*Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own*

I wanted so badly to love this book. Unfortunately, I think a few things missed the mark here. There's a few main characters and they are listed at the beginning of the book because it's a lot to keep track of. I'll have to admit that I'd like to do a good job with a synopsis, but I have a hard time really nailing down what the overarching storyline actually was. From a 30,000 foot view, there's a fog that comes in and with it comes a demonic presence. This presence brings all the main characters together to some degree and opens up quite a few storylines that have a supernatural theme. From the synopsis, I thought this was going to have a better LGBTQ relationship storyline, but there wasn't much. I think Jess Faraday is an excellent writer in the sense that her words and descriptions are really great. However, I think this book could have been better organized from an overall story standpoint. There definitely could have been a lot more character building, but most was very superficial.

Ultimately, I had a hard time getting through the book and will likely not read again.

Weird read. It never seemed to find it's feet for me and I struggled to finish the book. Not sure why it was weird for me but I never felt immersed or engaged in the story.

In an alternate nineteenth-century London, a young nurse is hurrying home with a strange potion hidden in her valise. A group of boys lurks on a corner, looking for a likely mark. A doctor fights against the growing monster buried within him. A young scientist, expelled from college, is working on scintillam vitae, the spark of life deep in his laboratory, while another, hired by the mysterious Consortium House, is searching for a test subject for his own occult studies. His last subject, a mad woman escaped into the streets of London, vanishing into the fog. The fog which, even now, has a greenish cast as something — something large, long-limbed, and angry — stalks along the dark and narrow streets.

What is the Consortium House? Why are they trying to buy Abby and Gideon’s free clinic where the two of them work as nurse and doctor? Who stole Nathaniel’s notes on the scintiliam vitae? Was it Jin, his mysterious lover who dresses as a woman? Was it his sister’s foolish friend, Bernadette — the same one he and and his sister have both taken as a lover? And who is the Fiend after? Who is it protecting, who does it want? And why can only a handful of people hear the lonely, plaintive calls of the dog — a dog no one has seen, a dog no one can find?

Somehow, all of these people will be drawn together to find the answers, and to find them quickly. For some it will lead to rapture, for others, ruination.

Challenge Month 2021I chose this book for the Under the Rainbow Week in our Reading Challenge Month because of the premise — this dark and gothic moment in London where the infamous Jack the Ripper would soon begin his murder spree, a London where monsters both occult and mundane could lurk in every alley. And because it has genderqueer characters who don’t confirm to social norms, like Jin — aka Dr. Wylie — who prefers to dress as a woman, or Clyde, an adolescent who changes their outward gender depending on what’s needed — a boy when running the streets, a girl when slipping into posh houses for stealing. The story has lesbian women, bisexual women, as well as gay and bisexual men, all drawn together into a found family.

Unfortunately, the ideas promised by this book were buried beneath the execution. The story shifts between the points of view of nine characters … and yet, they all felt interchangeable, so instead of nine versions of one story, it felt like one character with nine names telling a clumsy, disjointed story. It’s as if one character picked up tonally and personality-wise where the last one left off. It makes for very tiring and frustrating moments where one character will instantly know the gender, the sexual preference, and/or the relationship status of another person within moments of meeting them. Characters fall in love with a handshake before words are even spoken, and trust implicitly someone they have no reason to trust. The plot is full of overly contrived plotting with every character converging at the same place at the same time.

The ending, where the monster is revealed and the cabal uncovered, feels lackluster and forced, with characters explaining for the reader what happened rather than the story itself letting the reader witness or experience the events. Then we’re told the bad guys are facing trial and punishment in the epilogue, as if it’s of no concern to the readers. And to be honest, that’s fine, because I felt zero investment in the characters at that point.

There was a moment in the very beginning where it felt like the small spark of an idea would grow into something, but it died quickly. There was a brief sentence where all of the characters knowing what every other character knew was almost given an in-world reason, but that, too, fizzled out into nothing. The writing is serviceable, but the world building is shallow and the characterization felt flat and lifeless. I suggest passing on this book.

‘The Fiend in the Fog’ is a wonderfully atmospheric story set in Victorian England. When a noxious fog envelops certain parts of the city there’s talk of demons. Abby and Gideon’s clinic begins to see patients affected by the mysterious goings-on. Meg and her brother Nat live privileged lives, but are drawn into the mystery, thought their own particular interests. What is going on in a nondescript building in the East End? What are they studying there – and will it have implications for the group of individuals, brought together by the fog and what lies beneath it?

The story was compelling from the very start, with a fascinating mystery and interesting characters. I loved the historical setting of 1885 London. The wonderfully descriptive writing pulled me right into the heart of the story, and I could just imagine the dirty buildings and awful stench of the city at that time. I won’t give anything away about what exactly they were looking into, or why they were all involved, but it was brilliantly done. I would love to see more from this group of characters, as their stories could lead off into so many directions.

I was given this ARC for review.

An excellent plot that starts off a bit slow, but soon develops into a proper Victorian melodrama, replete with London smog, old spooky buildings and young gangs. Cracking pace which adds intrigue, but also makes it a a little difficult to keep track of everyone as many of the characters are a bit similar and only lightly sketched out. The names at the top of the section didn’t help much. I mixed some of the people up and had to keep checking who was who, especially the women. Enjoyable read though.

Even 2 Stars. I just couldn't get into this one. I like the premise - there's an almost preternatural serial killer who comes out of an odd green colored fog in late 19th century London. You have a quirky band of very queer characters who have to solve the mystery lest one of them be next. That's an amazing idea, and I think I would have loved this way more if not for a couple of things that just made the whole thing feel disjointed and rushed.

I don't mind reading multiple POV's, but this story had around six or seven people narrating the thing. On top of that, they are all from different areas and come from different perspectives, so it doesn't feel like they are telling the same story. This may be intentional, to convey a sense of chaos, but it made it really hard for me to latch on to characters and actually make me care for what happens to them. And because of that, you have a throuple that was seemingly revealed at the end of the story. I wanted to know how it happened, not 'I guess we're a thing, now.' Same thing with Abigail - she notices the pretty Meg, but almost no time is given to developing any kind of relationship between the two. Then the epilogue shows that they are now a couple. I was like, wait, what? And ended up re-reading the last like 50 pages to try to figure out where that came from. Almost no hint, beyond both women thinking the other is hot. Again, I felt almost no attachment to any one of these characters, but I liked some of them. And their stories just felt slapped together.

I am not fond of giving two star or lower reviews, but this one just didn't do it for me. I felt almost no attachment to the characters or the story, and thought the whole thing was just a bit of a janky mess.

*I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

This was a fun read. To be honest, it was nothing like I expected. But that can be fun sometimes!

The Fiend in the Fog follows two groups of people. Abigail and Gideon are betrothed and together run a free clinic. By day Gideon is a doctor, but by night he is something else. That is, unless Abigail can continue to procure a strange elixir that postpones the transformation. Nat Eisenstadt is an alchemist and academic attempting to publish his research after an expulsion from University. He has a relationship with Dr. Jin Wylie (who apparently has a *snatched* waist) that we do not know many details of. Nat's sister, Meg, is a budding suffragette interested in many social causes. How are all of these people connected when they follow drastically different paths in life?

I enjoyed the queerness of this book the most. While there were occasionally some raised eyebrows, the gay individuals (of which there are a surprising number!) are largely left to their own devices. There is a fun smattering of individuals of different ages, classes, abilities, and educations. The part that fell short for me was the mystery aspect. I thought it was a bit too obvious, in my opinion. I liked the monster element though! Still a quick, entertaining read.

**I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

1885 London. A mixture of characters ranging from the middle classe life of the Eisenstadts, to the free clinic of Abigail Gordon, nurse and Dr Gideon Spencer. But who and what are The Consortium. Everyone seems to have their secrets, does that include the 'Scrappy Street Kids'. What is in the fog that surrounds them, what does it want of them if anything.
The story is told from multiple points of views.
An entertaining paranormal story, with its cast of varied characters, some more likeable than others.
An ARC was provid

I had never heard of this author, but the blurb sounded good. I started reading, and I was a little thrown when there was a glossary at the front of the book of characters and realizing it takes place in the past (not my favorite). The many characters didn’t really endear me as I don’t like many characters to keep track of, but it really wasn’t a problem even if I didn’t really like that. I did love the atmospheric descriptions that made me feel like I was there no matter which character’s POV we were in at the moment. This book was well-written, the plot creepy (in a good way), and the characters were interesting, but it really wasn’t for me (though it was pretty good) but I can see where others might really enjoy it; I’m just not into books that take place in the past. Recommend.

I guess this book was just not for me. It was difficult for me to get through. I couldn't connect with the story or characters, There was just way too many main characters. However, I would recommend as others might find the connection. 3 stars.

I received an ARC copy from the publisher Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I’m afraid I really struggled reading The Fiend in the Fog by Jess Faraday. I was hoping it would be a much better story than it turned out to be.

The cover of the book caught my attention. It is a very good cover. The blurb sounded interesting as well. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, and the idea of a paranormal tale set in the East End of London in the 1880’s encouraged me to try this novel. The setting is probably one of the best things about the book. It is a great place to put a paranormal tale since this part of London during the late 1800’s already has a scary and eerie reputation due to the horrible pollution that ravaged the place, the extreme poverty of the inhabitants, and of course, Jack the Ripper using some of these streets as his hunting grounds. The author did a good job of describing this area as well as the buildings the story takes place in. These descriptions lets the reader see the fog rolling through the streets, smell the stink of the river mud and the sulfur fumes in the fog, and feel the dank chill of the air. These descriptions were the best part of the book for me.

The problems I have with this book are mainly with the characters. First of all, there are twelve of them. They are listed at the beginning of the book as the heroes of the tale, and then they all seem take turns at being the main character. The story is told in third person, through the eyes of almost all of these people. The author head hopped. Every chapter was seen through a different person, and sometimes the change happened multiple times in a chapter. Because of the head hopping and the sheer number of (main) characters, none of them really had a chance at being developed. They were all surface characters. I believe some of them were supposed to be satirical, but unfortunately, they ended up looking cartoonish. I didn’t connect with any of them, and truthfully, I had trouble figuring out who the real main character was. I’m still not sure I chose correctly.
I’m giving this book a 2.5 star rating. I really can’t recommend this book. However, the author has several other books that have good reviews. This novel is hopefully just a glitch, and I will look for other books from her in the future.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strikes Books for an honest review.