I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

1850, London. When Iris is asked to model for Pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost, she agrees on the condition that he will also teach her to paint.

Dark and creepy.

3☆

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book! Great character development, great story lines, and awesome timing in the book. The story is set in the mid 1800s in London, where a man falls in love with a woman with a broken clavicle. She falls in love with an artist, and the artist loves her too. The other man is kind of crazy (actually really crazy), and he does some really awful things. I highly recommend this for fans of psychological thrillers, historical fiction, or crazy people.

I believe this is a debut novel and WHOA! What a wonderful debut Ms. Macneal's The Doll Factory is, the setting London in 1800s and is an exquisite nod to the Victorian era. The details wonderful, on point and I was able to even learn a few things which in my book is a major plus. I truly enjoyed Iris's journey and following her dream of becoming an artist, this is a wonderfully written novel and can't wait to see what else Ms. Macneal will have to offer in the future. I'd like to thank NetGalley and Ms. Macneal for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!!

The Doll Factory is a dark, twisted story that had me turning its pages as fast as I could. This is not an easy ready, nor is it for everyone. I found this book to be disturbing more often than not.

Although the story did have a few surprises, the ending was typical.

This was a totally creeping book based in London in the 1850's.

Iris & her sister Rose work in a doll shop painting dolls. They dream of a way out of their boring lives, but circumstances stop them. They both attract the eye of a man, Silas, who owns a "curiosity shop", which is filled with stuffed animals & other oddities.

Chance meetings with certain people leads Iris to a job as a model for the painting, Louis Frost.

Silas becomes obsessed with Iris & we learn some of his past & the type of person he is....parts of this were so creepy & mildly disgusting.

It was a page turner for sure, slightly predictable moments but entertaining.

I received any advance copy of this book for an honest opinion.

Reading this book is like slipping into an exquisitely hot bath of a well-produced BBC/Masterpiece story, but with a heady dose of truly macabre darkness. Instead of the cloyingly perfect historical worlds we read most about, this story deals with the working class of the era and gives us insight into the hardscrabble and bleak lives they lived. I will have to warn animal lovers that violence/torture of animals does occur in this novel. As an animal lover, I was turned off by these plot elements, but wound up soldiering through and skimming those portions because the characters and stories were so strong that I couldn't discount the whole book because of the taxidermy theme. I truly appreciate why the author left these portions in; life in London at that time wasn't quaint and palatable for everyone, so I understand her using this motif. So even if you're like me, someone who Googles "doesthedogdie.com", see if you can't give this a chance and skim over the animal parts. It's THAT GOOD.

To be fair, I just could not finish this book. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my review, but unfortunately I had to put this one down. Too many uncomfortable pieces of this story.

This book is a spooky thriller, and may not be for everyone. It’s a tough read if struggle with really dark tales. This is the first book I’ve read by Elizabeth Macneal.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
I enjoy historical fiction, but this one was just too dark for me. If you like quirky & odd stories with a little gore, you might like this one.

3.5--

Elizabeth Macneal's The Doll Factory is a well constructed novel that feels firmly rooted in the Victorian era of its setting, while still remaining relevant by today's standards. At times, it feels like it may veer into a darkness reminiscent of a 'feminist Poe', but unfortunately, it never fully surrenders to the macabre, instead remaining more Dickensian in its storytelling approach. As this adjective is often questioned for its multiple and often misconstrued meanings, by 'Dickensian', I mean to say that it is a novel populated by sort of hyperbolic characters, with a social commentary explored through vivid depictions of the roughness of society, and an overall quality of grim reality. Had the narrative pushed the boundaries slightly or provided something a little more spectacular, which it could've easily done with the eccentricities it had already set up for us, it would've made this book truly captivating. There were so many things I did like about the book, from the central characters to the art-imitates-life-imitates-art cycle explored, with the plot and artistic content becoming entwined and giving it a sort of meta quality.

I thought The Doll Factory started out wonderfully and I was interested right away, but then things took a downhill turn for me. Although there were some spooky elements to the story, I really just had a hard time staying interested. If you like gothic fiction with a historical element, you may want to give this one a chance, but it just wasn't for me in the end.

This was my first book by Elizabeth Macneal, and I was very impressed with her ability to set the scene. This book was described as chilling, gothic historical fiction set in the Victorian Era. While this isn't my usual preference for historical fiction, I did enjoy the story, once I got into the story. But it did take some time for me to really get caught up in the story. After years of thrillers with instant action, slow build books like this are a nice change.

I"m grateful to the publisher, author and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this book.

The Doll Factory started slowly and I wasn't sure where it was going at first. I was interested after a couple chapters. The more I read about the twin sisters Rose and Iris, the more immersed I became in the story. The twins sit together painting features on dolls all day. The time is mid eighteen hundreds, not an easy time for a woman with ambitions or emotions. This story has plenty of both and for added excitement there's obsession thrown into the mix. By this time the story is exciting and heartbreaking. This is a well written tale with great characters. I'm still thinking about the outcome hours after I finished the book.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy from Atria Books through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.
#TheDollFactory #NetGalley

I had a very hard time with this book. Reading it became such a chore I was looking for excuses not to read. That is something that rarely if ever happens to me. Dead animals and fleas and filth just turned me off. I could not finish this book.

This book started out strong but really fizzled out mid-way. I was not interested enough to continue. The writer provided some very beautiful writing, I just needed the action to be more quickly paced. I do see real promise in this one so it could be a good historical novel if you have more patience than I do.

This one was a little "graphic" to say the least. I had a hard time sticking to this one because of that. The setting is historic which is always intriguing to me definitely that quintessential scary novel you want to read in the fall to help set the mood for Halloween.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

An extremely well written story about women’s rights during the 1850s in London. A wonderful example of show don’t tell. The characters and the setting seem real (and some are icky). There is love and loss. And oh, the art culture is so fascinating! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Historical fiction starring the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood? Yes, please. Sadly, the real PRB makes a tangential appearance with "Johnnie" Millais being the most frequent member we see. There's a good description of London during their era and the art scene, along with some talk about their philosophy of art (and a cameo by Ruskin) but the real focus is on the obsessions of Silas and the life of Iris as a worker and then model. For me, either more PRB or more on the Silas/Iris relationship would have worked but the combination doesn't.

eARC provided by publisher.

I'm having big of a hard time deciding how I feel about this. Parts reminded me of The Butterfly Garden, parts of The Clockmaker's Daughter. Not really a mystery, not really a romance. I was interested enough to see what happened but never felt very attached to any of the characters.

Iris and Rose are twins. They may look alike but have very different personalities. Iris" greatest desire is to become a painter an artist. When she is invited to become a model for Louis in exchange for painting lessons, she is excited.
Silas is an artist of a different sort. One could call his art macabre. He poses dead animals. He stuffs them and sets them up doing different things. He also collects and preserves specimens of all kinds in glass bottles. When Silas sees Iris he is enthralled with her twisted collarbone. This speaks to him in a way that nothing has before. He becomes obsessed with owning her. She is different, unique, so he must have her. What entails is a twisted story of obsession, torture, love, sadness and strength.
Phenomenal read!!