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thetbrhoarder's review against another edition
3.0
The Coven by Graham Masterton
⭐️3
The only reason I gave this book 3 stars and not less is because of the actual story behind the unnecessary parts
This review does contain spoilers and I will say it may trigger people if you are sensitive toward sexual assault, abuse and death kinks
The Coven took a while for me to get into, at one point I wondered if the right book had been bounded in the cover! Once Beatrice came over to London and undertook her role at St Marys it finally began to get interesting. I was intrigued and I seemed to have gone through a stage of reading this era. There seemed to be light coming to the end of Beatrices sadness.
However
One chapter very nearly made me put this book into the incinerator and burn it I was that disgusted and knew I wouldn’t want to give it to someone else to read. I felt like this was completely unnecessary and downright disgusting, honestly made me question what was going through the authors mind when he wrote that part and how someone passed it through
So.....
Girls which were taken from St Mary’s to work at the benefactors tobacco factory mysteriously go missing under the guise they summoned the devil and escaped.....however, we find out that George is in cohorts with a local brothel who specialise in kinks including beastiality and rape. He sends the girls there who he ‘rescues’ and they meet their maker on a table set on a stage in front of 100s of paying customers. (Women and men)
Now....the maid gets taken to ‘work at the factor’ and Beatrice goes to the brothel and although the owner denies a black girl being there, she finds her drugged and bound to a bed. She’s that nights entertainment. What got me at the end is that this girl endured much worse than the 7 taken before her. Why?? Not only is this poor girl drugged, bound and viciously raped but also beheaded (during the rape) in front of the crowd. This is the part which made me physically sick, I know this was probably the authors intention but I wasn’t expecting it as nothing like that had been mentioned before in the book
Unfortunately the same fortune nearly happens to Beatrice but the police luckily turn up just in time. The ending luckily gave Beatrice her happiness back and she was beginning a new life. I definitely won’t be recommending this to anyone I know due to the fact I don’t want them to read that part and feel how I did. Maybe they wouldn’t and maybe I was too sensitive over it but there was no warning and no preconception that was going to happen. Sad really. The story was good until that.
⭐️3
The only reason I gave this book 3 stars and not less is because of the actual story behind the unnecessary parts
This review does contain spoilers and I will say it may trigger people if you are sensitive toward sexual assault, abuse and death kinks
The Coven took a while for me to get into, at one point I wondered if the right book had been bounded in the cover! Once Beatrice came over to London and undertook her role at St Marys it finally began to get interesting. I was intrigued and I seemed to have gone through a stage of reading this era. There seemed to be light coming to the end of Beatrices sadness.
However
One chapter very nearly made me put this book into the incinerator and burn it I was that disgusted and knew I wouldn’t want to give it to someone else to read. I felt like this was completely unnecessary and downright disgusting, honestly made me question what was going through the authors mind when he wrote that part and how someone passed it through
So.....
Girls which were taken from St Mary’s to work at the benefactors tobacco factory mysteriously go missing under the guise they summoned the devil and escaped.....however, we find out that George is in cohorts with a local brothel who specialise in kinks including beastiality and rape. He sends the girls there who he ‘rescues’ and they meet their maker on a table set on a stage in front of 100s of paying customers. (Women and men)
Now....the maid gets taken to ‘work at the factor’ and Beatrice goes to the brothel and although the owner denies a black girl being there, she finds her drugged and bound to a bed. She’s that nights entertainment. What got me at the end is that this girl endured much worse than the 7 taken before her. Why?? Not only is this poor girl drugged, bound and viciously raped but also beheaded (during the rape) in front of the crowd. This is the part which made me physically sick, I know this was probably the authors intention but I wasn’t expecting it as nothing like that had been mentioned before in the book
Unfortunately the same fortune nearly happens to Beatrice but the police luckily turn up just in time. The ending luckily gave Beatrice her happiness back and she was beginning a new life. I definitely won’t be recommending this to anyone I know due to the fact I don’t want them to read that part and feel how I did. Maybe they wouldn’t and maybe I was too sensitive over it but there was no warning and no preconception that was going to happen. Sad really. The story was good until that.
ksmarsden's review against another edition
2.0
Widow Scarlet has lost her husband, and her son, and now she must uproot from the New World and return to London. She finds a new purpose with a charity that supports fallen women, but soon there are rumours of witchcraft and devil worship amongst the girls.
I received a free copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
I nearly DNFed this. The first 70 pages were really hard to get through, for me.
You have a widow, who has been living with her children, and no outside help since her husband's death. At some points she comes across as independent, but for the most part, she goes wherever the wind blows her.
She lives by the edge of the woods, and it opens with her son missing - presumed kidnapped by Indians. She is naturally worried and upset, for all of about 5 minutes.
She is then told that she has to vacate her dead husband's house, and will be sent to work for St Mary Magdalens, to help ex-prostitutes forge new lives. She doesn't want to leave, when her son is still unaccounted for; but after the minimum nudge by a friend and a tarot reading, Beatrice accepts with minimum fuss.
There's also a very unnecessary scene involving a suitor in America. The whole scene is designed to prove that the suitor is unsuitable.
Then it's never mentioned again.
At this point, I will say that I didn't know this was the second in the Beatrice Scarlet series. I have since looked into this author, and there is a book that precedes this one. Perhaps those first 70 pages are supposed to answer outstanding questions; but for a new reader like me, they felt wedged in. They have the sole purpose of cutting Beatrice and her daughter from all ties, so they can be at the scene of the story, in London.
Once they arrived at St Mary's and you have a whole cast of interesting characters with interesting back-stories, I found it a lot more engaging.
The women have a range of attitudes, from grabbing this new life with both hands, to being sceptical and wanting to go back to the steady money of whoring.
The "mystery" of the missing girls and the practises of witchcraft might be glaringly obvious, but the story pulls you along quite pleasantly. There is no great surprise in the end, but I thought it rang true to the concepts of witches and the devil, during that era.
As a historical novel is does an OK job, but overall I found it hard to connect with a woman that is supposedly ahead of her time, but will abandon her son in another country, and really is unable to see the obvious in those around her. Hmm, some rich dude only picks the most beautiful ex-prostitutes to work in his "factory"? Never picks the plain girls? I wonder what could be happening...
It is well-written, so I'd recommend checking it out for yourself. This just wasn't for me, and I don't think I'll be continuing the series.
I received a free copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
I nearly DNFed this. The first 70 pages were really hard to get through, for me.
You have a widow, who has been living with her children, and no outside help since her husband's death. At some points she comes across as independent, but for the most part, she goes wherever the wind blows her.
She lives by the edge of the woods, and it opens with her son missing - presumed kidnapped by Indians. She is naturally worried and upset, for all of about 5 minutes.
She is then told that she has to vacate her dead husband's house, and will be sent to work for St Mary Magdalens, to help ex-prostitutes forge new lives. She doesn't want to leave, when her son is still unaccounted for; but after the minimum nudge by a friend and a tarot reading, Beatrice accepts with minimum fuss.
There's also a very unnecessary scene involving a suitor in America. The whole scene is designed to prove that the suitor is unsuitable.
Then it's never mentioned again.
At this point, I will say that I didn't know this was the second in the Beatrice Scarlet series. I have since looked into this author, and there is a book that precedes this one. Perhaps those first 70 pages are supposed to answer outstanding questions; but for a new reader like me, they felt wedged in. They have the sole purpose of cutting Beatrice and her daughter from all ties, so they can be at the scene of the story, in London.
Once they arrived at St Mary's and you have a whole cast of interesting characters with interesting back-stories, I found it a lot more engaging.
The women have a range of attitudes, from grabbing this new life with both hands, to being sceptical and wanting to go back to the steady money of whoring.
The "mystery" of the missing girls and the practises of witchcraft might be glaringly obvious, but the story pulls you along quite pleasantly. There is no great surprise in the end, but I thought it rang true to the concepts of witches and the devil, during that era.
As a historical novel is does an OK job, but overall I found it hard to connect with a woman that is supposedly ahead of her time, but will abandon her son in another country, and really is unable to see the obvious in those around her. Hmm, some rich dude only picks the most beautiful ex-prostitutes to work in his "factory"? Never picks the plain girls? I wonder what could be happening...
It is well-written, so I'd recommend checking it out for yourself. This just wasn't for me, and I don't think I'll be continuing the series.
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