The Butcher's Hook
a dark and twisted tale of Georgian London
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3.7 • 10 Ratings
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
***LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2016***
'KNOWS HOW TO KEEP HER AUDIENCE HOOKED' The Times
'A MASTERFUL STORYTELLER' Clare Mackintosh
'DARK, WEIRD AND GLORIOUSLY FEMINIST' Elle
Georgian London, in the summer of 1763.
At nineteen, Anne Jaccob, the elder daughter of well-to-do parents, meets Fub the butcher's apprentice and is awakened to the possibilities of joy and passion.
Anne lives a sheltered life: her home is a miserable place and her parents have already chosen a more suitable husband for her than Fub.
But Anne is an unusual young woman and is determined to pursue her own happiness in her own way...
...even if that means getting a little blood on her hands.
'A SHARP EYE AND A SHARPER WIT' Guardian
'A SPIRITED, DARK DEBUT' Woman & Home
'STRANGE, DARK AND UTTERLY MESMERIC' Hannah Kent
*And Janet Ellis's second, darkly compelling novel, How It Was, is out now*
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1763 London, Ellis's debut novel confronts the darker aspects of femininity through the life of wealthy and sheltered Anne Jaccob. Even though her parents have handpicked a suitable husband for her, Anne chafes against the idea of a traditional marriage and finds herself jaded toward love after the death of her younger brother and her mother's failed pregnancies. Despite Anne's aloofness about her own future, she becomes infatuated with a butcher's apprentice, Fub. Subverting her father's wishes that she marry an older business associate of his who repulses her, Anne begins a secret romance with Fub. Their surreptitious encounters and the exhilaration the secret relationship inspires Anne's darker nature to bloom. Ellis's compelling plot rests on Anne's formative sexuality and constantly returns to differing conceptions of love and the lengths people go to in order to protect their status and reputation. The unwillingness of anyone in the story to view Anne as more emotionally complicated than a child leads her self-discovery to run amok, and Ellis to explore the stifling effects of such repressive views of sexuality. Ellis's use of vivid imagery and focus on grisly detail add a macabre beauty to a stirring story.
Customer Reviews
Not as I expected
I really enjoyed this book much more than I expected I would as I generally don't like books set in the past .
Anne is an interesting character and you would never guess that she would turn out doing what she did .