I have to say it... I am absolutely in love with this book cover. It is just stunning to look at (and believe me I have looked at it repeatedly!). You can't judge a book by its cover but in this case the story inside this glorious cover did not let me down.

I'll admit, it was a bit of a slow start between me and "The Death of Jane Lawrence". I was initially drawn in due to the comparisons to Crimson Peak (a favorite film of mine) and the fact that the author has several well written horror stories (definitely check out the Luminous Dead if you have not). Still, I was not immediately drawn in like I expected to be but once we got to the house THAT is when I couldn't put it down. I will not be going into any kind of spoiler territory because, personally, the best thing about horror, mystery, or thriller novels is the journey without any kind of hint of what is to come.

All in all, I'm glad I got the chance to give this an early read and review and I can't wait to have it on my shelf later this year. Honestly, it's the perfect autumn read in the dark.

This book is the usual gothic haunted house scenario, but with some original elements. It’s subtly set in an alternative world, which was jarring at first as I tried to figure it out. The characters live in Great Breltain (“Was that a typo?” I wondered the first time I read it) and our undaunted protagonist, Jane, grew up in a different land, Ruzka, where she suffered through bombings and destruction from war. These slightly skewed place names with obvious counterparts begs the question as to why the author bothered with these maneuvers instead of just placing us in post-WWII London.

Jane and Augustine, the local doctor, agree to a business-like marriage arrangement: she’ll keep his accounts and he’ll continue his clinical practice. She gets room and board and he gains a reputation for normality by taking a wife. His only stipulation is that he must sleep alone at his ancestral home and Jane will remain in town, which is fine with her, as she’d like to avoid any marital obligations in that regard.
Of course, things get romantically complicated, but this is by no means a romance story. Jane’s devotion to logic and mathematics collide with the metaphysical to create a strange ghost story steeped in eerie rituals, gore, and achronological games of life and death.

Rather than summarize the plot, I’ll just tell you:
The Good:
o The use of mathematical inquiry and the concept of zero to make sense of death and transcendence
o Jane’s struggle with moral goodness and empathy
o Gruesome descriptions to accentuate the eerie atmosphere

The Not-So-Good:
o A repetitive saga near the end of the book with never-ending descriptions of Jane trapped in an ascetic ritual stupor
o Chapter Zero, which was so rife with obfuscation that I had to read it twice to parcel out information from the irrational, Twin-Peaksy imagery
o Typical horror-story tidy ending

Despite the list of not-so-good, it’s definitely worth reading, and I will be on the lookout for more from this author. Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy.

Huge amount of thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an electronic arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Death of Jane Lawrence is best described as a gothic horror novel that had me jumpy while reading at night.
Jane is a practical girl, preferring numbers and order to almost anything. Her marriage to Dr. Augustine Lawrence is nothing more than a business arrangement, beneficial to them both. Jane soon finds out there is nothing beneficial to this arrangement and her husband is far from what he seems.
She discovers hidden things, horrible things, within the walls of Lindridge Hall, her husband’s family home. A house worthy of its own paragraph, it was wonderfully and creepily described. A perfect setting for a horror novel.
A bit of a slow burn, but the ending tied everything up neatly.

The Death of Jane Lawrence is a spooky gothic thriller, perfect for fans of Jane Eyre or Rebecca. Set on a gloomy estate in a county similar to the UK, Jane, a nerdy but sharp woman thinks she's found her way in the world when she manages to get a mysterious doctor to agree to marry her, as a partnership of sorts. But the secrets in the estate threatened to tear apart their marriage and kill her in the process.

I couldn't put this one down, but I had to dock it one star because the book contained more gore and darkness than I felt was necessary. It set the scene, but sometimes I had to skip a few paragraphs due to being grossed out.

What a delicious novel. Not what I was expecting. I absolutely loved it! Gothic horror at its best. Macabre, dark, suspenseful. The first two days of Jane’s plan were a little tedious, but that was the only fault I really found with it. I did get a little confused at the end, but I’m OK with that. It was a complex, entangled story. It is definitely one that I would read again and one that I would like to discuss with others. It leaves you thinking. I did not want to put this book down! I had this feeling of excitement the entire time I was reading it. I enjoyed it so much. My favorite read of 2021 so far! This book was carefully and skillfully written. I will read the other book and novella that is by this author.

Thank you Net galley and the publisher, St. Martin’s Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #The DeathofJaneLawrence

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling is a masterpiece of gothic fantasy, a romance between a lady and a doctor set in an aged and antiquarian manor. When I saw the description comparing this book to Crimson Peak, I knew that I had to add it to my TBR. Crimson Peak is one of my favorite movies because of its setting. I've had daydreams of running away from a murderer in a haunted castle while my dress swirls around me. Let me tell you, The Death of Jane Lawrence delivers! So many other books try and fail to sound Victorian, but Caitlin Starling manages to do it without turning camp. The book felt like it was written in the 19th century. I put on a playlist of Victorian-inspired music while I was reading this book, and I was transported back in time.

The plot of the book revolves around a romance between the titular Jane and Augustine, a handsome doctor who may be hiding dark secrets. Jane convinces him to marry her as a "business arrangement," not for love. He agrees as long as she holds up her end of the bargain, which includes never visit him at Lindridge Hall, the manor where he spends his night. The setting of the story is important, and Starling does an stunning job describing the Gothic location. Here is a quote from Chapter Nine when Jane explores the manor:

"She drew back dusty curtains to let the watery sunlight spill inside the house, and wondered at the small things she found abandoned. An iron candlestick with a half taper of melted wax here, a sheaf of pianoforte music there . . . all of them fragments of a life that had once been lived here. "

The descriptions are done exquisitely. In addition, the book is a perfect example of Gothic horror This story is not for the squeamish. Besides for detailed descriptions of bloody and gory medical procedures, the book also includes ghostly hauntings of the type in Crimson Peak. One difference between this book and Crimson Peak is that I feel that Jane had more agency and willpower as a protagonist. From the beginning, she is a maker of her own destiny and refuses to let anyone keep her down. A second difference is that this book features magic a lot more prominently. I was reminded of the magic system in VIta Nostra, one of my favorite books. It's beyond logical explanation, and the prose evokes that mysterious, unknown quality.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book so much that I'm going to look up the rest of Starling's books. I don't think the genius writing in this book is a one-off, so I think her other books will be just as impressive. If you liked Crimson Peak, you won't regret reading The Death of Jane Lawrence when it comes out in October.

So, that was intense. A gothic mix-up of horror, hauntings and magic, the story had the potential of being super creepy and at the same time fantastical. I found myself questioning everything I was reading to the point of exhaustion. I know it's just me and not the book, because the writing was good. I just lost patience in trying to figure out who was dead, who was alive and what was going on in that weird-ass house.

I'm sure this book appeals to many fans of the genre, it just wasn't for me. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Death of Jane Lawrence.

I had a very hard time staying interested in this book. The premise sounded great! A marriage of convenience, a spooky house, and the handsome, single, new doctor who insists on living in said house, alone! Unfortunately, it was just too painfully slow. So much of the tension you want from a gothic horror was dispelled by all the droning on about math and magic. Honestly, the whole magic storyline felt really out of place for me. Doctors are typically very science and evidence minded and the era the story was set in (I'm assuming late 1800/early 1900s?) didn't feel conducive to the seemingly wide spread use of magic. I also feel like there was never a good explanation for many of what seemed like pertinent plot points. All the odd parts Augustine removed from patients and kept? No point! What Jane was trying to accomplish with her conjuring? Never actually explained. What universe was this supposed to be set in? Practicing magic doesn't seem taboo, so I really couldn't get a grasp on the setting. I'm sure some people liked the ending, but I did not. Overall, I'm giving this 3 stars because 2 feels too mean...

First off, I absolutely loved the comps this book had; Shirley Jackson, Rebecca, Crimson Peak, all excellent archetypes of gothic tone and plot. This was the perfect book to bring me out of a reading slump.

Starling’s novel centers around Jane Shoringfield, an educated woman at a crossroads in life: she’s either to move to Camhurst with her guardians, an arrangement to which she is adamantly opposed, or to engage qualified suitors for a marriage of convenience. In Augustine Lawrence, she sees opportunities for the latter; an eligible clinician recently assimilated into the small town of Larrenton, Jane employs persuasive argument in hopes of scoring grander purpose in matrimony. Jane’s logic is unrelenting, and, after expressing his doubts, the good doctor accepts.

What follows this calculated courtship is nothing less than a complete revelation to them both, as the Lawrences quickly learn that, despite their initial intentions, there are very few boundaries that can be upheld; between the personal and professional, the spatial borders between lovers and friends, and even that between life and death. Especially at Lindridge Hall, where the workings of magic conjure spectral visions that will bring about possibilities that can either deepen the lovers’ intimacy or threaten to sow the seeds of their undoing.

The Death of Jane Lawrence is definitely a rollercoaster of a novel. At first an introduction to the socio-economic structure of Victorian post-war England, you’re quickly drawn into the operating room as witness to a gory surgical operation, only to be shortly thereafter thrown into the inescapable and claustrophobic setting of Lindridge Hall, a residential palimpsest of past, present and future that inevitably unravels the traumas of its current and former residents.

Starling’s novel is intricately told, and her inventive descriptions of magic and ritual are a breath of fresh air when compared to other works in the genre that simply borrow from the canon. I only wish I’d been able to complete my reading in fewer sittings rather than with a few days’ interruption, as I’m sure that this contributed to some of the disconnection I felt when returning to this novel. Nonetheless, this was a great read that has me excited to devour whatever else Starling has to offer in future.

This is definitely a novel to look out for when it comes out in October!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this evocative read.

This highly-anticipated October release will be perfect timing for fans of thrillers and suspense.

Think Crimson Peak meets Jane Eyre, this gothic drama is perfect Halloween reading material.

Jane thinks she’s found the perfect solution for her independent lifestyle in Dr. Augustine Lawrence, but all is not as it seems.

Things start to go awry early in the book, and only continue to get more suspenseful from there.

I’ll be honest and say the ending wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for, but I did really enjoy the plot twists that Starling threw at us.

So excited to have been able to read an advanced copy!! I can’t wait to discuss it with my bookish friends.

I came for the cover, I stayed for the story. This was the perfect blend of historical fiction goodness with dark and creepy magic. Jane marries a doctor in what is supposed to be a business arrangement but turns so much more. Secrets, a bit of love story, and all the creepy.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for a review.

So, this started off very promising. I love Gothic literature and the comparisons to Crimson Peak and Rebecca completely sold me. Set in an alternate timeline of post war England the story centers around Jane who enters a marriage of convenience with the local doctor, Augustine. One of the terms of marriage is Jane never stays at his home Lindridge Hall. When an accident on their wedding night strands her there, she sees a completely different side to her husband. He's frightened and thinks she's a ghost. The next day Augustine is completely normal. Disturbed, Jane is determined to find out what is really happening at Lindridge Hall.

The first half of the book I loved. The pace was perfect. The author's prose is beautiful, and the mystery kept me on the edge of my seat. But the middle started to drag. Way too many details, the story meandered. And became so very boring and awfully confusing. It felt like it should have ended at certain points but kept going and going. I don't even, after endless details, know what Jane was trying to accomplish with her,"rituals." It could easily be a 5 star book with a few rewrites and some editing. All in all I rate it 3/5

Instagram review is up. Username: booknookcook04

The Death Of Jane Lawrence is a great read. The book held all kinds of surprises that I didn’t expect from the description. Jane finds herself in need of a husband. Set in a fictional area that mirrors London, Jane’s adoptive family is moving. She doesn’t want to leave the area. So she’s in search of a bachelor who she believes would be a good match for her. Jane is a math whiz and is always calculating her risks and benefits. Augustine Lawrence is a widower. He’s also the town surgeon. He and Jane reach a business agreement, she will be his assistant and do his accounting and they will marry - in name only. Dr. Lawrence has many secrets, one being the attachment to his manor. His manor is haunted by the ghosts of past patients and his dead wife. When Dr. Lawrence finds himself in grave danger, Jane must use all of her math skills to produce the magic to save him and make the ghosts disappear.
The story and the characters will draw you in. The story line is spun perfectly.

This book hooked me from the start. It had some sweet romance without being too over the top. Then it had mystery and suspense. I was eager to know what exactly was going on. It did drag a bit too much for me towards the end but I still enjoyed this book immensely!

The Luminous Dead blew me away, and Yellow Jessamine was an amazing novella follow-up. When I saw the announcement for The Death of Jane Lawrence, I knew I had to get my hands on it, and I was thrilled to be approved. While this title doesn't come out until October, I couldn't leave it in my queue a minute longer.

When Jane approaches Dr. Augustine Lawrence with a marriage proposition, she has every intention of keeping things strictly business. She wants autonomy, to work with numbers, and Augustine seems like a solid match. But when things progress between them and Jane spends the night at his decrepit estate, she soon realizes that there is much more to their arrangement. Ghosts, magic, murder--Jane doesn't know what to believe, but she's determined to find out.

I *loved* this book.

Let me start by saying, I don't scare easily. I love ghost stories. Haunted houses are my jam. But it's difficult to execute a scare that feels original and true to the genre at the same time. Starling, however, nails her execution. While we often talk about world building in fantasy, there is a great deal of scene-setting happening here, subtle details and meticulous structure that breathes authenticity into the story. Jane's world is so tangible, so realistic, it is nearly impossible not be in the surgery with her in those first harrowing pages. Visceral imagery steals the show, but characters also have rich histories, complex family turmoil, societal expectations that are close to but not quite the norm you might expect. It almost feels like you're reading of a parallel universe that is simultaneously overlapped with our own.

No spoilers, of course, but there is some matrix-level analyses of fear, time, identity, and womanhood that I won't be able to shake any time soon. Starling's writing highlights many relevant issues and does so while juggling supernatural beings that will literally haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life.

Overall, The Death of Jane Lawrence is a chilling, haunting, un-put-downable read that will leave you gutted. I highly recommend to anyone looking for a period-esque horror, haunted house horror, or anyone who is looking for an unforgettable read.

Huge thanks to St. Martin's and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Book Review for The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
Full review for this title will be posted at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling is a horror story built on a foundation of traditional gothic elements. The novel opens with Jane Shoringfield, a pragmatic and mathematically gifted woman who negotiates her own marriage of convenience to Dr. Augustine Lawrence to ensure her continued security and independence. The good doctor only has one request—that Jane spends her nights in a room above his surgery, and he in his labyrinthine home at Lindridge Hall. But that’s easier said than done, and Jane finds herself in Lindridge Hall on her wedding night, where she quickly discovers her new husband is hiding disturbing secrets about his past. That’s only the beginning of her troubles.

A problem solver by nature, Jane is doggedly determined to save her husband from the vagaries of his eerie family home, even as they become more and more unexplainable. Regardless, she persists, and it is her resolve that makes her relatable if not likable. The most interesting part of Jane’s character arc is the way she questions her own monstrousness from the very beginning. At first, it’s because she fears she’s focused too heavily on logic over emotion, but as the story progresses, Jane succumbs many times to emotional whims, and interestingly enough, it is only then she becomes unrecognizable. Was she a monster before? Or is The Death of Jane Lawrence the origin story of the monster she becomes?

Starling’s use of magic as a metaphysical concept that challenges Jane’s logical and orderly view of the world is fascinating. As Jane methodically deconstructs and revises what she knows to be true, readers settle into an understanding of how magic is meant to function in Starling’s novel. Particularly creative is Starling’s use of the concept of zero as “everything and nothing,” which serves as the backbone for her depiction of magic. However, I wish Starling had done more to explain the greater role magic plays in her fictional world and why physicians, in particular, practice it. Perhaps it's meant to parallel the arguably god-like role they take in attempting to cure or reverse injuries and illnesses. Even so, considering Jane manages to learn magic, surely physicians aren’t the only ones who practice. How common is magic in this world? It’s difficult to tell, given Jane’s humble upbringing.

Starling’s prose is melodramatic and overwrought, which at first does wonders to establish the picturesque scenery of a gloomy little town in an alternate version of post-war England. However, this strength becomes a weakness during the second half of the novel, where it often feels as though readers could skip pages at a time without losing a sense of the overall plot. The extremely redundant nature of the seven-day spell Jane casts at one point was particularly tedious to read. In general, the prose is beautiful, the details unsettling and gruesome and delightfully spooky, but they’re truly unnecessary after a certain point. Kill your darlings, as they say.

The final “revelation,” which occurs in one particular chapter near the end of the novel, closes the loop with regards to several plot points that seem misleading or arbitrary until readers are plunged into that chapter. It is deeply satisfying…until the novel just keeps going! The Death of Jane Lawrence would’ve been so much spookier if everything had ended right after the revelation. I almost thought that’s where it all ended until I turned the page! Nevertheless, the actual ending is unsettling in its own right. In proper gothic fashion, readers reach the conclusion and wonder how much of it was real and whether the supernatural elements can or should be rationalized. That’s one of my favorite elements in gothic literature, and Starling executes it so well.

The Death of Jane Lawrence is a creative take on gothic literature and boasts some of the creepiest scares I've seen recently in a novel, especially towards the beginning, when suspense is at an all-time high. I couldn’t walk past reflective surfaces at night for nearly a week without fretting a little! However, the dense prose and excessive, rambling explanations to validate the pseudo-science behind the magic only disorients the reader and makes the second half of the story drag. Despite my misgivings, it is worth checking out if you enjoyed Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, yet another novel that puts a modern spin on the horror-gothic mash-up with a deliciously slow and suspenseful exploration of the uncanny, or other familiar gothic stories like Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edith Wharton’s “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell,” or Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Death of Jane Lawrence is the gothic horror you crave when the others are just a bit too gentle. This dark, fantastic tale of blood and ghosts is best read without too many preconceptions; readers need to make their own decisions about reality in this tale. Shadows and dark magic abound, and it's deliciously frightful.

Characteristics:
Pace: medium paced
Moods: tense, mysterious
Plot or Character-Driven: a bit of a mix
Strong Character Development: sort of complicated
Loveable Characters: not really
Diverse Cast: no
Flaws of the Main Characters a Center Focus: not really

Overview:
Jane Shoringfield is a very mathematically, logically-brained single woman in need of a husband. Left as an orphan in the aftermath of war, she's been living out her days with a kind, elderly couple who have decided to make a move to a different city. Jane would become more of a burden if she were to make the move, so instead settles her mind to find herself a husband, marriage being strictly a business transaction, nothing more. Enter Mr. Augustine Lawrence, a talented surgeon with a bit of a hazy past but a willing candidate. His only request is that they keep their nights separate: him at his home at Lindridge Hall, and Jane in a room above the surgery. Things, of course, quickly diverge from the plan and after staying one night at Lawrence's home, Jane realizes things are very wrong and the man she married is entirely not himself but a shell of a man, paranoid and haunted.

My Thoughts:
This book was advertised as a mix of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell meets Crimson Peak meets Mexican Gothic, and the author, Caitlin Starling, was nominated for a Brom Stoker award. The overall description of the story and other promotional blurbs really hooked me in quickly; they said absolutely everything they needed to in order for me to believe this would be another favorite for the year. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell as well as Mexican Gothic have both been two favorites. I was hopeful that The Death of Jane Lawrence would join their ranks, but it fell a little bit short for me. While I did enjoy it overall, it was missing that special something that leaves me raving and adding a new book to the "favorites" shelf.

What I Enjoyed:
- I loved the classic "something is not right here" vibes that it gave.
- There are definitely a lot of eerie things happening within Lindridge Hall that the reader doesn't fully understand or come to realize until we get more towards the end. As a note, these eerie things aren't creepy enough to leave you wishing you'd read the book only during the day time.
- I enjoyed the little elements of magic that were incorporated.
- I also appreciated the historical elements that were embedded (at one point Augustine and Jane, respectively, use cocaine in order to stay awake and sharpen their focus; another doctor friend of Augustine's visits who seems to have an interesting history with asylums and those suffering from "madness").

What I Didn't Love:
- The magical aspect fell short for me. While I was glad it was incorporated, it felt like it wasn't fully fleshed out to its full potential. There were mathematical elements that were very entwined with the magic system and I didn't find it to work as well as I would've hoped.
- Jane, being incredibly mathematically-focused (always crunching numbers it seemed like), brought a level of logic to the story, which was fine and great to have a main female character who was entirely rational, but, again, the mathematical aspects seemed to take up a bit more of the stage than I would've liked, though the author incorporated it within the magical system, so all of it was very tangled up together.
- The entire story is told from Jane's point of view, and while I wanted to like her, she just wasn't that likeable. I didn't dislike her, but I didn't really love her either.
- There was a bit of a sort of twist at the end that wasn't as well explained as it could've been and there seemed to be some plot holes that were left a bit open.
- In order for it to be anywhere in the realm of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, it would've needed to be twice as long, the magical system significantly more developed, a bit more humor and fun, eclectic characters, and even some other points of view to add more layers of complexity. I went in with really high expectations I think because of the blurbs with all the right words, but it fell a bit short.

Overall, I DID still enjoy this book and entirely think it's a great one to add to your TBR if you enjoy the eerie vibes of Daphne du Maurier's works along with some of the weirdness that Mexican Gothic provided. If you're a big fan of Susanna Clarke and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, set the bar a little lower and you won't be too disappointed.

This novel left me speechless. This story haunted my dreams in the form of nightmares. It brought me in the mindset of The Haunting of Hill House. I was genuinely scared but could not put this book down. I do not read much in the way of horror just because I scare easily and reading a book and conjuring the scene in your mind is far scarier than watching it on television. So, if the author wanted to frighten its readers while composing a fantastic story, I would say she had done exactly what she set out to do.

Jane wanted a marriage of convenience, one that could be benefit her and her partner. She complied a list and the good of doctor of her town made the cut. The doctor had no intentions of marrying but Jane was persistent and very convincing and explained it as a business arrangement rather than a marriage and the doctor agreed. The fact that she is beautiful, hard working and not afraid to get her hands dirty also help persuade the doctor. The only thing he asked her is that she never visit Lindridge hall.

Unfortunately, because of circumstances beyond either one of their control Jane winds up at Lindridge Hall the night of their marriage and from there all hell breaks lose and crazy things start to happen. Jane could never imagine that she would not be able to cipher what real and what is illusion and the deeper she gets into the halls of Lindridge the more traumatic and unsettling her life will become.

This tale of gothic horror takes you on a ride you will not soon forget. You will be turning the pages as fast as you can go devouring every word. I highly recommend this amazing read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital review copy in exchange for my honest review.