This book was slow to get into but I loved the author's previous book "Watchmaker" so much I stuck with it. I'm glad I did because it did turn into quite the page turner. I wasn't expecting the twist so that was a great surprise. This book has great character building and a narrative that is poetic and lovely to read.

This was a great read. A bit of history, a dash of magical realism, and a pinch of steampunk blend together into a wonderful recipe for a great story!

This is a brilliant old style adventure story. I kept thinking of H. Rider Haggard and Kipling. Magic, adventure, ancient civilization, doesn't get much better than rhis.

I really enjoyed this book. It is not a quick read, but it was one that I wanted to get back to as soon as possible. I fell in love with the characters and wanted to travel to Peru tomorrow!

An impressive amount of research went into this book! Pulley’s description of the South American Highlands makes me feel a little light-headed and out of breath. I really enjoyed how she sucked me into her imaginary world, tiny bit by tiny bit, introducing fantastical geography, geology and botany at a measured pace so that I was happy to keep traveling with Raphael and Merrick. The sensory details were such a treat. Don’t read Bedlam before bedtime unless you want to have some very vivid dreams.

This was okay, it just wasn't for me. Felt like a story I've read several times before.

“Well, if I’m going to go mad I’m sure I’ll find something to fixate on, whether it’s a statue or a tree near a parsonage or what ever. Why not sign me up to the asylum now?”

Merrick Tremayne is trapped at home, because of a severe leg injury. He isn’t really going nuts, at least he doesn’t think he is- even if it’s absurd that a pine explodes. It really does, doesn’t it? Once a smuggler, he is offered an opportunity for adventure. The India Office wants him to travel to Peru and obtain quinine, but it’s violently dangerous, people do not survive the trek. How is he going to stand a chance when he isn’t fully functioning, with his bum leg? Others have tried and failed. But what is worse, the risk of death or going mad with boredom in Cornwall?

Stranger still, the locals stay away- a salt line keeps them out but is it just superstition? Or is it a way to keep people from snooping? People can’t truly lose time, can they? How is it possible a very young priest swears to have known his grandfather, it just isn’t possible. He wouldn’t have been old enough! Could there really be something solid and true about the superstitions the villagers hold fast to? I love magical realism and there is quite a bit going on here but at times I was thrown off where I thought the author was going. It’s an interesting tale, but at times the danger seemed mild, far more mild than it would have been in reality. Or maybe I’ve seen too many movies and my imagination runs a bit rampant. I felt a distance towards the main character but I imagine that would be the sort of man to expect from someone who smuggled for the East India Company . He certainly wouldn’t be an open bleeding wound of emotions. What I love is how reality merges with the belief system of those ‘behind the times.’ It’s the most genuine part of the novel. I had a hard time feeling emotionally bonded to the characters, but it is a good solid story. I need to feel a strong connection, and enjoy emotional displays- be it anger, love, jealousy… this was just too cool for me. Which is likely why I would never be that great of a smuggler.

Religion always takes an interesting turn in these sort of stories. What it excuses, how it mixes with politics. Much like superstitions, people are easily manipulated in what they fear or worship. I found myself thinking, how typical of the times, here is a man from another country coming to pillage from others what isn’t rightfully his and we are supposed to be on his side. I was, but with the nagging voice in the back of my mind saying- how dare he! The ending was good but passion, where is the passion? And yet, the writing is good, it is a creative story that with other writers would have escaped it’s creator. The pollen was this playfully magical character in itself, that supplied my mind with quite a visual. The reason for ‘exploding wood’ was fascinating, so much of the story worked. I think had the characters been less level headed and more fiery I would have been more enthralled. With that said, it’s a creative story with just enough magical realism to keep it from verging on the ridiculous. All of it, in the end, came together. I need to read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, I keep hearing it’s really good… If you are for adventure that at times is tame, but with a good solid story then this is perfect for you. Coming soon.

Publication Date: August 1, 2017

Bloomsbury USA

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I have a cold, or if it was just that good, but when I finished this book I was actually dizzy. I feel flipped on my head. The Bedlam Stacks was completely unlike anything I've ever read before, and not at all what I expected.

We start the book in England, after a tree branch has fallen on the main character's house and collapsed part of the roof. Merrick shares the house with his brother, and both of them are disabled, so they have a whole host of gardeners and people in to help them fix it. Merrick, while investigating a moved statue and footprints in the greenhouse, inadvertently sets the tree that fell on fire. But instead of burning slowly because of the rain, the whole thing explodes (this type of tree comes into play much later in the book, which was nicely brought up as a mystery in the opening). Next thing we know, he's being whisked away by an old friend to Peru (despite much ado on Merrick's part about his injured leg) to smuggle out tree cuttings so they can start a plantation in India to make quinine.

The fact of the matter is, the trees Merrick and his friend Clem are after are heavily policed in Peru by the people who control the quinine market, and as such, quinine is insanely expensive. Unfortunately for India, there is a massive malaria outbreak, and so over the last several years a handful of explorers have gone in to Peru to find these trees and smuggle them out. They were all murdered, except for one man who made it out, but the trees all died. Merrick and Clem are determined to bring out good cuttings, or die trying (and thus force the East India Company's hand to send in the military and shell the cities until the Peruvian government gives up the goods).

Up until about the middle of the book, this really seems like nothing more than an exotic adventure/thriller. Which had me a little confused because I was under the impression that it was a fantasy novel. But I'm convinced, after reading all the way through, that Natasha Pulley did this on purpose to lull us into a false sense of expectation. I was expecting it to be dangerous, and full of scary and thrilling moments. I was not expecting the complete shift that came at around the midpoint, where it becomes an historical fantasy thriller rather than "just" another adventure novel.

Once Merrick and Clem reach Peru and after an unremarkable travel section, they unexpectedly are taken in by Mr. Markham, a wealthy landowner who happens to own the land around New Bethlehem, the duo's ultimate destination and where Merrick's own father was born. Raphael, the guide Markham provides to them, is originally from New Bethlehem (also referred to by the locals as New Bedlam or just Bedlam). He is reluctant and angry to have to take them, but it appears that Markham "owns" him in a way, and Merrick and Clem are grateful for the guide. When they get to Bedlam, they are met with wonders they never expected (you'll note the other half of the title in this section).

On the road they are "introduced" to a series of stone statues called markayuq. The people in Bedlam revere them, and consider them as shrines to their faith. There is a salt ring around the woods that border the small town, and no one but the priest (who turns out to be Raphael) is allowed to cross. It is considered holy or sacred ground, and Merrick is told that it is protected by the people that live inside. They are marketed as gods, an ancient civilization, descendants of the Inca. Every now and then they bring out a disabled child because it is not pure. The village of Bedlam is essentially a hospital village - everyone is disabled in some way. Only the pure can cross the salt border.

The markayuq take up a huge part of the second half of the story, and that is what made this book worth 5 stars. I'm not going to say any more about them because I don't want to spoil the surprise. I want you to read this book and discover everything for yourself. I started guessing things as I went along, and I was not usually right. It was heart-pounding, wonderfully written, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Do yourselves a favor. Go buy this book when it's released in August. Buy it and read it and don't write it off as simply an historical adventure. It's so much more. There is so much research put into it, a lot of Inca imagery and Quechua language, but the fantasy element in the second half is super fun to read. I loved it. I wasn't expecting the first half, but I absolutely was not prepared for the second.

Parts of this book were brilliant and other parts were a real slog but the world that Natasha Pulley has created is purely magic All. Well worth a read but with reservations.

I hugely enjoyed this book, which has a flavour of Jules Verne - at each step the adventurer makes discoveries that change his definition of reality.

In the 1800's, an injured agent of the East India Company is called back into action to locate and bring home seedlings from the trees in Peru that produce quinine, the cure for malaria. As the younger brother of a falling down and somewhat haunted estate, he has little choice but to go along with a small company.

Politics, greed, love and religion create shifting alliances as the adventurers travel through Peru. Reminding me at times of Michelle Paver's arctic horror story, Dark Matter, beauty and paranoia intertwine. Sudden action punctuates descriptive travel sequences, and the reader can never be sure what will happen next. I forced myself to slow down enough to stretch out the reading of Bedlam Stacks across 5 days.

While there are several sequences inserted into The Bedlam Stacks to entertain readers of Pulley's first novel, The Watchmaker of Filagree Street, this book completely stands on its own as a marvelous invention featuring interesting, weighty characters and moral questions. Highly recommend.

Merrick Tremayne, a former East India company man, travels to Peru in search of quinine. There he discovers a lot about himself, and meets some interesting characters.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters are strange and endearing, and the story makes you want to visit old Peru.

I absolutely adored this novel. It is pure magic! Pulley's Watchmaker of Filigree Street was equally lovely, but this newest selection was different. It was more human, more wrought with the sadness that occurs when humans are injured and without a certain amount of agency. Pulley is truly an artist both in her world building and in her representation of historical aspects of the time period.

4 stars

Merrick Tremayne is stuck at home with his brother, Charles, after injuring his leg in China while working for the East India Company. Charles doesn’t like Merrick at all and after some strange happenings offers Merrick the choice of an insane asylum or a local parsonage. (Too funny to be believed!)

Merrick is instead offered the position on a trek to Peru to obtain quinine cutting to start a new plantation elsewhere. It seems the East India Company is tired of paying the exorbitant prices the Peruvian government wants for their quinine. It seems there is a serious outbreak of malaria in India.

With his good friend and former shipmate, Clem, they make the long trip to Peru. There they meet Raphael who is from the village where Merrick’s father was born, New Bethlehem.

The book then becomes more about Merrick and Raphael.

The descriptions of the Peruvian countryside were wonderful and the weather – ugh!

While I enjoyed the book on the whole, I was disappointed that I didn’t find out why Charles and his mother so disliked Merrick. And we find out that his father was in Bedlam. What’s that about? I wanted more information about that too. Perhaps I like my stories tidied up too neatly; too neatly packaged.

I’d like to thank Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA for forwarding me a copy of this wonderful book to read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Merrick has worked for the East India Company in the Far East, but has been injured and has returned home to Cornwall, where he is living unhappily with his brother Charles on their impoverished estate. Merrick experiences strange things happening (tree branches explode, a statue moves on its own) and Charles has given Merrick the choice of either being committed to an asylum or (hilariously, when you think about it) working as a parson in Truro. Fortunately the East India office (the company having been nationalized) has a mission for him, notwithstanding his crippled leg.

So Merrick sets off for Peru with his friend Clem (formerly his senior officer in the navy, and a somewhat changeable personality as depicted in the text) to obtain cuttings of trees from which quinine can be extracted. Malaria is rife in India and the government wants its own source of quinine so it won't have to pay the high prices demanded by Peru. Merrick is valuable because he is a gardener and can look after the cuttings and also because his grandfather and father had links to the particular area of Peru where the trees are thought to grow. Harry, the grandfather, discovered a settlement called New Bethlehem and visited it regularly and Jack, the father, was even born there.

I found the opening chapters a bit slow, but once the protagonists got to Peru things picked up and I was drawn right in. The writing is beautiful throughout and I was immersed in the world of the Bedlam Stacks. The relationship between Merrick and Raphael was the core of the book and every scene where they interacted was spell-binding. Merrick was a great character; sensitive and self-deprecating, but also capable of dubious and/or terrible acts in the service of his employer and government. Clem was, in contrast, much less capable of appreciating local sensibilities and perspectives and totally rooted in a British Empire understanding of the world. At the half-way point, I was ready to give this book 5 stars; I was loving the gradual unfolding of bits of the mystery by Raphael and fascinated by Merrick's grappling with the languages used by Raphael and what his facility in them meant.

However, the ending disappointed me - the parts of the story set in the forbidden woods were both too mundane and far too magical for me. I was left with many questions about how things worked exactly, which it would be too spoilerish to go into here. I also had questions about Merrick's family: why did his mother and brother dislike him? What happened to his mother in the end? I wanted to know more about his father's time in Bedlam too.

However, I would highly recommend this book, both for the writing and for the characters. I read it in a day and plan to read it again to ponder some of my questions.

In 1859, ex-smuggler Merrick Tremain lies in his sprawling estate in Cornwall recovering from a serious injury. Strange things begin to happen, he sees trees explode and statues begin to move, his brother insists Merrick is losing his mind. Eager to get away from home Merrick excepts a job from the East India Company, where he will travel to the Amazon to obtain quinine. Merrick knows this is an insane idea, he can barely walk, but he needs to get away and prove that he is not going mad. In a tiny town in the Amazon things get even worse. There is a line in the sand made of salt and anyone who crosses it is killed by something living in the forest. Merrick begins to wonder if he truly is losing his mind but desperate to prove there is something else going on, he sets out to discover what happened to the expeditions that came before him and is particularly intrigued by the young priest Raphael who claims to have known Merrick’s grandfather in the same tiny Amazonian town decades before.

Merrick Tremayne has been stuck in his brother's home after a smuggling of goods on behalf of the East India Company went wrong, his leg now permanently crippled. In order to escape a life of drudgery and the growing fear of others that he may have gone mad, Merrick sets off to Peru to find quinine - one of the main ingredients in treating malaria - on behalf of the new India Office, despite several unsuccessful expedition Aries before him. Ending up in the Andean village of New Bethlehem where his father had been born, Merrick becomes enshrouded by local myths and magics, and develops a friendship-like relationship with the young priest Raphaels whose own history and life are mysteries.

I did not expect to like this book as much as I ultimately did. The work is beautifully written and everything is stunningly described, but I'm not usually one for more adventure-type stories that seem like they border the edge of imperialism. However, I thoroughly enjoyed The Bedlam Stacks and found it compellingly at that edge of realism and fantasy. The characters were carefully wrought; the setting mystical and enthralling; and the pace steady but not slow. A complex and imaginative look at the relationship between mysticism and indigenous populations and modernity and how those all intertwine, it is a masterful piece and a much recommended read (although the pace and the more ambiguous ending may not be for everyone!).

Thanks to the publisher for an advance digital copy in exchange for a fair review!