I have been a fan of Ann-Marie MacDonald for a long time. "Fayne," her latest novel, does not disappoint. It is a long novel but the story is compelling enough that it is difficult to put down. I would highly recommend this novel due to its rich writing style, magnificent character development and compelling story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fayne
Thank you NetGalley and Ann-Marie MacDonald for this amazing read.
What a wonderful story, the imagination it takes to write a novel at this level. This book is so full of description and character, I loved it! I felt like I was right there with the characters, seeing and feeling what they were.
The author tells of a young girl, Charlotte who is growing up at Fayne, being raised by her father. She was predeceased by her mother and older brother. Charlotte has the gift of learning and although girls were not allowed tutors during this time in history, her father allowed it. Charlotte is leading a very sheltered life due to a "condition ". As she learns, she wants more and more to be allowed to attend University, she has finally convinced her father, but her condition must first be assessed
This is a very long novel, but worth the read, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it but has I got into the book I couldn't put it down. For me it required my full attention. There are so many twists and turns and surprises throughout
This is a first I've read of this author, will absolutely read her works again

4.5 stars

I have strong memories of reading Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees and As The Crow Flies. So I was excited for the opportunity to read Fayne, her first new novel in eight years. The 700+-page epic is set in Victorian-era Scotland and jumps back and forth through time in that era. I feel like this book defies categorization. It's unlike anything I have read in a long time. It's a winding story with unexpected twists and turns and a subtle touch of magic (maybe gothic?). It's also deliciously and quietly queer - which was a nice surprise.

The book has an intensely strong sense of place - the Fayne estate in particular is its own character. The female characters in particular are all, in their own way, forces of nature. The story opens delightfully from Charlotte's point of view, focusing on her beautiful relationship with her father. It soon shifts between Charlotte (first person) and almost every secondary character (close third person) at some point - to a sometimes powerful but sometimes unpredictable and confusing effect.

While the gender and class issues feature the most prominently, some readers would probably benefit from some content warnings. It's hard to do without spoiling but I will say the book depicts pregnancy and child loss, as well as sexism, trans/homophobia and the harsh consequences of medical understanding and procedures that are certainly in line with what you might expect in that era.

The serpentine (salamandrine?) story includes clever callbacks, echoes and interconnected storylines. It was a very enjoyable read overall, if not a touch too long. While the language was beautiful, there were also times when it was a bit mundane and felt like it could use a trim. But, I'm certainly glad I read it and I suspect it will be critically acclaimed. I understand that the audiobook will be recorded by the author (an actor and former broadcaster) and I think it would be a great tale to re-read with my ears one day soon.

Thank you Penguin Random House for this arc. It's a long book that wasn't formatted for easy reading. I struggled to stay connected after about 100 pages. Interesting story forsure but long.

No one writes like Ann-Marie MacDonald, and no one characterizes like her either. This book is no exception, but the storyline is quite different from her usual format. The book is set in Scotland in the late 19th century, and Ms. MacDonald takes on topics that were not spoken of during that time. This is very definitely an LGBTAQ book and it is a fantasy soaked in history as it runs through generations. Time is elastic in this book, and Ms. MacDonald jumps from point-of-view to point-of-view and through different timeframes over and over. During the course of this story The characters are full of life and pathos. Even the mysticism is realistic. The main character is young Charlotte Bell who, when we meet her, she is living in a huge castle with her father and an assortment of servants and village folk. Charlotte has been kept isolated because of a condition that is not explained to us. I was given this book to read and review by Net Galley, and I have to admit that the length of it was a bit daunting, even for me. It managed to keep me enthralled, and I read with bated breath as young Charlotte discovers her history and we experience with her all the trials and tribulations as her father and mother struggle with what to do about Charlotte. She is an extremely intelligent young girl with a photographic memory. Not much gets past Charlotte except her well-veiled history. This is a coming-of-age story of sorts with magic and mysticism liberally sprinkled throughout. Fans of Ann-Marie MacDonald will gobble this up. It's a book to lose yourself in.

I have never read this author before. But man oh man can she write!!! This book was perfection. it sucked me in from chapter 2 and I couldn't put it down. I consumed all 700 pages of it. I didn't feed the children, or myself. Didn't pay attention to the cat, I couldn't do anything but read this book.

It was incredible, the imagery was absolute perfection. 10/10 would recommend.

Given the length of this book, I was concerned about my ability to enjoy it as I often lose interest in books over 400 pages. This concern was quickly forgotten as I was increasingly reminded of the superb quality of Anne-Marie MacDonald's writing. Fayne was such a great experience in storytelling and was enjoyable from beginning to end.

The story of Fayne revolves around Charlotte Bell as she grows up, and the DC of Fayne, a British estate that lies on the border of England and Scotland. Charlotte is a unique child with a photographic memory and a mysterious "Condition" who nevertheless leads a full and active life until her childhood's end. Through puberty and by peeling away the layers of her family's secrets, Charlotte discovers herself and her specific and wonderous place in the world.

I enjoyed spending time alongside Charlotte throughout her childhood. Her pre-pubescent characterization is strong, with a voice unlike many I've read in fiction before. It's free, and freeing. As the tale moves on, however, and Charlotte steps away from her family's lonely estate and into the city, her characterization is tempered by the new characters around her. This is perhaps done for effect: as one's childhood perspective on life shifts with exposure to new people and new ideas. I have to admit, however, that through lengthy forays into backstory and flashback, I missed the grounding that this main character gave the story.

Nevertheless, Fayne is an interesting and important story in a time where difference is so often vilified. I found it refreshing, up until the point where that theme of celebration of oneself in difference drops off. Towards the end of the tale, the theme changes drastically and with whiplash speed, cramming in so many morals of the story that the initial effect, that of adding a positive voice to counter a cacophony of hate, is lost.

This is a long book, but it is so worth it. I am currently only able to read for about 30 minutes at bed time so this has taken some time. MacDonald deftly weaves themes of gender, sexuality with magic and moors. As someone born in Scotland I enjoyed the idea that Fayne was neither Scotland nor England, and the descriptions of Old town and new town in Edinburgh as well as various landmarks were engaging.
Highly recommend.

In the late nineteenth century, twelve-year-old Charlotte is the only daughter of the widower Lord Henry Bell, seventeenth baron of the DC de Fayne, a disputed country between England and Scotland. She has spent her whole childhood isolated in Fayne, on its moor, due to a mysterious Condition that prevented her from going out into the world or letting the world in, lest she fall sick and die (as people tell her). But one day her father says he will cure her of her Condition and allow her to go out in society and – her greatest dream – go to the medical school in Edinburgh. At the same time we get the tale, a decade before, of her mother and what happened to her.

This was a phenomenal read. The present tale of Charlotte blended masterfully with Marie’s past, slowly unspooling mysteries one by one in ways that we could guess at their resolution, and yet still be surprised when the characters reached the same conclusions we had. The cast of characters was varied and one could easily get attached to every single one of them, from the lively Gwen to the despicable Clarissa. The touches of magic inserted here and there could have been annoying in another novel, could have felt a bit “deus ex machina,” yet here they felt 100% organic. Charlotte’s story wouldn’t have been complete without them.

All in all, I think this wonderful coming-of-age and finding one’s identity tale will probably be the best book I’ve read in 2022.

Thank you Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the advanced copy of Fayne. It just wasn't for me. I wanted to love it, but I found the beginning so difficult to get through there was no way I'd make it through all 600 pages. Great premise, it's not for me right now. I hope to pick it up at a later time.

Fayne is the Scottish estate of the 17th Baron of Fayne, Sir Henry Bell, a spectacular moorish landscape in northern Scotland. The period is mid Victorian, and industrialization and the commitment of the educated classes to the view that ‘science is progress’ provide the social and ideological contexts. When the story opens, the widowed and reclusive Sir Henry lives there with the customary half dozen servants, most notably Knox, his childhood nurse and now chief caregiver to his ten year old daughter, the intrepid Honourable Miss Charlotte Bell.

Charlotte is highly intelligent and fiercely logical, thanks to her unconventional upbringing. Her beloved father is nocturnal: he spends the night hours engaged in his avocation, a bizarre branch of the ornithology that enraptured Victorians in a time when little divided the amateur and the professional in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. He collects random bird parts from museums and carefully puts together fantastical new species, assisted at times by his reverent daughter. He tutors her from his own library of classics in every field and clearly respects and nourishes her intelligence, encouraging her to think of studying medicine at Edinburgh University, which did not permit medical training for women at that time. This, in turn, becomes the child’s driving objective. Though it is a solitary existence for Charlotte, whose father sleeps during most of her waking hours, she is free to do as she wishes with her time, spent studying or roaming the moors, and is cherished by her father and Knox. She is confident, outspoken , and entirely self possessed, more a small adult than a child.

Charlotte’s early childhood is strange in other ways as well. Although given far more freedom than what is considered ‘proper’ in upper and middle class Victorian households, she is neither permitted access to the outside world, nor are outsiders permitted entry to Fayne. The mysterious ‘condition’ that makes her imposed isolation necessary is revealed very gradually, as we slowly learn that Fayne and all who are attached to it, are shadowed by an all too common Victorian era tragedy. Her beautiful young Irish American mother, who saved the declining family fortunes through another common process—by bringing her own father’s millions earned ‘in trade’ into the union in exchange for a title—died giving birth to Charlotte. The toddler 18th Baron of Fayne, her brother Charles, perished of ‘fever’ shortly afterwards. Their glorious portrait, painted from a photograph taken shortly before Charlotte’s birth, hangs in the main hall, constantly reminding Charlotte that she caused her mother’s death and ‘stole her’ from her brother’s remaining days. Charles haunts the little girl’s sleep. She is convinced that he hates her.

Ensconced at Bell House, the family’s city estate, meanwhile, also isolated but exerting much influence on Charlotte’s upbringing and her younger brother’s destiny, is Sir Henry’s only remaining sibling, Lady Clarissa. She is fiercely obsessive, and unrepentantly manipulative, ever determined that her brother not die without a male heir now that Charles, whom she adored, has been lost. She and Charlotte only meet seven years after Charles’ passing and she is openly harsh and mean with her niece. Yet it is their relationship above all others that both makes and breaks Charlotte.

This is a book of considerable heft, in its roughly 600 pages, but it kept me reading well into the night. It works on so many levels: the author wryly skewers Victorian class and gender relations, upper class pretensions and protocols, in a witty and often humorous fashion, the book itself a Victorian conventions and even of Victorian novels in its narrative style. Her research into Victorian science, medicine, and sexual ideologies is evident. But it is also a complicated mystery whose many layers are slowly unveiled. There are heroes and villains, but, as in real life, none of these is ever fully one or the other. There is much tragedy, but, at least for Charlottes, there is ultimately self-realization and redemption.

Where do I start? Fayne is the most incredibly interesting and complex book that I’ve read in a long time. Having read all of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s other books I was definitely not going to miss this one! I was unprepared for the scope of the book and the intricate facts that went into it. MacDonald has outdone herself ……I LOVED THIS BOOK.
Fayne is the Scottish/English country seat for Lord Henry Bell, who also has a home in Edinburgh. The book flips back and forth from the time Lord Bell was single and then on to his marriage and his life with his wife. Charlotte is his daughter and when the book opens we learn that Bell is a widow and Charlotte and a few servants live with him at Fayne. Charlotte has had no exposure to the outside world as she has had a “Condition” since infancy. We are lead to believe it has to do with germs or something similar. Charlotte is a bright, young thing and aspires to be a physician but that probably won’t happen as she’s a female in the 1870’s; totally frowned upon. Enter a tutor, hired by her father to assuage her curiosity for science and physics. As she matures, her Aunt Clarissa ( her father’s sister) decides it’s time she learns “women’s” interests in sewing, dancing, etiquette. Off to Edinburgh she goes to spend time with her Aunt. There is an underlying story in all of this and I won’t say more as it will spoil the entire book for you, the reader!
It’s enough to say, Fayne will hold you captive. You’ll not be able to put it down; what comes next can be an unexpected turn.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for my ARC.
And to Ann-Marie MacDonald, a huge thank you for the most amazing and excellent read!

Fayne is a sweeping, beautiful epic about Charlotte, the sheltered daughter of the Seventeeth Baron, the mysterious rumblings around her birth, and the secrets which have been kept from her. Charlotte is bright and innocent, an inquisitive and focused girl on the cusp of puberty. Alternating with her girlhood are the letters her mother wrote to her best friend, during her courtship and early marriage. Magical realism also abounds in the book,

I liked the tone and language, I think there were a few superfluous parts which didn't add to the story, such as the magical realism. I also found the ending rushed, which wasn't great in a 700 page book. Overall, however, MacDonald is tender and sensitive, and this is quite an impressive read.

I found this book to be very intriguing. Definitely not what I was expecting when I started the book.

The novel starts off like a novel written in Jane Austen's time. The narrator is a young girl just entering puberty. She lives on a remote estate that is on the border between Scotland and England in the 1800s. She is isolated because she has a Condition which requires her to stay away from strangers. Charlotte is a very bright girl, soaking up information, and eventually, her father (a widower) hires a tutor, which opens a whole new world to her.

The book goes back and forth between Charlotte's life and that of her mother who died shortly after Charlotte was born. Charlotte's older brother also died around the same time. Through the narrator involving Marie, we learn of her marriage to Frank and her subsequent miscarriages until Charles was born.

As the book progresses, we are drawn deeper and deeper into Charlotte's world on the moor, her mother's life, and her father's secrets, and it uncovers a lot of secrets!

A very interesting read, and one that I did not expect to end the way it did.

A rare combination of beautiful, literary writing and a truly engrossing story. I loved the character Charlotte, the strong sense of place, and the way the novel investigates gender. There is so much to this story, I will need to purchase a hard copy once it becomes available and read it again.

What a wild ride!

Looking back I should have seen some if the twists and turns but I struggled with the vocabulary, language, class, societal and cultural barriers. I learned so much and could have expanded that knowledge by taking the time to research specific terms and phrases I that stumbled over every few pages. The story tugged at me when I put the book down. Typically I would have abandoned a story with so many barriers.

I grew to love the characters and became part of the family - a servant girl, or a field hand. I lived and grieved and raged with them. I became entwined in their lives as they were entwined with one another.

I love books that focus on all of life, not just one aspect of life. Life isn't neat and tidy. This story attests to that and normalizes the drama that people / families create and navigate.

The author artfully handles political and social issues, as relevant today as in the story, maybe even more so.

I will recommend this book to others and will likely purchase a hard copy when it becomes available.

It’s magical. An enormous read, both physically and literally. The characters are well developed. The storyline just keeps on giving. I see this as my book club selection next summer. Is it award worthy? Yes! Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the advance copy.

Maddeningly good and gothic and steeped in the brew of Brontë and will definitely hold those enamoured by Emma Donoghue tight! Imaginatively evocative. MacDonald serves up language so that you read words you thought you knew before but understand better now. With thanks to @penguincanada for the advanced copy 🥰📕

Wow. This book was incredible. Thank you to Net Galley for the Advanced copy. I had no idea what to expect with this novel. I had never read Ann-Marie MacDonald before. I am a huge fan now. This book is truly a masterpiece. The writing was beautiful as were the themes and how everything ended. IT took me a few chapters to get into the book as I had to adjust to the English being used. But once I had a glimpse of what was going on, I could not wait to see how the plot would unfold.

The book is about Charlotte Bell and her family. There are many twists and turns and surprises. The characters are fantastical and so well developed. I loved every minute of reading this book. Please read this. Please.

I am sad that it is over.