Thank you to the publishers and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I would say this hit at about 4.5 stars for me.

I have to say I’m not usually a horror reader but because this had a fantasy element and came recommended by an author I follow (Lyndall Clipstone) I decided to give it a shot! I had read the author’s novella Yellow Jessamine and it was decent but I didn’t love it. The Death of Jane Lawrence had been compared to Crimson Peak, Mexican Gothic, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Ninth House, Rebecca, Haunting of Hill House, and more, so I had high hopes for it.

The Death of Jane Lawrence follows Jane Shoringfield, a practical and logical woman who decides she must get married as her guardians are moving away and she will no longer be able to afford to live with them. She makes a list of suitors and decides the town’s doctor and trained surgeon, Augustine Lawrence, is the most fitting candidate. So she gives him a proposal: we marry, but it is a business agreement, I will work for you, I will live separate from you, and we’ll both have our freedoms. Augustine, eventually, accepts, on the one stipulation that Jane must never spend the night at his crumbling estate, Lindridge Hall.
But on the night of their wedding, as Jane is taken back to the town, Jane’s carriage is swept away in a flash flood/mudslide, and Jane is forced to make the trek back to Lindridge Hall and stay the night. But the Augustine she left at sunset is not the Augustine she finds during the storm: instead a haunted and terrified man who barely recognizes her.
The Death of Jane Lawrence turns into part haunted house story, part gothic love story, and part mystery fantasy, as Augustine is haunted by the patients he’s lost and a past he doesn’t like to speak of, Jane sees reflections of a woman with blood red eyes following her, Jane is led into a secret society of magicians, and the painful and deadly cost of magic becomes clear.

I was completely fascinated by the beginning of this book. I loved the marriage of convenience trope, that, naturally, turns into more. I related quite a bit to the main character, Jane, as a more logical person myself. I loved Jane and Augustine’s relationship as it grew, which was a match made in morbid heaven. (Wedding bands made out of human bone!) Him being a surgeon added a sort of body horror into the story, as well as the magic system.

I loved trying to decipher and figure out what direction this book could take. (Is the husband going to try to kill her? Is he a bad guy? What’s the deal with the ghosts? How much is this going to be like Crimson Peak?) and I am pleased to report that as the synopsis promises, The Death of Jane Lawrence did, in fact, completely overturn and upend all expectations. By the end of it, TDOJL was completely bonkers, in the best way possible.

I think the beginning of the book closely follows books of the genre set before it, the marriage, the spooky and decaying big house, ghost sightings, (very much Crimson Peak inspired) but it diverges and completely takes a different direction than what you’d come to expect.

I completely devoured this book, feeling as though I quite literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I was compelled, a woman possessed, you could say! I read the first part of the book, stopped myself, then read the rest of the book the following night.

By the end of it I was grappling with making sure I understood the climax/ending and feeling slightly crazed, adrenaline from this book left me reeling at 5 in the morning. I will say that this book does get fairly circular/confusing, so if people prefer more clear cut and straight forward climaxes & resolutions, I’d err on the side of caution before reading this, but I found I didn’t mind it!

My oh-so-eloquent first thoughts upon finishing were probably: what in the absolute f*ck. Wow.

I will also note because I quite literally never read horror, I didn’t read it expecting to be scared. And I wasn’t. It was spooky and exciting for sure, though!

I will definitely be buying this come October and can’t wait to add it to my print book collection. I absolutely LOVE the cover as well.

Starling is a household name in the horror community. However, this book disappointed. Seemed it could have been about a third as long with its rambling and purposeless inner dialogue of the protagonist. Starling seems to have attempted to write 3 or 4 different stories and didn't finish any of them in this hefty story. I wish I loved this story because it has so many lovely aspects of gothic horror but I believe the author just attempted too much and couldn't focus her story enough to make a cohesive, well-written story.

The cover and description of this book really drew me in, however the content was at times hard for me to get through and personally felt a little over descriptive. I still found it to be enjoyable!

What a wild book! A definite slow burn gothic tale that draws you into its mysteries. Even when I felt the book was a little slow-going, I persevered to see how the author would navigate the rest of the story. The titular Jane is a mighty character; she's even stronger than she knows. Allusions to Rebecca and Crimson Peak are spot on. I do recommend this for its strong storytelling, character work and world building, as long as you're in it for the long haul.

Oh man, where do I even start with this one. It’s been super gloomy and rainy these past few days, so I felt that a gothic horror with elements of crimson peak and house of leaves would be a good choice. I couldn’t have picked a better book if I tried. The Death of Jane Lawrence gripped me from the very beginning and didn’t let go until the very last word. I expected this to be a run of the mill horror novel with a couple good frights featuring a generic main character only interested in marriage and her husband. This book took those expectations and repeatedly slapped me in the face with them for ever assuming Jane could be generic or weak willed. Every time I thought I knew which way the novel was proceeding, the rug was pulled out from under me in the best possible way. The starting concept is a marriage of convenience, followed by the introduction of a spooky semi abandoned manor, which is then joined by ghosts, betrayal, magic and....math? Seriously, if math had been taught as a system akin to magic in school, it might not have been my least favorite subject. Jane as a character was so fleshed out and complex, a 3D character in a genre where women are often used for shock value or thrown under the bus at the first sign of spooky conflict. She makes mistakes, she falters and questions herself but she also pushes past that doubt and works to better herself, the world around her and right her own wrongs. The only thing I wish was slightly more fleshed out is the fact that this all takes place in a mythical world. I would have loved to see more information or world building in regards to that choice, because there’s so much potential there that could have been utilized.
Overall, it’s an easy five stars, and I’ve already placed the novel on my preorder list for when it comes out in October!


(Also correct me if I’m wrong, because I’m not autistic myself, but it did seem like Jane’s behavior and mannerisms were autism-coded as well I.e. her fixation with numbers/math and using them to understand the world around her, her mention of not being able to understand social cues or having to learn to make eye contact. If that is the case, then I’d be interested to see what others think of her as representation!)

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I thought about giving up on it very early on as it was not what I had expected but I forced myself to keep reading until almost the halfway point before deciding that this would not get any better and giving up. This book is boring and completely failed to hold my interest. The characters are very flat and lacking well roundedness. While Jane has the most appealing personality, with the potential to change her otherwise far too business minded and detached persona, the other characters are even colder and almost comically awful. This book is set in a different world that has been characterized by war and where religion is gone. The characters are practicing a dangerous black magic. The beginning of the book has a lot of emphasis on the gory details of a medical practice before Jane gets to the house she was never meant to see. Jane is very number oriented which leads to lengthy sections on math which did not help the pacing of the story in my opinion. After giving up on this story I had no interest at all in what was happening or where the story was going so I cannot recommend it. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Can I first say that COVER! Wow wow wow that had me wanting to read this book when I saw it immediately! This book was amazing and horrific in all of the best ways possible!

If you want a novel full of gothic suspense and dark story telling, this is your sign to run and buy a copy of this book as soon as possible! You can thank me later!

Thank you for the ARC of this book!

Jane Shoringfield is looking for a husband - but on her own terms. She's not looking for romance; rather, she's looking for a partner that will allow her to maintain her independence and continue her work as a bookkeeper. She chooses Dr. Augustine Lawrence, the reclusive town doctor. He agrees to the marriage on one condition - she can never spend the night at his country home. After their wedding, an accident leaves Jane stranded by Lawrence's manor and she must immediately break her promise. To her surprise and confusion, the Dr. Lawrence she finds in the manor at night is not the mild mannered, confident doctor she married...

The Death of Jane Lawrence starts off strong with a haunting, off-kilter atmosphere. The first few chapters are binge-worthy as Jane and Augustine engage in their brief courtship. The two have an intriguing spark that drives the plot forward. Caitlin Starling also does a great job sprinkling gothic vibes throughout - the descriptions of Augustine's study and medical collections, the superstitions and folklore represented in the architecture, the bone rings, hints of dark magic. Based on the first few chapters, I had really high expectations for this book.

However, as soon as Jane got to Dr. Lawrence's country manor, the book lost all of its momentum for me. While the gothic horror aspect got stronger and there were parts that were genuinely spooky (which I'm all about), the plot just fell apart for me. So much so that I DNF this book at 50%,

While The Death of Jane Lawrence was not for me, I do think that there are others who would enjoy it. Starling does a fantastic job of creating a haunting, gothic atmosphere. There are genuinely scary moments that other horror readers would enjoy. There is a lot of world-building that goes in to Dr. Lawrence's background and the manor's creepiness that - while not for me - will definitely be engaging for other fantasy/horror readers.

This book was extremely engaging and I got very sucked into the story and the creepiness and I had to find out what happened to Jane. While there were many great twists, I was expecting one big one based on what the author had written but when it finally happened, it wasn't quite what I was anticipating though it was still a great ending. Overall, this book is scary in unexpected ways and manages to breathe fresh life into many typical horror tropes. It's very well-written, not hard to read at all for a pseudo-historical/fantasy novel. Really great mash up of genres and a quick-paced read!

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling is a gothic horror story and much more -- it's mystery, magic, and a sort-of love story too. The author weaves a spine tingling tale that is both terrifying and mesmerizing. I couldn't put it down and suspect this will be on the top of ever horror reader's list for the year.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first gothic/horror book I've read but it's now a genre that I'll be looking for more often. This story just builds in mystery and intensity page after page until you can't put it down. I thought I knew how it was going to end, I had several assumptions, but they were all wrong! I love it when a book is unpredictable.

A gothic horror novel, complete with dark, crumbling ancestral family home, a secretive husband, a mysterious group of “old friends”, and magic. The novel is set in “a dark version of post-war England” which may be interesting but frankly doesn’t add much to the story.

The heroine is fearless, independent and a quick learner. Her mathematical abilities are obviously on a different plane than mine; I would have appreciated a more understandable link between her pure maths and the goings-on in the family home.

Easy beach read.

The Death of Jane Lawrence boasts inspiration from stories like Crimson Peak and Rebecca, but the biggest difference between these stories is that Jane Lawrence packs all the punches and isn’t afraid to go beyond what you would expect from a gothic horror novel. Don’t get me wrong, Crimson Peak and Rebecca are equally deserving of their praise, but Jane Lawrence pushes the envelope, diving deeper into a truly haunting world that will leave you questioning what, exactly, you just read.

Jane Lawrence stayed with me for days after finishing because the story is so beautiful and intricate. I was immediately drawn into the world here, and I found Jane to be an incredible heroine. She researches the best option for a husband in a marriage of convenience. She’s uninterested in romance; she just wants to keep her life as familiar as possible but knows it’s unrealistic to be a single woman in this era. Jane is fiercely independent, intelligent, and unafraid – all traits that take her far with everything she faces in this story. Most women in horror stories make foolish decisions or fall apart easily, but Jane discovered the deep horrors of Lindridge Hall and quickly adapted to her surroundings to survive.

Lindgridge Hall is truly remarkable, and I loved how atmospheric this story became once Jane first stepped foot inside. Augustine lives in a crumbling, dilapidated manor with only one cook and one housekeeper, both of whom leave the residence at nightfall. It’s depressing and just the right amount of spooky without being cliche. I’m truly jealous of people who will read this on its release date in October, because I think it’ll be a perfect Halloween read.

I was expecting a standard haunted house story here, and I honestly was not prepared for what transpired later, but I loved it. The direction this story went was so unique compared to most horror novels out there, and it wasn’t afraid to include some truly terrible things. There were times I was a bit squeamish, uncomfortable, and downright scared, which are all traits that most horror writers thrive for but almost none achieve. Jane Lawrence ticked all the boxes here.

The only reason for not giving this a full five stars was because I sometimes felt like the story got long-winded. The later portion of the story revolves around Jane working on one task over the course of a few days, and it became a bit too repetitive. There’s also a “reveal” toward the end that I really enjoyed, but I wish the story had ended more abruptly there instead of tying up all loose ends and dragging out the story more. I think it would have landed a bigger punch had the reader gotten less closure, especially about certain characters, but I understand not everyone will feel the same and will want that closure from this story.

The Death of Jane Lawrence features very appealing characters somewhere in a fictional version of England where there was a war with bombings but everyone is still using horses and carriages; bleeding and leeches? Where did the bombs come from?

In any case, Jane is a desperate spinster who set out to find a husband using math and statistics. Her top choice is a doctor named Augustine who is willing to marry her as a "business transaction" in which she keeps the books but is not allowed to stay the night in his spooky haunted house. Instead, she will live at the surgery. Jane is supposed to go to work as a sort of secretary/accountant/nurse for Augustine in exchange for wife status and shelter. Her first experience as a nurse is a gruesome excision of a twisted bowel. in a scene with blood, rot, and feces, and she discovers that the patient is a sorcerer. They think they have saved the sorcerer, but he dies. Augustine puts his bowel in a jar.

The blood-soaked couple fall in love, the road washes out so that Jane is forced to sleep there instead of the office, they consummate the marriage which they are bummed/stoked about (their agreement was wishy-washy on the sex part), and the house and its ghosts come slinking onstage. Augustine has an ex-wife, Elodie, whom he may or may not have killed. She is the main ghost at Lindridge Hall and struck me as the only scary ghost.

Despite the highly improbable world, this is a decent setup for a gothic novel, right? Or a gothic novel, or a horror novel, or all three. How can this premise possibly fail? By throwing out all attempts at a coherent plot and making absolutely nothing make sense from here on out. You don't know which door is which, which wall is which, what part of the house you are even in, or which character is conscious, dreaming, alive, dead, real, unreal.

I'm pretty sure, based on outside accounts by household staff, that Augustine goes missing. Jane decides that only some combination of math and magic can get him back. For a week after her husband vanishes, without being arrested, committed to a madhouse, or even questioned by police, Jane tries to reconcile math and magic through lengthy musings about things like fitting triangles into circles and making ones into zeroes. She draws a lot of chalk circles, sees a lot of visions, eats a lot of eggs, has a lot of bad hair days, and chants many chants until she tells us that she dies and also that she doesn't.

After what seemed like ages of stumbling around with Jane and her chalk and candles and spell books (even though the book is probably too short to do justice to the premise), a questionable ending is abruptly brought out of the haze like a rabbit out of a hat. Since I like my weirdness to have some kind of scaffolding around it, I had a very tedious time of it.

Rare is the book that can thwart your expectations at every turn. To do so requires a deft hand and knowledge of conventions that feels almost…magical. Getting to encounter a book like that, that sees the walls and boxes you have built for it and slowly tears them down brick by firmly placed brick, is nothing short of enchanting. Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered Caitlin Starling's The Death of Jane Lawrence, a book that seemed absolutely set on laughing in the face of my every plot prediction all the way through the last page.

Jane is a methodical woman. She tethers herself to the world not through her relationships with people but through her business-like connection to their numbers. Faced with the choice to either marry or return to her childhood home and the ghosts of memories too painful to let surface, she sets out on a plan to marry the local surgeon, presenting it foremost as a business proposal through which they hardly have to interact at all. But the surgeon, Augustine Lawrence, though equally pleased and baffled with this remarkably perfect proposition, has secrets of his own. Secrets he would rather keep isolated and buried as deeply as possible. As he and Jane grow closer and more intimate almost despite themselves, Jane must face the truth of all hastily planned marriages to people you've just met: perhaps the man she married is not the man she thought she knew at all. The further she goes into his labyrinthine mystery, the more she must ask herself, is the man she loves worth dying for?

I'll be honest about a few things up front: 1) the cover to this novel is so gruesomely, intricately beautiful on first glance it led me to request the book before I'd even made it halfway through the summary; 2) because of the first glance at the cover and my own expectations I fully expected this to be a Frankenstein-esque story; 3) I was not right, but I wasn't not right either. Jane Lawrence dances among the fields of Gothic horror at its peak romantic and creepy, maniacally cackling at the reader's audacity for predicting the plot's next turns. Part Du Maurier, part Shelley, part Bronte, Starling calls upon the powerhouse voices of haunted horror before her and bends them to her own will.

There was never a point in my reading of this novel where I knew where it was going to take me, but there were several where it seeped under my skin enough to force me to set it down for a bit in search of some lighter fare. Starling's ability to conjure worlds with her words is so vivid and demanding that I often did not feel the story's tendrils creeping up on me until they had tightened around my throat to catch my breath. If all that sounds a little hyperbolic, tell me, what was the last book that made you look askance at mirrors and windows and the angles of your houseframe? That made you jump at every unexpected noise?

Perhaps it worked its magic so well on me because I simply did not expect it to. I knew, of course, that it would be good - I have been fortunate in my granted choices to almost never be disappointed - but I did not expect it to dive so deeply into the darkness it probes. Even the one detail of Jane's past that comes up often enough to feel a bit repetitive is eventually turned on readers with an icy and effective hand. Here there lie ghosts and body horror, secrets and magic, and the shifting fabric of truth itself. Starling is your guide through the fluctuating waves of belief, and though you may enter her domain confident in your path, you will come out the other side more than a little bewildered at the journey and the sights she had to show you.

Did you like Crimson Peak but hated Thomas's sister? Then do I have the book for you.

This was a book that kind of creeps up on you. Within our first chapter we meet Jane and Dr. Augustine Lawrence, there's a marriage proposal, and we understand that Jane is almost analytical to a fault. Augustine only agrees to the marriage if Jane never comes to his family home. Obviously through a series of misunderstandings and accidents Jane ends up at Lindridge Hall, the manor is crumbling and has an abandoned feel to it. It is anything but abandoned, and there is more to Augustine than he originally let on; and Jane is going to get to the bottom of things.

I really enjoyed this book, despite expecting some of the plot points. It was beautifully atmospheric, and I could so vividly visualize Lindridge Hall. Points were unexpectedly gorey, so I'd read with caution if that's something that you are sensitive to. I would love to see this adapted into either a movie or a mini series. Think Guillermo del Toro or Mike Flanagan getting their hands on this story *swoon*

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I really enjoyed this one and read it in one day. Look forward to much more by this author.

The first 3/4ths of this book were great. I was able to easily follow the story and stay invested. The last 1/4, I got a little lost. Well, more than a little. I finished this a few hours ago and am still trying to figure out what happened.
I loved some of the reveals, like that it had been Jane and not Elodie the whole time. (Although, that one time when Elodie put her finger to her lips and Jane fainted is never addressed, I don't think?) I loved the whole gross malformed magic thing that Augustine had to remove from Jane's stomach!
The elements of horror were really well done, and coalesced nicely with the reality of how gory practicing medicine was pre-20th century.
In the end, I would've liked a little more explanation. What were the statues that were haunting Jane and Augustine? Demons? Monsters? Why/How did Jane come back to life? Why did the lights go out at the end of the book? Is Jane going to experience the same hauntings Augustine did? Even though she prevailed over the statues? I'm so confused!
I'm going to go read through reviews others have posted on Goodreads and see if they clear anything up for me.
In any case, if these questions are answered in the final version of the book, I think this will be a great addition to the contemporary horror canon.

Excellent gothic horror novel! This was a real page turner. Looking forward to reading more by this author!

WOW.

This is my first book by Caitlin Starling and it most certainly will not be my last! To be fully transparent with you, I requested this ARC on NetGalley 100% because I thought the cover art was extremely interesting and piqued my curiosity. The book description cemented that it would be a great choice, based on my tastes.

I intended to just read a couple of chapters the night that I started, but I was instantly hooked by this book. Instantly. I read until my eyes couldn't stay open anymore. I'm someone who typically has 4-5 books going at a time, but the next morning when I woke up - my first thought was of this book. I was completely obsessed. There was a portion in the latter section of the story that was dragged out a touch too long and was a bit boring, but the author really slammed a homerun with what she did following that part.

Enough gushing - let's chat about this book. It is a gothic horror threaded with mystery and anticipation. The creep factor was on point and prevalent throughout - which I loved. I did think early on the author revealed something too early and that it would ruin that whole "I'm a bit hesitant to turn the page for what may happen next, but too addicted not to" feeling - but again, the author was able to regain it in a different fashion that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The story is unique in that a young woman, Jane, proposes to the new town doctor, Augustine. Jane is an orphan whose guardians are moving and Jane does not want to be a burden upon them as her funds are running low. Jane loves her quiet, in the background life and feels this business arrangement in the form of marriage will be the perfect solution.

Ah, but the heart wants what it wants, does it not? The terms of their arrangement are quickly discarded and even though Jane is not supposed to ever visit Augustine at his home, a series of unfortunate events find her there and tangles the couple up in a house that is filled with mystery.....and death.

I loved this story. I love the use of logic and supernatural. The character of Jane was so easy for me to relate to and attach my emotions to. I had heard this book compared to tales by Shirley Jackson, House of Leaves and Rebecca and I can definitely confirm that those are accurate.

I fully intend to read more of Starling's work - it is always a wonderful experience to love a book so much that you also fall in love with the author!