This was such a weird and wonderful book I will be thinking about it for a while! Luscious prose and wicked humour, it offers a darker telling of the country house and it is perfect for fans of Bridgerton and horror fans!

Ooooooh wow. What a disturbingly beautiful book. There was something so unnerving about this, between Ann and Ladie and their constant commentary, this felt suffocating to read. I adored the writing, it felt like I was drowning in sentences and paragraphs full of earthly descriptions. Elland has a real talent, her writing leaps off the page, so much so I could taste the food and smell the awful scents of the house.

Around 60% in I knew something was wrong. The narration got even more unreliable and I was on the edge of my seat. The ending caught me by surprise, I couldn’t believe how clever and well written this entire novel was. I loved it, for all of its awful descriptions of the human body and sin, I couldn’t put it down. A truly devious book, this was unrelenting and thrilling to read.

Firstly, this is the *perfect* cover for this audacious and enigmatic story. Elland's writing is the star of the show: luscious, grotesque, hallucinatory, and with more than a touch of Angela Carter about it.

The story itself plays effectively with our expectations: with deceptive nods to all the 'big house' classics, to Fingersmith, to Lady Chatterley's Lover and - of course - the Brontes... and yet it remains subversive to the end.

If you like fever dream structured books, then this book is definitely for you!
Our main narrator of the story is Ann who works as a maid at Ropner Hall who develops this strange and unhealthy obsession with the Lady of the House.

The cover design is stunning, and it fits this book perfectly! The cover was also the reason I decided to request this book in the first place, and I was not disappointed because weird female fiction is my favorite type of books.

The writing is extremely visual, there are a lot of vivid descriptions (also of those of bodily fluids).
Disturbingly beautiful book, I couldn’t put it down!

I found this book beautifully descriptive and so fascinating.

A wonderful exploration of womanhood and female inquisitiveness.

I would read this again, and again. Loved it. And that cover is fabulous.

It's Inception, done right. A brilliant literary work of art.

From the start, this book is an eerie and atmospheric place. Ann's strange and obsessive mannerisms, longing to serve and piousness made me recoil from her character, she was deplorable but I was also totally and utterly invested in seeing her reach her goal.

The descriptions and dialogue between the characters within this book is not overdone, it lets your imagination spin webs of reality and there are key features brought back into the narrative to spark your memory and put the puzzle together.

The feverish beat to this novel kept me spiralling down, further into the depths of Ropner and hungry to watch the terrifying end.