1826, Frannie Langton is in love. But it is a forbidden love and a dangerous one. Frannie is a slave who is gifted to an English family and starts a love affair with the mistress of the house. She is the prime suspect when both the master and mistress are found dead but is she guilty?
The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an historical book set in the 1820s. It is written as a letter to her lawyer as she awaits execution and charts her journey from Jamaica to London. There are also some witness testimonies, letters and statements to give other perspectives.
Frannie is born into slavery, a 'mulatto' due to her white father's sexual exploitation of his slaves which leaves her excluded from being accepted by black or white communities. She herself is exploited to help him with his experiments that seek to prove the inferiority of people of colour. Her heart is broken when she is dumped in London with the Benham family, leaving everything she knew behind.
Marguerite Benham instigates a sexual and romantic relationship with Frannie. I am not sure how emotionally involved Marguerite was or whether Frannie was being exploited again. Both women become addicted to laudanum which directly leads to issues that result in two deaths. Ultimately I felt so angry and sad at the continual ways that Frannie is let down by those who should love and respect her.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an emotionally engaging historical book.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I didn't really enjoy this novel. I found it to be highly unoriginal, in terms of plot and characters, and the writing style to be clunky and disjointed to the point that I really didn't understand what the writer was trying to say or convey. I didn't like the MC and wasn't able to fully get a grasp of her character or motivations. The maid/mistress relationship was unconvincing and certain of the characters bordered on stereotypes. It felt like three separate ideas - the racial experimenting, the lesbian upstairs/downstairs affair and the court room drama all mushed into a single story and it didn't really flow at all.

A highly atmospheric historical storyline, full of depth and wonderfully written. A marvellous portrayal of a sorry side to colonial history that is too often swept aside.

Can't believe I forgot to write my review of this brilliant book! Better late than never... The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a hugely powerful read with a Gothic tone. Set in the 1820s, we meet Frannie when she is on trial for the murder of her employer and his wife.

We learn about Frannie's story through the testimonies and see the different sides of her character presented. From being a slave on a plantation in Jamaica to a maid in a London home, we follow Frannie's story and discover if she is really guilty of the crimes she is accused of...

I was gripped to the last page!

For a debut novel it wasn’t bad, but it could have been a lot better with a bit of tweaking. The beginning was good, with Frannie having grown up in Jamaica and the descriptions of her life there were interesting. The ending was good, with everything tied up nicely if a little rushed. But the middle did become a little tedious for me with her new life in London and I found myself glazing over a bit. It was, however, an interesting read about how black and mixed race people were treated in the early 1800’s and I understand the author’s need to get this point across. Although a lot has changed I couldn’t help thinking that a lot hasn’t, which saddened me greatly, so to that end the author has done a good job. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books (UK), Penguin for letting me read and review this book.

I went into this slightly apprehensive as I didn't know a lot about the plot, other than it followed a woman accused of murder.

It took around 50 pages to get into before I was fully immersed in the writing and the storyline but I did really enjoy the experience and would definitely pick up more by the author.

This is a really powerful book. Narrated by Frannie, a servant and former slave accused of murdering her employer and his wife, this incredibly thought-provoking novel takes us on a journey through Frannie's hard life, from her life on a plantation in Jamaica to service in London. Frannie's life is brutal and tragic, and any joys she has are short-lived and lead to further doom.

At times it reminded me of Atwood's Alias Grace, which I absolutely adored, but also introduces several original elements unique to Frannie's story. The pace was slightly too slow for me at times, but overall this was a great read and a powerful commentary on attitudes towards race, class and gender.

Frannie Langton, narrator of the novel, is a mulatto slave, born on a Jamaican plantation ironically called Paradise. She has been brought to London by her owner, and later revealed father, James Langton. Frannie’s “advantage” is that she has been taught to read and write (seemingly to academic degree level) by Langton’s wife as part of his experiments to prove the difference between races,

In London, Frannie is passed on to George Bentham, an ex-collaborator, but who has now distanced himself due to Langton’s increasingly gruesome and zealous experiments on black slaves. Frannie begins a lesbian relationship with Marguerite Bentham, Bentham’s wife, who lusts after George, another slave. brought up by the couple. Marguerite is rapidly descending into a laudanum addiction.

At the beginning of the book Frannie is writing her memoirs in a dank prison cell in Newgate gaol, detained for the murder of George and Marguerite Bentham.

The book had a dreamlike, or nightmarish, quality, but what I found really irritating was the intangible, disembodied writing style. The nebulous, insubstantial, veiled hints meant half the time I had no idea what the author meant or was relating to. As a result, although attracted by the premise, I found the whole thing irritating and badly executed.

Frances is on trial, being hounded to confess to the murder of her Mistress, Meg, who was found in her bed, covered in blood, her unborn foetus in a jar on the side table next to her. Her husband, the respected Mr Benham, found downstairs, knife wounds adorning his body. But Frances refuses to confess to a crime she did not commit. As we run through her trial, we journey through her life, starting in Paradise, the first home she knew in Jamaica. Brought to London with her old master, he pawns her off on Mr Benham and she is alone, abandoned and isolated. Until Mrs Benham extends a hand of friendship.

Frannie quickly became one of my favourite literary characters while reading this book. She is quick, she is witty, smart, courageous, and the perfect narrator for this story. Frannie's affinity for books that she clings to as a reminder of the life she was forced to leave behind, and how she uses books to navigate this new, dangerous world she has found herself in, is a gorgeous homage to how reading can be both a form of escapism and belonging.

The influences from Victorian gothic novels are clear throughout, but the way in which Sara Collins has twisted the lens to view them through Frannie's eyes is remarkably well done - to put her at the front and centre, to show us all the things that are never mentioned or talked about it similar novels, but those things don't concern the white protagonists. I also loved the fact that Sara Collins was inspired by the real life story of Frances Barber who was brought to London from Jamacia and given as a gift and that she genderswapped those events for her novels.

The writing was captivating, dragging me across the Atlantic to Jamacia and deep into the depths of the Benham's house, as Frannie navigates the politics and heirarchies of both of the places she is forced to serve.

There are times when this book gets quite dark and doesn't shy away from the horrors that white, privileged men like John Langton and George Benham thought they were entitled to explore and exploit, but this brutal look at the treatment and attitudes towards Black people and slaves is told through the complicated eyes of an unwilling apprentice and regretful confidant.

I also loved the weaving of timelines, from Frannie's former years in Jamaica, to her life in London with Madame Marguerite, and her time in jail awaiting trial for the murders she is accused of. There was timeless hopping between past and present and the scenes skipped at just the right times to keep me entranced and coming back for more.

This was a really wonderful book, and I am so thrilled that there will be an ITV adaptation some time in the future. It's also very exciting that Sara Collins is working on the screenplay for it herself, but after that, I am very much looking forward to reading her future work.

I am in charge of the senior library and work with a group of Reading Ambassadors from 16-18 to ensure that our boarding school library is modernised and meets the need of both our senior students and staff. It has been great to have the chance to talk about these books with our seniors and discuss what they want and need on their shelves. I was drawn to his book because I thought it would be something different from the usual school library fare and draw the students in with a tempting storyline and lots to discuss.
This book was a really enjoyable read with strong characters and a real sense of time and place. I enjoyed the ways that it maintained a cracking pace that kept me turning its pages and ensured that I had much to discuss with them after finishing. It was not only a lively and enjoyable novel but had lots of contemporary themes for our book group to pick up and spend hours discussing too.
I think it's important to choose books that interest as well as challenge our students and I can see this book being very popular with students and staff alike; this will be an excellent purchase as it has everything that we look for in a great read - a tempting premise, fantastic characters and a plot that keeps you gripped until you close its final page.

Has anyone else noticed the trend for murderous Victorian servants in fiction? There's Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, Hannah Kent's Burial Rites and then Anna Mazzola's The Unseeing. Even male writers are interested in the topic; Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost is also centred around household help with a literal axe to grind. My point is that it's a popular topic so I thought I knew what I was letting myself in for. Plus I was having my Brontë binge earlier in the year and I had heard comparisons made to Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre. And yet it was another classic case of me leaping into a book and then being horrified when I landed. With The Confessions of Frannie Langton, I finally found a book that made me understand why some people demand Trigger Warnings. Yet as I reeled back and rummaged frantically for a comfort read, it got me thinking about Gothic fiction as a genre. What is it for?

According to the internet, Gothic fiction is 'characterised by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense.' But yet it has become synonymous with a kind of 'comfort fiction'; if the horror is in a gloomy house on a hill then it is not horror that can touch you. The worst you can get is a tingle up your spine, nothing more. But Gothic fiction used to pack a heavier punch, using fear and horror to point at indelicate societal truths. The first readers of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde would have recognised the novel as making allusions to closeted homosexuality but since that is no longer controversial, the modern eye misses the point. The Confessions of Frannie Langton is therefore a return to the earlier Gothic tradition. This is a novel that sets out to make its reader wince.

The parallels to Jane Eyre are noticeable. Frannie is another ignored and unwanted child, growing up in a hostile environment. In this case, she is born a slave in 'Paradise', an inappropriately named sugar plantation. Her owner Langton is a revolting man whose life-mission is to prove that Africans are not human. In order to establish this, he carries out horrifying experiments with Frannie as his assistant. Up in the big house is Langton's wife Missbella, a lady with similarities to Jane's Aunt Reed. Working in the kitchen is Phibbah, a slave-woman whose medical knowledge is stolen by a visiting botanist. Later when Frannie visits London, she sees the man's book in a shop and writes Phibbah's name on every page. Yet while the set-up does recall Charlotte Brontë's most famous novel, its subsequent direction is quite different.

Frannie goes from slave-girl to lab assistant and then she is taken by her master to London, where Langton gives her as a present to George Benham and his wife, the beautiful but peculiar Marguerite. The reader is told early on in the novel that it is this pair who Frannie has been accused of murdering under circumstances which are something of a riddle. Frannie does not remember and the various witness statements are at odds with one another. To make things even murkier, the narrative flits back and forth between Frannie's time in the Benham household and to when she is awaiting trial.

I wanted to like this novel more than I actually did. Collins did a fantastic job building the tension and forboding, particularly in the Jamaica segments. A shiver went down my spin when Phibbah tells Frannie that there's nothing more dangerous than 'a white woman when she's bored' - there we have the novel in a nutshell. But unfortunately when the action travels to London it just ... drags. I didn't care for Marguerite as a character and by that I mean I did not even find her a satisfactory antagonist. She was just pathetic. I couldn't understand how she would have held any appeal to anyone. Because of her, a lot of Confessions' latter section failed to engage me.

It is a bold endeavour to address racial issues in the context of Victorian Gothic literature. Collins is explicitly using her protagonist to confront the contemporary received opinions on slavery and eugenics. Frannie rages silently at the insistence of framing her experience as that of a victim, because slave stories sell. It does feel clunky at times to have her list every single one of the books that she has read but if you've read them, it again offered a thought-provoking commentary on racial inequality. Relationship dynamics when someone is enslaved, class, money, mental illness - the novel is teeming with ideas. No matter how much I could admire the way that Collins tackled all these important topics though, I just couldn't take to the book. The relentless nastiness, the barbarism, the flat characterisation - I was just longing for it to be over. I also spent much of the book braced for impact due to a long-running thread that an infant may have been harmed during one of Langton's experiments; harm caused to children has become difficult bordering on impossible for me to read about since I entered motherhood. It was too much.

I heard so many positive things about Confessions but in the end it was too rough a read for me in 2020. If my understanding is correct, Frannie Langton rejects the do-gooding intentions of her legal team and the meddlesome attentions of white people as a whole. Just as Frannie carved Phibbah's name in the white man's medical book, Collins is staking a claim for people of colour in Victorian literature. It is an astonishingly powerful debut novel and a testament to the author's thorough research and passion for her subject. Contrasting Confessions to other examples of modern Gothic fiction such as The Essex Serpent is like the difference between the true sword and the stage equivalent. One cuts deeply, the other leaves no mark. Stories like that of Frannie Langton need to be told and I try not to shy away from tough topics in my reading. I can't complain that I didn't enjoy this book because I can see that I was never supposed to.

I started this ages ago and got about one third of the way through when other things in life distracted me and so I have only just returned to it - hence the tardiness of this review. I found this had a really strong narrative voice and offered a unique perspective on history that we seldom get to hear, I didn't adore this novel as much as I thought I would but nevertheless I think it would be an excellent choice for a reading group with much opportunity for discussion around intertextuality and ethics.

Beautifully written and Frannie is a great character. There are many difficult themes covered, not least the scenes in Jamaica. It loses momentum in the middle and I did find my interest waning at that point. I had to persevere to get through that part until things picked up again towards the end.

Having heard Sara Collins speak so interestingly on the inspiration behind her character, Frannie Langton, I just had to try The Confessions of Frannie Langton on audiobook. What I need to make clear from the outset is that parts of this novel set on a Jamaican slave plantation, focusing on the science of race, make for truly horrifying reading, but equally it is important that such a novel doesn’t shy from revealing the truth.

It’s a dark, gothic why-dunnit, as well as an unconventional-for-the-time romance, uncovering what happened in the months preceding the murder of Frannie Langton’s employers, Mr & Mrs Benham. Frannie is an educated mulatto woman brought from Jamaica to work as maid, whom we know from the outset is accused of their murder. She is a woman ahead of her time. A character to be reckoned with, trapped, spirited - in the vein of Jane Eyre. One word of caution, although I loved the narrator’s voice, I found the structure quite complex to follow on audiobook (details of what happened in Frannie’s early life are held back to aid suspense), so would possibly recommend reading in print. Fascinating, incredibly sad, this is a book not to be rushed.

I loved this book! It follows the story of servant Frannie Langton who is on trial accused of murdering her Master and Mistress. However she cannot remember anything about that fateful night. All she knows if she loves her mistress. Incarcerated awaiting trail Frannie starts writing her life story and we are taken back to Jamaica and the sugar plantations. Beautifully told story, highly recommend.

Frannie is accused of murdering her employer an employer that she loved

The book is beautifully written and I recommend it for a few hours curled up in front of the fire

From a mysterious start, and a very spooky narrator telling the story, it meandered into the big reveal after 200 pages or so, which was lukewarm at best. But thanks to the publisher for the ARC just the same.

This is not a title I would usually pick up, but the blurb really sucked me in! I really enjoyed the underlying gothic tone of this one and I revisited many lines in order to fully appreciate the writing. Frannie is a wonderfully complex character and I couldn't put this book down as I just had to unravel the mystery.

Hm. This is a very difficult book to review because while there are things about it that I really appreciate, I can’t say I actually enjoyed reading it all that much and, for me, enjoyment is ultimately what I’m looking for when I pick up a book.

Set in Jamaica and then London during the Georgian era, The Confessions of Frannie Langton opens in prison where Frannie Langton, once a slave and more recently a lady’s maid, has been accused of murdering her master and mistress. Having the ability to read and write, she’s been asked to write her version of events, and she takes us back to her childhood and through to the night of the murders, confessing her various sins along the way.

I was initially so hopeful that I was going to love this novel. The scenes in Jamaica were some of my favourites but I found my interest in this novel dipped as soon as Frannie and Mr. Langton, the man who owned her, arrived in London. I just don’t find London as a setting in historical fiction particularly interesting because it’s a setting I’ve seen so many times before. There are other cities in the UK. That’s more of a problem with me, though, than the book.

For the most part I wish the novel had stayed in Jamaica, though; the setting there felt so much richer and easier to picture than Frannie’s time in London, but even in Jamaica nothing was as clear as I would have liked. Frannie ends up assisting (not that she has a choice in the matter) Mr. Langton with some pretty horrific scientific experiments, only we’re never entirely clear about what’s going on. These are Frannie’s confessions, and yet I constantly felt held at a distance from her and it was incredibly frustrating when I wanted to know her.

This sense of being held at a distance continued when Frannie travelled to London with Mr. Langton and ended up being left as a gift to Mr. Benham, an associate of his, and his wife, Meg, known as ‘Madame’ to the majority of the household, including Frannie.

Frannie and Madame end up entangled in a love affair, but I honestly couldn’t tell you why. I have no idea whatsoever why these two women love each other. It’s not that they aren’t compelling characters, and Frannie in particular is especially interesting which is why I was so frustrated at being held at a distance, but I didn’t feel like they had any chemistry. Frannie talks a lot about how she wants what Mr. Benham has, and that I could believe.

One of the things I did really appreciate about this novel is its discussions around freedom from slavery. Frannie might no longer be a slave, but she doesn’t know how to want freedom, either, because she’s never really been taught what freedom is. The only freedom she’s ever grown up around is the freedom that’s inherent in any wealthy white family during this period of history. She might not be a slave, but she’s never going to be treated like an equal by a lot of people who look down on her because she is a woman of colour.

How Frannie struggles compared to the white women and black men that she encounters, who in their own way obviously have struggles they’re facing when society favours wealthy white men in particular, is one of the most powerful observations this novel makes, and I think continues to resonate today when we talk about intersectional feminism. The problem for me was that I found the story itself somewhat lacking; so much is glossed over or mentioned in passing that I’d’ve liked to have seen fleshed out more, and it felt like a lot of the ‘twists’ were shoved into the last 25% of the book when I think they would have worked better gradually revealed throughout the story. Leaving them to the end like that felt a little like the novel was being rushed to its conclusion.

I like so much of what this novel set out to do. I know Collins herself wrote this because she’s a huge fan of Gothic novels, but never saw characters who looked like her in the starring roles, and I definitely want to see more people of colour at the centre of Gothic tales because they’re a type of story I love, too. I don’t know if I’d describe this novel as a Gothic novel, though. For me it was trying to do too many things at once, and for the most part I just found the experience of reading it to be very frustrating.

That said, there’s no doubt that Collins is a fantastic writer. There are some brilliant lines in this book – at one point Frannie describes the prints of Madame’s slippers in the carpet as ‘like teeth marks in bread’ and I love that image – so while I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as I hoped, Collins is an author whose career I’ll be watching.