Reviews with content warning for Confinement - The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

I just loved this book. The characters were compelling, the story was intriguing, and the prose was pitch perfect for what it was going for. I listened to it without realizing it was a YA book, and started gushingly recommending it to other people who turned up their noses because it's a YA book. Their loss.

Content Warnings

nickoliver's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I had first heard about this book from Riley Marie's channel on Youtube, and the way she described it immediately had me so intrigued that I ordered it. I was so excited about reading it, in fact, that I started it literally the day I got it in the mail. And I definitely enjoyed it immensely!

The story was set in an alternate version of Victorian England, where characters from famous Victorian novels lived as real people. For example, the main character was Mary Jekyll, the daughter of Dr. Jekyll. Throughout the novel, she found out about a society called the Société des Alchimistes, a group of scientists who did experiments on girls (mostly their own daughters), so she teamed up with all of them and tried to figure out why. At the same time, there were gruesome murders in London (the Jack the Ripper murders, except they weren't being perpetuated by him), which she investigated with Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Overall, the entire story was definitely more on the slow-paced side. It wasn't a particularly bad thing, because I was still hooked onto the story and especially the mystery surrounding the murders, but it didn't escape my notice. In total, there was exactly one scene that I found to be action-packed, and it was far away enough from the ending that the book still managed to slow down again before it ended. Which was something I wasn't used to; usually, once the climax is reached, it stays that way until the ending. I did find that a bit frustrating.

I also wasn't the biggest fan of the villains, especially

Adam

. Goss portrayed him practically as an incel, which, since I've never read the original work he's from, might be an accurate description. But he just came across as an asshole and annoying, so I had a hard time really taking him seriously. I did like the Society and its members, but that subplot with
Adam
wasn't quite as interesting. Not boring or bad, just not as suspenseful as it could've been.

In general, the story was probably more character- than plot-driven. Which I really liked! The characters were really at the heart of everything. During the course of her adventure, Mary met the other monstrous girls - Diana Hyde, obviously an offspring of Mr. Hyde; Beatrice Rappaccini, a girl from Italy with poisonous breath; Catherine Moreau, who was created on the Island of Dr. Moreau; and Justine Frank, Frankenstein's Bride. What I appreciated was that not only were the girls introduced one after the other, which helped not overwhelm me, but Goss also gave each of them their own chapter titled after them that told their backstory. It helped flesh out the characters and gave them their personality, so it was impossible to get confused about what girl had endured what tragedies or what their motivations were. And not only the girls were fully developed, but also all the side characters. It was nice to have a big cast of character without getting confused.

The format was quite a unique one. The entire story was basically a book that one of the characters wrote about their adventures, and sprinkled throughout the book were comments of all the girls (plus a couple servants they held dear) about the scene that was happening, or about the way the author wrote it, and they often fought (playfully) in them. They had a lot of witty banter in them and showed the relationships between the girls marvelously. Plus, since the story was a bit dense at times, it did break up that density a little and made reading a bit softer and easier.

However, I did think that some of the banter was a bit forced, like Goss tried desperately to add humour to the story but failed a little. Sometimes, the characters also discussed certain things that happened that hadn't actually happened yet (and also wouldn't happen in this book), which I found a bit redundant. And since you knew the girl who wrote the book wrote it after their big adventure was over, the comments also took the tension out of the story sometimes. After all, you knew that all the girls would still be alive at the end of it, no matter what dangerous missions they had on the way. For the most part, the comments were a delight, but I couldn't help but notice that they also had a negative side to them.

Lastly, I also quickly want to mention the hints at romance. For the most part, this book was free of romance (except in backstory, though I wouldn't classify those scenes necessarily as "romance", tbh), but there were little hints at a potential blooming romance between Mary and Mr. Holmes. And I was a big fan of it. Partly because it wasn't so focal but instead slowburn and subtle, and partly because I just really liked the dynamics between the two characters. I found them wonderful together! Obviously, I have no idea if they do end up together at the end of the trilogy, but I wouldn't mind if they do.

Overall, while the book did have its annoying moments - the forced humour, the lack of real pace, the sometimes ridiculous villain -, I did really enjoy reading it! It was a lot of fun, and I would definitely recommend it for the relationships between the characters alone! The characters were what made the book so great in my eyes.

Content Warnings

typedtruths's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

quick thoughts:

the moment riley marie talked about this book in her vlog, i knew it was going to be a new favourite of mine too.

PROS
• fun. i read this, mostly, during my state's first proper lockdown and it was a breath of fresh air.
• found family. i sound like a broken record at this point but found family is my favourite trope. there's nothing quite like a ragtag group of misfits finding each other and making a home where they can all be their unabashed selves.
• the writing style. the book itself is written like the girls are writing an account of their adventures. catherine, a novelist, is in charge but the other characters write in the margins & interrupt when they think catherine is romanticising a certain moment or interject to say, 'no, i wasn't *scared* then, i don't get scared' or 'i was not blushing! the sun had gotten to my cheeks'. it adds this whole other layer to the story, and the banter? top notch.
• the whole cast. it is rare that i don't have a favourite narrator in a book with multiple perspectives, but the entire cast was delightful. i loved the whole crew, down to charlie & mrs poole.
• girl fighting their abusive fathers. a squad of women that society has snubbed overcoming systemic obstacles to band together and save other women from their abusive fathers? hell yeah.
• sherlock. i'm basic. i love me a sherlock retelling 🤷

CONS
• the pacing. it was a tiny bit on the dense side. i know a lot of historical fiction favour a slower pace (which i actually like), but it did stagnate a little in the middle.
• the "time-period appropriate" -ism. again, i know historical fiction tends to be as accurate to the era as possible, but i can't deny it is extremely difficult to read blatant ableism, racism & misogyny regardless. there is a fair amount of ableism and sex worker shaming as well as two downright racist sentences (as quoted below) which easily could have been edited out.

the racist comments on pages 199 & 347 respectively (in my edition):

"To those readers who are not familiar with London, who may be reading this in the wilds of America, where we hear there are bears and savages, or in the wilds of Australia, where there are also savages but no bears (unless, adds Justine, they are marsupial bears), the problem that now presented itself to Catherine and Diana was as follows."

and

"And he was excited: he had finally decided that we would go to Africa. With our superior strength, we could traverse jungles and desert that made the interior of the continent dangerous for white men. We would see what no European had ever seen. Surely the rude savages would worship us as gods."

➸ Trigger warnings for

misogyny, ableism & ableist language, sex worker shaming & slurs, underage sex work recounted, domestic abuse mentioned, psychiatric hospitalisation, the suicide of a parent mentioned, suicide & suicidal ideation mentioned, alcohol consumption, pregnancy & teen pregnancy mentioned, graphic dead body & body parts, blood & gore depiction, physical injuries & illness, nonconsensual surgery mentioned, dismemberment and decapitation discussed, nonconsensual medical experimentation (central theme), death of father & mother, death of an infant recounted, murder & attempted murder (multiple on-page & recounted), strangulation, poisoning, kidnapping & confinement, animal experimentation (off-page), animal death, and poverty themes

.

Blog • Trigger Warning Database • Twitter • Instagram

Content Warnings

More...