The book opens with a quote by Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, a.k.a. Paracelsus: “I am different. Let this not upset you.” And having no insight at the beginning of the book, I come back at the end to fully understand this statement. Full circle is what they call coming back to the origin, and here I am, back where I started but with brighter eyes, a fuller heart and a more open mind. It’s as if I gained a lifetime of experiences throughout this 700+ pages book, and thereby I’m forever grateful.

We are welcomed to the world of Fayne, an estate owned by Lord Henry Bell of the DC de Fayne, which is adjacent to a mysterious moor – the Fen – in the late 19th century. Following his daughter, The Honourable Charlotte Bell, on her treacherous journey to find her true identity. Separated into seven parts, we learn how Charlotte came to be with the help of different perspectives of family, friends and servants.

Even though this book is set in the late 19th century, it is more than relevant in its core to this date, as it embraces differences as something to be cherished rather than despised.

I had a hard time at first finding my way around this book, but I didn’t give up, and I am glad I didn’t because even though I had expected something else, I am happy that this book led me on a completely different path. It was more than worth it.

It was an absolutely genius whirlwind of emotions. I was in awe, in shock, in love, and I will be enriched for a very long time. Every character had a richness to them, a multitude of facets that made me, at moments, want to embrace them and, other times, yell at them. I basically became a member of the Fayne family.

So let this book not upset you, for it is different…

I loved this book.

Yes it was long, yes it was predictable at times, yes it was fantastical….

But mostly it was wonderful, magical, atmospheric and beautifully written. It was full of yearning and emotion. I was amazed at the cruelty and the kindness exhibited within.

It took a few pages to grab me but when it did, I couldn’t get enough.

I am recommending it to all my reader friends!

Thank you to NetGalley, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Penguin Random House Canada for the advanced copy to read and review.

In this one of a kind story, with spot on atmosphere, a dual timeline, and characters you love and hate at the drop of the hat, get ready to enter the moorlands of Fayne

Charlotte has grown up in isolation on her family estate with her father under the impression she is being kept from the world due to a condition. Charlotte has grown up with the knowledge her older brother died young and her mother died in childbirth. Charlotte has always had a thirst for knowledge, but when her determination steers her in the direction of what happened all those years ago to the other half of her family, secrets and a web of lies begins to unravel.

This is my first Ann-Marie MacDonald, and I throughly enjoyed it. It was the perfect read for fall, and the atmosphere is this book was top notch. The way the past and present intertwine, and the twist and turns this story took kept me hooked and eager to continue.

3.5 Stars

I loved Ann-Marie MacDonald’s previous novels, particularly Fall on Your Knees and The Way the Crow Flies. This one didn’t wow me as much, though I’m willing to admit that this is my second consecutive 700+page book so I might be fatigued.

Charlotte Bell lives on the large estate known as Fayne on the English/Scottish border. Her childhood has been without friends her own age; she has been kept isolated by her father, Lord Henry, because she has a mysterious illness which she has been told leaves her “morbidly susceptible to germs.” Her mother died giving birth to Charlotte, and her older brother Charles, who would have been the heir to the estate and the title, died at the age of two. Charlotte loves the bogs and moors and spends a great deal of time with Byrn, an old hired man who teaches her about the fen. She also educates herself by reading through her father’s library, but for her twelfth birthday, her father gifts her a tutor.

The arrival of that tutor changes her life. She decides she wants to attend university, though that is not really an option for women in the late 19th century. Her father takes her to Edinburgh for an examination which she assumes is the first step towards admission, but it turns out to be entirely different from what she foresees. The treatment for her ailment is also something she never imagined. Thus begins the unravelling of deep and dark family secrets.

Charlotte is a very intelligent girl who knows “Latin, Logic, Rhetoric, and . . . a tolerable grasp of Greek,” but she is also naive; because she has been so sheltered, she misunderstands so much. For instance, when she visits an area in Edinburgh known for its fallen women, she “scanned the street for a fallen woman, but all were upright.” There are also topics which are never discussed with her, so she has little understanding of her body and sexuality. I did find myself at times wondering if such a perceptive and curious girl would not realize sooner what is really happening to her and around her.

The novel has dual time lines. Charlotte’s story is interspersed with that of her mother. Via flashbacks, we meet Lady Marie when she first meets Lord Henry who has been given strict instructions by his sister Clarissa to find a wife and produce an heir. Unfortunately, this approach results in some repetition: the same event is repeated, though from the perspective of a different character.

There are a lot of plot twists, so readers shouldn’t read too many reviews of the book beforehand; some reviewers tend to divulge events and thereby lessen their impact on readers. Some of the twists revolve around connections between characters which seem rather coincidental. For instance, the mothers of two characters are revealed to be characters previously featured in the book. Key discoveries are made so conveniently just in time.

Characters are developed in great detail and very realistically. As I continued to read, my feelings about characters changed, as more and more was revealed. A positive impression might not remain so and the same is true for characters who give a poor impression initially. For both Lord Henry and Lady Marie, in particular, I felt various emotions. Even for a villain, I could not but feel some sympathy because the reader is made privy to thoughts not openly expressed. Given the time period, women were not able pursue dreams, and a life lived in a secondary role may cause bitterness.

There are elements of magic realism which I didn’t appeal to me. Likewise, the philosophical musings at the end of the book seem superfluous. At 700+ pages, the book could use some trimming, and I don’t think the magic realism is needed to develop theme.

The book has a number of themes: role of women, gender and identity, and even humanity’s abuse of the earth. The novel, therefore, is very relevant, despite its setting. The main message for me is that we should accept and appreciate all of nature and nature’s creations. One man says, “’Nature doesnae deal in mistakes so much as differences.’” The bird that Charlotte and her father create from bits and pieces of other birds serves as a symbol of our unwillingness to accept differences. Lord Henry says, “’It is a chimera. . . . other birds would peck it to death’” and Charlotte feels “a pang of pathos at how the creature was innocent of its own monstrosity.”

There is a great deal in this book to analyze and applaud. Its examination of dualities alone is worthy of an essay. Unfortunately, the book just felt too long for me. As I stated at the beginning, I may have been suffering reader fatigue. I certainly recommend the book to those who have enjoyed Ann-Marie MacDonald’s previous novels.

A book that I found both beautiful and engaging. The main character, Charlotte Bell, will stick with me a long time.

Admittedly, the first three pages or so worried me, because I had to force myself to get through them. They consisted of a fairly static description of the moor and architecture of the Fayne estate on the border of England and Scotland. But as soon as I met Charlotte on the next page, I was hooked! I absolutely LOVE this character and MacDonald does such a wonderful job of creating a powerful, unique, vivid voice for 12-year-old Charlotte. I was immersed in Charlotte’s way of experiencing and thinking about her world — which is Fayne in the 1880s, its household, her father, and his books.

Because I loved Charlotte so much, I was a tad disappointed to switch to the point of view of Mae, her mother, later in the book. But Mae’s voice was distinct and skilfully done too. In the novel, there are lots of perspective changes, shifts between first and third person, and between past and present tense. But it’s never confusing. MacDonald is a confident writer, and takes the reader in hand as we gladly follow her through the treacherous moor.

Fayne — the moor and the house — is so well-evoked that it feels like another character in the story. To my mind, a rather creepy one, but I could also understand and appreciate Charlotte’s love for the place. To achieve both feelings at once in the reader is in itself a huge accomplishment.

The language of this book is beautiful and evocative — of both the time and the place. Some words are made up; some are archaic; the occasional one is dialect, Gaelic, or Doric Scots; some are simply adapted to suit MacDonald’s purpose. All are wonderful. (One of the adapted words I especially love is “a havoc of freshly fed children”.)

Because I read an eBook, I didn’t realize until I looked it up afterwards that this is a long book (700+ pages on paper). It didn’t feel long to me. It was entirely engrossing. I think this is in large part due to the many plot reveals and twists. It’s not a mystery, so it didn’t matter that I guessed some of them. They all added to the rich texture and tangled feeling of the story, as the characters themselves gradually learn more about the family secrets and lies — or dig themselves into deeper holes as they try to keep them hidden…

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the advance reader copy, in return for an honest review.

This was a great book, very well written with great characters. It was a bit different than what I normally read but it's good to read something different occasionally, I'd definitely recommend!

Special thanks to NetGalley and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: October 11, 2022
Charlotte Bell is the daughter of Lord Henry Bell, and as a result of an invisible yet deadly illness, she has been confined to the grounds of her family estate, Fayne. Torn between England and Scotland, the grounds sit betwixt the two, belonging to both countries and neither. Charlotte’s aunt, Clarissa, is determined that Henry marry, so that the legacy of the Bell name and the ownership of Fayne, can be secured, as Charlotte, being a female, cannot inherit property. Charlotte is desperate to travel to Edinburgh and study medicine, another dream denied her on the basis of sex, so instead, her father hires a tutor for her so that she may learn and study as if she were a boy. However, when the tutor uncovers something mysterious about Charlotte, and the Bell family, Henry decides to take matters into his own hands and take care of the problem, before Charlotte realizes that it exists.
Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian author and playwright, and has some very powerful novels under her belt (“The Way the Crow Flies” being a favourite) and “Fayne” is destined to become another literary masterpiece.
Beautifully written, “Fayne” covers intense subject matter, including intricate parent-child relationships, infant loss and infertility, sex (both of the physical kind and the identification of a physical gender-and its related stereotypes) and for a historical novel, it holds extreme relevance and importance. A beautifully atmospheric coming-of-age novel, “Fayne”’s pages are reminiscent of Eugenides’ “Middlesex”, and leaves just as much of an infallible mark.
The novel is long, divided into six parts, each narrated in the third person from the viewpoint of either Charlotte, or her mother, Mae. The first sections focus on Charlotte’s development on the grounds of Fayne, raised by a single father, believing that her mother died in childbirth. The middle portions have Mae taking over, where her struggles to procreate and produce an heir for Henry are forefront. For a historical novel, MacDonald still manages to include a few delicious twists, and the latter sections of the novel alternate between both Mae and Charlotte, once their surprises have been outed.
This was a slow burn for me, but each turn of the page provided a deeper view of MacDonald’s characters, and the heartbreaking struggles they faced, both as females in the late nineteenth century, and as Bell’s. “Fayne” setting was beautiful and lonely, as were its characters, and this was one of those novels I was glad to enjoy slowly.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ann-Marie MacDonald., and Penguin Random House Canada for my free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fayne is a whimsical and well-written book that took awhile for me to get into, which coupled with the fact that it was quite a long book made it a bit exhausting to read. I did like this book in totality as I could appreciate the purpose of the length, the language and the need to create the setting but was personally not in love with it. I do think, however, that this book is worthy of praise and would not be surprised to see it be well regarded in its genre.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Fayne will no doubt be a Book Club Selection and I would not be surprised if it was not nominated for some awards.

The author slowly draws you into the story of Charlotte Bell but once you are drawn in you wont want to put this book down.

The story is long but it did not seem long as I was so captivated by Charlotte and her "mysterious disease" and her father who is more than controlling .

I loved the letters from her Mother that were interwoven into the story.

This book is both magical and full of family secrets that will keep you turning those pages.

A must read.

I certainly will be buying a hard copy . This is one book I could read again which I seldom do.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada, Knopf Canada for a captivating read

I loved this sweeping late 19th century story of Charlotte Bell and Fayne - the estate in the moorlands on the border of England and Scotland that has been in her family for centuries. At the novel's beginning, Charlotte is about to turn 12 and has lived her life thus far in isolation on the estate with her father, Lord Henry Bell, presumably due to some mysterious "Condition" that she has. Charlotte's mother died in childbirth and her older brother who was the heir to the estate died shortly after at the age of 2.

Charlotte is an intelligent and curious child who has educated herself by reading through her father's extensive library. Although it is unheard of at the time for a girl to receive a proper education, Lord Henry arranges for a tutor to come to Fayne and instructs this tutor to "teach my daughter as you would my son, if I had one". The arrival of the tutor sets into motion many changes for Charlotte and her father including their departure from Fayne to Edinburgh where Charlotte hopes to be admitted to medical school while her father intends to consult a doctor about her condition. The narrative also alternates between Charlotte's first person account and a third person telling of the story from the point of view of her mother Lady Marie Bell beginning with her introduction to Lord Henry.

If Fayne hadn't been 700+ pages, I would have devoured it in one sitting - definitely worth the time it takes to read! The novel is atmospheric and full of twists, includes some magical realism and addresses many themes including gender and identity and the lack of women's rights at the time. I read nothing about the plot of Fayne before I started reading and that is what I would recommend - I would not have wanted to have even a hint ahead of time of the surprises and twists that Fayne held in store. A wonderful and highly recommended read!!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I have just finished reading Fayne by Author Ann-Marie MacDonald.

This is a beautifully written book, with the words feeling almost magical and whimsical. This is an author who can really tell a story. It takes place in the late nineteenth century on a vast property between England and Scotland in the moorlands.

The prose makes you feel like you are in the setting while reading it.

Charlotte Bell is growing up at Fayne, which is a lonely large estate with her father, Lord Henry Bell. It is a very secluded life for the young girl, who is sheltered from life outside of the estate. Charlotte’s mother and infant brother have died, and young Charlotte has a brightness about her and a longing to go to school and become a doctor.

Her father brings on a tutor to teach her daughter, and it is an uncommon tradition of teaching girls. She takes to learning and has great ambitions.

This is an extremely long book and commanded a great deal of my time to finish, at over 700 pages.

I did like this book, and the Author’s words, but was not in love with it to be all right with the length of it.

I do however think this book will be enjoyed by many readers.

Thank you to NetGalley, Author Ann-Marie MacDonald., and Penguin Random House Canada for my advanced copy to read and review.

#netgalley

I finished this book a few days ago and have needed time to digest and let it settle in my brain a bit. I had a very visceral reaction, both while reading and getting thoroughly sucked in as though the bogs of Fayne themselves were pulling me, but also upon finishing. I can’t remember the last time a book has had such an incredible impact. Set in the borderlands straddling England and Scotland in the 1880’s, MacDonald’s style, vocabulary and imagery were, to me, evocative of Charlotte Brontë and Wilkie Collins. A gothic, sweeping saga with themes of duality and the in between… the setting in the borderlands, old, crumbling, archaic vs new and modern, science and magyk, male and female, old world and new world, hidden and known, education and naïveté, youth and age… An astonishing absolute must read, one of the most brilliantly crafted works of fiction I’ve read in years. Best book of at least the year, most likely the decade, quite possibly the century.

I have just closed the book on Fayne and am immediately beginning this review without having read any other reviews or information about the book....my gut reaction: what a story! And no wonder this is the first book in a long time from Ann-Marie MacDonald; this must have taken her YEARS to research and write. Well done!
It took about 20% to get into this book. The language is extremely old, bordering on archaic with extensive use of Latin, Gaelic (I think) and old Scottish expressions. The vocabulary throughout the book is very advanced. I will usually skip over a word I don’t recognize, getting the meaning from the context. Not always possible to do in this book – I used the dictionary multiple times. We realize how English has evolved as a language. The writing style seemed very true to its time period setting.
The time setting started out around 1885, but it took many pages for me to figure that out! 12 year old Charlotte Bell lives with her widowed father Lord Henry Bell on 12000 acre estate called Fayne, that divides the border between England and Scotland. Charlotte’s mother died giving birth to her, and her brother Charles died shortly after at the age of 2. Charlotte has had a reclusive upbringing, because of her mysterious Condition which has precluded her from attending school or socializing with others. The story moves forward from that point, and then also goes back to Lord Henry’s marriage to Irish/American Marie Corcoran. The dual time line is at times confusing, and is also repetitive, because events are repeated from different viewpoints.
This is a long book and not a quick read, but I always looked forward to picking it up and immersing myself in Fayne. By the time I was at 50%, I was completely engaged. I did have to go back to review some of the details in the beginning chapters, which may have been easier to do with a paper book.
The characters in this story became so real for me. Although I did not always agree with the choices they made, I feel the author did an outstanding job of creating characters who acted according to the time period in which they lived.
I would love to give my opinion on some of the subject matter, character development and plot points in this story, but at risk of spoiling it, I will only say to future readers: go in with a very open mind to read a book that touches on many social conditions and conflicts. There is also a thread of magic or old world beliefs throughout the story which lends itself delightfully to the setting in the countryside of Scotland. The parts of the story that are set in Edinburgh also give a very strong sense of place.
A strong 4 star rating from me. Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Fayne is a gorgeous, sprawling novel, filled with love for knowledge and love for the land. The novel tracks the maturation of Charlotte Bell, the 12-year-old daughter of Lord Henry Bell, who has an incredible appetite for knowledge acquisition thanks to her eidetic memory. She expresses the desire to become a doctor after her father gets her a tutor, a rare decision courtesy of the rigidly-defined gender roles of the late 1800s. But her plans begin to go awry once they leave to Edinburgh to take an examination, one that she presumes is for her early entry into medical school. The novel moves backwards and forwards in time, giving the heartbreaking story of her mother, Lady Fae, amidst her many miscarriages and losses, and eventually brings the timeline right to our contemporary moment.

Interesting book... Not what i was expecting, but still a captivating read! I had to focus all my attention on this as it wasn't an easy read for me. Different from what I would normally read.

Fayne is an epic story that explores nature- both touched and untouched. Themes surrounding the transformative aspects of nature and its impossibilities are explored in this book. Its a very long read that requires patience as it can feel overwrought with details and dialogue that makes it boring at times.

The story starts off with Charlotte Bell and her isolated upbringing on her family estate Fayne. This was my favourite part of the story as the author described the enchanting landscapes and environment of the mystical bog and land in a spellbinding way. Charlotte is young, perceptive, curious, and intelligent but harbouring an unusual secret that she is not aware of. The subsequent parts of the book focus on Charlotte's parents and the shocking truth about Charlotte that will have devastating consequences for the family, Health, medicine, and gender collide in difficult ways for the Bell's which leads back to the mysterious bog at Fayne.

I wasn't expecting the story to be about a reproductive anomaly but it was interesting nonetheless. Charlotte was a brave and admirable character who lived a successful life despite her challenges. Nature is infinite and no two things are alike, but if we can appreciate the beauty of the earth, that means we should attempt to appreciate the beauty of all of earth's creations.

Rarely did I come across a book that enchanted and invited me into its magical embrace to the extent Fayne did!

The book is introduced as 'a tale of science, magyk, love and identity'. It is that, but much, much more. The heroes are Charlotte and Fayne, both hidden from public scrutiny, slowly revealing their secrets and both becoming what they were always meant to be.
The overtly overarching theme is Charlotte's 'Condition', seemingly unknown to all but her father, even Charlotte herself - but then, it might not exist at all... Until we learn of its nature, bit by astonishing bit; until we learn of its all-encompassing importance and its power to destroy not only Charlotte, but all those around her; a power derived solely from the picture society created of itself.

The characters are unique and alive in all their happiness, exuberance, despair, denial, selfishness, pain, or neglectful indifference, and the prose to achieve this effect is exquisite. Just one example of a letter: 'Dear X, It was a girl. Dead.' What a mountain of despair in those five words!

In spite of the slow start and the very end that fizzles out into an condensed overview of Charlotte's old age, provisions for Fayne, and philosophical musings, all of which I thought somewhat superfluous, this book enriched me and made me reflect on the human condition apart from providing wonderful entertainment.

My thanks go to NetGalley, publishers, and author for granting me an eARC of this book and the opportunity to write an unbiased, voluntary review.

"And it occurred to me that memory is shaped not merely by events and their retention, but also by the telling, and by the listening. Thereby, too, is shaped the future."

A large, sweeping tale that needs reading.

There are twists and turns and plenty of surprise, but I dare not tell you all of it.

The language is difficult (old, Scottish, Irish) and I had to stop a lot, but oh, oh it is worth it. A sweeping and magical tale.

This is an epic book. There are so many twists that even as I'd start to wonder if certain things were possible, they came as a surprise if those things were true (that happened a few times). The twist at the end was completely unexpected, though.

I loved that Fayne felt like another character in a book of exceptional characters. You really feel for Charlotte as her world gets turned upside down and she goes from freedom and exploration, a delight for learning and growth to the realities of a Victorian woman, trussed up in skirts and unable to persue her own dreams and ideas. But there is so much more to her story than just the constraints against women of her time.

This book is as deep and rich as the bogs surrounding Fayne. As full of disputed areas as the Disputed County of Fayne. Just a brilliant book all around.

I adore Ann-Marie Macdonald. This I know to be true. Fayne was no exception to my adoration.

The book starts off slowly, focusing on a young girl living with her father in an estate bordering England and Scotland. Lots of descriptions of books, bogs, and Latin translations. At first I was struggling a bit to get into the story but I'm so glad I kept going because I was fully absorbed and by the end I did not want it to be over.

Macdonald continues to delight and make me weep.

Thank you to the publishers and net galley for the e-arc.