This is a story about a young woman whose mother lives in her neck. That’s actually how the author herself pithily described the book in her afterword. But, obviously, there’s more to the story than that. The thing is, though, not that much more. In fact, it probably would have made a much more potent short story or a novella. On the novel canvas, it seems somewhat stretched out quite thin. The young woman does indeed have her mother with her at all times as it were in a most unusual fashion of a voice emanating from a childhood collarbone injury, resulting in, quite literally insults added to injury. To deal with both the young woman frequently resorts to self mutilation.There isn’t much she can do otherwise, for these is a proper gothic novel, wherein the ladies are delicate and fairly useless and are treated as such. At 28, Iseult is nearly a spinster, considered too odd by many and combined with natural pickiness, she has no one in her life but a distant, emotionally abusive father and a kindhearted servant. The catalyst for the novel comes when a plausible suitor is finally found, a lovely young man with silver skin. Yes, silver skin, because, you know, disembodied voices of long dead mothers aren’t enough. So the wedding plans are on the way, the drama gets heightened as changes are wont to do and once the family secrets start getting revealed, it’s curtains. Morbid ending as expected. Interesting novel, but didn’t quite work for me. Took a while to get into, the first chapter is actually fairly offputting in the same way incessant disembodied voices can be. The dead mother is no delight, but then again neither is Isuelt herself and that’s much more significant, because the entire novel rests on her delicate lady shoulders. In fact, the only genuinely likeable character is the silver skinned suitor. The story seemed quite thin somehow, not enough meat, mostly bones…then again that’s pretty appropriate for a gothic genre. Some things worked well, the atmosphere held up nicely and the father was as evil and horrid as an evil horrid father figure can be. The writing was quite good. The pacing, once you get used to the inner dialogues, sped along nicely. And the ending was very effective. So something of a mixed bag. Fans of gothic fiction should get some enjoyment out of this one. It was a very quick read for the page count, but didn’t quite engage. Some readers, certainly, should find this one more suitable than others. Thanks Netgalley.

In the Victorian era, an unmarried woman is a spinster and a drain on her family. Iseult Wince’s father is determined not to let his daughter languish at home with him so he goes on a search for a potential husband. Iseult is ……unusual, a plain, introverted woman believes her mother, who died in childbirth, lives on in the scar on her neck. She manages to scare off every suitor but one, an equally odd man whose own experiments have turned his skin silver. He’s desperate enough to want to make Iseult his wife, but the bride’s “mother” has something to say about that, and things become increasingly violent and bizarre in this dark and disturbing Gothic