, but at the same time, excited her.

But, while Iris lives her dream, discovering art and love, a random and brief encounter she immediately forgets, has other plans for her. Silas, a weird and collector of beautiful things, becomes obsessed and delusional about Iris’s feelings, until finally one night he goes through with his plan of kidnapping her and taking her away from her world so he can create one of his own.

The story is interesting and atmospheric and Macneal's writing, reminiscent of the Victorian era, overflown with a variety of vivid characters and portraits of difficult lives, drama and plot complications. Macneal’s prose is beautiful, and I particularly liked the depiction and the competitive relationship and animosity between Iris and her sister Rose. I was intrigued by Silas’s delusion and dark obsession. Albie, the street urchin who exists on the fringes of society, has been my favourite character in the book. But the development of the romantic relationship between Iris and Louis was predictable. At times the pace of the story was slow, too.

Overall, The Doll Factory is an interesting and well-written story of obsession and love. The story of a woman, who escapes a pitiful life of respectability and domestic virtue to find purpose and freedom in the wide world of Art.

I have this book dog eared in my anticipated releases book and was so glad that I managed to get my stickly little fingers on this, the premise sounded very interesting, I am reading so many debut novels that are so good and this one certainly fits the bill.
When the premise promises ' intoxicating story of art, obsession and possession' I knew that i had to have this book for my collection, and when this publishes in May , I am most certainly going to purchase it and re read it!

When I was in Primary School, I studied the Great Exhibition and really loved the idea of revisiting it through this story; so we know from that fact that this book takes place in Victorian England.
Two Sisters, Iris and Rose, who works for pittance in a 'Doll Factory' delicatly painting the faces of dolls for a laudanum addled Mrs Salter, iris however, dreams away of being a real painter and happens upon a painter, whom offers to help with such a task, on the condition that she models for him.
Meanwhile, we are greeted to silas, a very slimy charecter, whom you can almost sense his presence through the book and the brilliant way in which Mcneal portrays him, he is a taxidermist, can i say for roadkill? I mean, those poor puppies in the beginning .....
Poor silas however, admires Iris from afar, but too soon becomes obsessive and this leads the story into some dark recesses of his mind.
This book is far more than I can explain here and would be a crime for you not to go out and obtain this novel, to sit, to read, to explore and to melt into the setting, the charecters and the world in which Mcneal creates for us.

A really enjoyable historical thriller that offered a great insight into Victorian London and the lives of those who lived there. In places dark and scary, the gothic, Victorian setting lends itself well to this tale.

An interesting read. The taxidermist relying on an almost toothless urchin - his 'big teeth' never came in - the pre-raphaelites in their hey-days, and in the middle of it all is Iris a doll painter who becomes an artist's model and apprentice artist herself. A story of art, love and obsession set in the shadow of the Great Exhibition.

An exciting debut novel.

Captivating, thrilling and super creepy. What a ride! I can't fathom how much research must have gone into creating this but it definitely pays off.

3.5*

If you appreciate the morbid curiosity of the Victorian era then this one is for you! Dark and compelling, I enjoyed this but you have to be in the right mood because it can be disturbing.

~ Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this title ~

Though it took me a few pages to get into this, soon I was immersed and it provided a great snapshot into this era as well as a fast paced, tense bit of action! Thoroughly enjoyed!

I can’t say that I really enjoyed all of this novel, especially not the details about taxidermy and freakish animals. However, after a somewhat slow start, the plot picks up and I did enjoy the depiction of mid-nineteenth century London and the beginning of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Parts of the book and some of the characters, in particular Silas, I thought were seriously unpleasant and spooky, so much so that it took me quite a while to finish because I couldn’t bear to read the book in bed just before turning out the light. Thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for this honest review.

This is a dark and twisty story set in London at the time of the Great Exhibition. It follows Iris, an aspiring artist trapped in a miserable existence painting dolls in a shop with her unhappy sister. and Silas, a taxidermist and collector of the macabre. Their paths cross briefly, but the encounter sets off a rapid and unsettling chain of events. Iris becomes a model and apprentice to Louis Frost, a pre-Raphaelite artist, and it seems that her life is improving. But all the while, Silas is nurturing a growing obsession.

The book is well written and the characters engaging and (largely) likeable. I found it gripping.