Review of THE FASCINATION by Essie Fox

4 Stars

Gothic fiction is not my usual genre, but this book, set in late-Victorian England, kept me entertained.

Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical twins, except that Tilly has not grown since the age of 5.  The girls’ father, a charlatan, sells his 15-year-old daughters to a man known as Captain who accepts them into his “family” of outcasts.  Meanwhile, Theo, grandson of Lord Seabrook, a man who has an obsession with “freaks,” is evicted from his childhood home when Lord Seabrook remarries.  His hopes of becoming a doctor are thereby ended, but he finds employment in Dr. Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London.  When Theo meets Captain and the twins, their lives become entwined in surprising ways, but also in ways that put them all in danger.  

Chapters alternate between Keziah and Theo’s perspectives.  As a result, the reader comes to know them the best because their thoughts are given.  There is a diverse cast of other characters, several of whom are considered freaks because they are little people, have a cleft palate, or are excessively hirsute.  Their backstories are gradually revealed, and each emerges as a sympathetic character.  It is the characters who are “normal” in appearance who prove to be the real monsters; some of them are personifications of pure evil.  The morally depraved behaviour of some of these latter characters is almost unbelievable. 

The theme examines what it means to be different, other than what is considered “normal.”  In Victorian England, physical differences marked a person as a curiousity which made him/her both grotesque and fascinating.  Differences also made a person vulnerable to exploitation.  All the characters in the novel who are considered oddities face prejudice and injustice. 

The novel shows the darker underworld of Victorian entertainment, exposing the grim realities beneath the glamour; one character describes a fair:  “’that fair looks very tawdry in the cold ‘ard light of day . . . Like some old whore, all painted up, she shines as bright as Christmas glitter in the hours of the night, but come the dawn she drops her drawers and what is lying underneath is not the most alluring sight.’”  In this world, full of deception and squalor, “freaks” are used to titillate the audience. 

The contrast to this world is the community which Captain has established.  In this chosen family, people receive understanding and support and friendship and love.  Members have a sense of trust, belonging and security.  Obviously this community is intended to illustrate what happens when people are accepted. 

Though the novel is set in a different time period, its theme is relevant to our time.  There seems to be an increasing tendency for people to judge and exclude those who are different in some way.  It is a good time to be reminded that, despite superficial differences, we are all humans who long to be accepted. 

Lovers of gothic fiction will find the typical characteristics of the genre:  an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, omens and visions, events that suggest a supernatural connection, and women in distress.  The number of coincidences, unexpected connections between a small number of people, bothered me, but the prominence of coincidence in Victorian novels (including those of Charles Dickens, Miss Miller’s hero) influences me to be more accepting of them in this novel set in the Victorian era. 

One element that surprised me is the big reveal on the last page.  Was this really supposed to be a shock to the reader?  I suspected this from the fourth page, and there are many hints throughout so there seems undue emphasis on this revelation.  Perhaps it’s just a narrative device to emphasize the blindness of shallow people?

The book is well-researched so has a great sense of time and place.  Though it includes some difficult topics like emotional and physical abuse, drug dependency, dark secrets and deceptions, moral corruption, sexual perversion, and violence, the novel suggests a better world is possible.