This book missed the mark for me. I wanted to read about these women who influenced art but was instead presented with women who were used and discarded by an artist. It does not bring light or justice to these women having their lives revolve around this man.

An atmospheric novel that took me to another time and place. Fantastic historical fiction.
Many thanks to ABRAMS and to NetGalleyfor providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Austrian artist, Egon Shiele, was a controversial artist even for wealthy and slightly decadent Vienna in the early Twentieth Century. He focused on female nudes with four women taking a major part in his portfolio; his sister, his mistress, his wife, and his wife’s sister. To coin a term, these four muses were flames in his artistic fire. He served as a prisoner escort in World War I and died, in 1918, in the Spanish flu pandemic.


The story of this artist and the relationships between him and these four women who compete for his regard makes for a good read. This is a fictionialized story of a real person,

Sophie Haydock is a lovely and evocative writer, and this is an intriguing snapshot of Vienna that creates a strong sense of place.

The story itself is less successful, and while it is a well-crafted character study, it’s also slow and fails to capture the reader in a way that is necessary for a book that doesn’t have a lot of concrete plot to it.

I’m not a huge fan of Schiele’s work, but I do find his career interesting, particularly the consequences of what was at the time controversial subject matter. This book seeks to expand upon that via four women who posed for the artist, but unfortunately their stories failed to capture my interest.

It’s an interesting attempt to novelize Schiele, but there isn’t much here beyond good quality writing.

The Flames is a complex and well written historical fiction title that tells the story of Egon Schiele, the times in which he lived in Vienna, the women who surrounded him, and some scandals. Sound like a lot? It is but the research and assured writing of Ms. Haydock leaves readers in good hands.

Four women tell their stories; each of them longs for significance with the artist. There are those who are neighbors, relatives and models with each contributing to the narrative.

Schiele had a short life but it was certainly one that was packed with incident. The times were also intense.

I recommended this title for those who like historical fiction, complicated characters, art and, long and immersive reads.

Many thanks to NetGalley and ABRAMS for this title. All opinions are my own.

This book is very elegant, and very evocative of the city that it is set in. Its an enjoyable historic fiction.

This was a delightful and inspiring story. I was unaware of the complex history behind such simple art.
This book is certainly beyond the age levels of middle school patrons. However, in terms of a personal read, it was delightful,

"Set in the extravagant, Bohemian art world of early 20th century Vienna, the electrifying untold story of the four women who posed for and inspired the groundbreaking erotic art of controversial painter Egon Schiele.

Amid an opulent society living under the shadow of war are four muses, women whose bodies were shown in intimate detail, depicted by the charming yet controversial artist Egon Schiele. Adele, his passionate and fierce admirer; Gertrude, his sister who survived their blighted childhood but is possessive, single-minded, and jealous; his mistress Vally, a poor young woman from a bad background but with steel at her core; and the two, very different, Harms sisters, Edith and Adele, both of whom vie to become Schiele's wife.

Over the course of little more than a decade, the four women risk everything - their reputations, their most precious relationships, and their sanity and souls - as they try to hold on to the man they adore. As World War I throws their lives off course forever, and the Spanish influenza pandemic ravages Europe, threatening everyone in its path, one question remains: Will any of them emerge unscathed from their relationship with this man? Sophie Haydock’s The Flames reimagines the intertwining lives of these women: four wild, blazing hearts longing to be known. In an elegant Bohemian city like 1900s Vienna, everything seems possible. But just as a flame has the power to mesmerize, it can also destroy."

Oh, the college undergraduate who majored in art and loved her art history classes is loving this!

The Flames by Sophie Haydock tells the untold story of the four women who posed for Austrian painter Egon Schiele during early 20th century Vienna. I had no prior knowledge of the characters, however, you don’t need to know anything about them to appreciate their story. Adele Harms is the fierce and intense admirer, Gertrude Schiele is the jealous and protective younger sister, Vally Neuzil is the artist’s muse and mistress, and Edith Harms is Adele’s quiet and conservative younger sister. Each women has their unique personality but their lives are forever intertwined and have one thing in common; their love and adoration for the artist. By the end of the book, I felt as if I had lived through this time and understood the four women a lot better. Haydock does an amazing job showing how Schiele’s life and work was inspired and influenced by the women in his life amidst the events happening in the world during this time. Truly an amazing and beautifully written story!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This story follows the lives of four women in early 20th century Vienna and flips forward in interludes to Vienna in 1968. Each woman is seen through the lens of her relationship to Egon Schiele, a prominent and prolific expressionist artist of the time. Adele and Edith, two affluent sisters vying for Egon's affections, will need to contend with Vally, his long-time muse and mistress. And there's also Gertrude, Egon's little sister, who is jealous of all the women that come into her brother's life and unafraid to show it. All of this happens against the backdrop of the First World War and the Great Influenza epidemic, ramping up to tragedies all around.

I really loved the structure of this book, as well as the content. The four major sections are neat and insightful, with the interludes between, and I think Egon's POV at the end is genius. Spending so much time inside the minds of the women closest to him and then shifting to his own perspective did something to me that I can't properly convey, but it felt perfect. There is a lot of emotion in these pages, and I appreciate how the author has brought the stories of these women to life.

Truthfully, I knew nothing about Egon Schiele before opening this book, and I set about remedying that immediately. The portraits contained within the pages are a nice lead-in to reading about the women they depict. The content of this book is clearly well-researched and much beloved, and it shows!

Thank you to Sophie Haydock, Overlook Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Four women vie for the attention of a less than scrupulous but very successful artist.

So well written so interesting told from the point of view of the four women who were models for the painter.Kept me turning the pages totally involved in their lives.#netgalley #abrams

The Flames presents fictionalized narratives for four real women who modeled for Egon Schiele, a prodigy of Gustav Klemt, in Austria in the early 20th century. Little is known about Egon’s sister, Gertrude, his wife, Edith, his sister-in-law, Adele, or his oft-portrayed model Vally. Haydock took what she could from the limited sources of information and crafted compelling personalities and life stories for the women that Schiele drew and painted in his short lifetime.

As a historical fiction lover, I was instantly drawn into the setting of early 1900s Vienna and the lives of the women brave enough to model, often nude, for a young artist. In fictionalizing the stories of their relationships with Schiele, Haydock gives each woman a reason to risk public disdain in the name of art. Each woman was given a strong and distinct personality that made sense of the choices we know they made in real life and what we can see portrayed in Schiele’s art.

I was not familiar with Schiele and his work prior to reading this novel. I loved that a piece of art depicting each woman was included in the book and also enjoyed looking up more of his artwork.

I really find novelizations of historical figures to be fascinating and was drawn in by Haydock’s portrayal of women whose likenesses are still admired around the world but whose stories have been largely lost. I happily found myself lost in this book for hours at a time, carried along by excellent writing and characters that were expertly brought to life. This character-driven novel has me excited to see what Haydock will produce next.

Thanks to Netgalley and ABRAMS for the e-galley.

A fascinating, well-researched novel about the women who inspired pre-war Viennese artist Egon Schiele, a protégé of Gustav Klimt. Schiele was a controversial figure who created groundbreaking nude portraits. The book is divided into 4 parts, focusing on the four women who served as his muses. First there is Adele, a privileged young woman who spies Schiele moving in across the street and becomes obsessed with him. She goes out of her way to insert herself into his world and is insanely jealous and somewhat unhinged. Next is Schiele’s devoted sister Gertie, who poses for him (yuck) and perhaps more. Third is Vally, an impoverished but proud and independent woman who has served as an artist’s model before. She is not considered seriously as marriage material despite a long relationship with him. Instead, he marries Edith, Adele’s sister, who is a quiet, pliant, unassuming woman. In reality, little is known about these women and the author does an admirable job bringing them to life as more than just the faces and bodies shown in the artist’s work. One quibble is that while they are supposed to be the focus of the book instead of the artist, they are only highlighted while they are with him, and there lives are not really discussed after they have served their purposes as his flames.

Fascinating novelized biography told from the point of view of the women in Egon Schiele’s life. The four part structure from the different points of view was really effective and helped individualize the women. I’m not a huge fan of Schiele’s work but this helped me understand his position in history.

It's difficult to believe The Flames is a first novel: Most of the writing is so assured, detailed when it needs to be, altogether evocative. What's more, presenting each of the book's four main sections from the POV of a different one of Egon Schiele's muses—having the lionized artist take second place to the little-known models—is a fresh way of viewing Schiele's art as well as the life of women in early 20th-century Austria.

That said, I found the framing device and the epilogue obvious and didactic. (Personal bias: Generally speaking, I dislike framing devices that take you out of the time period of the main story.) Much of the dialogue, too, is clunky—maybe it wouldn't have felt so in most other books, but given how brilliant the rest of the writing is, some of the conversations seem to have been written solely for expository purposes. Nonetheless, I highly recommend The Flames and look forward to Sophie Haydock's next book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Abrams, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Egon Schiele is fascinating; the beginning of this book is not. Seriously, I do not know what happened editorially, but the first hundred pages or so needed serious revision. If you can push through, it improves markedly. Schiele was a questionable (okay, creepy) character, who remains oddly opaque in Haydock's book. Perhaps this is because her main focus is shedding light on four of Schiele's muses (including his sister, with whom he is believed to have had a relationship). That said, Haydock writes a beautiful evocation of the era--a loving, immersive tableau of Austria through World War I and the Spanish Flu. I think she truly understands the Austrian expressionists and the women who crossed Schiele's path. I'm just not entirely sure she understands Schiele and, unfortunately given that it's a work of fiction, she doesn't seem to want to pretend that she does.

The Flames is a fascinating book about the women in the life of Egon Schiele. It is a work of fiction but the people in the pages come alive and made me want to look into Schiele’s paintings with new eyes.
I loved how Sophie Haydock gave each person a chapter and they came together seamlessly. Very clever and enjoyable writing.

The author writes about the rise of Egon Schiele from the perspective of four women, his muses: wicked shellfish Adele, Gertie, Egon's sister; Vally, his lover; and Edith, his wife. You'll be transported to 1900s Vienna with a glimpse of the first world war when women had few independent choices and the casualties of the Spanish Flu.

The author successfully creates dynamic women characters to love, hate and question.

This was a plodding start, but eventually, I was ensnarled in the lives and power of these women and took a sand used to their advantage (mostly). I couldn't put it down, and it inspired me to look deeper into the artist.

If you like historical fiction, interesting women, and art, especially Klimt and Schiele, I believe this would be a good choice.

🌟🌟🌟🌟
Thank you, #NetGalley and #Abrams #theflames

Despite being quite interested in Egon Schiele and his art, this book didn't really work for me, unfortunately. In this novel, we learn about Egon Schiele through a rotating cast of woman characters who were a subset of his more famous models in Vienna around the time of the First World War. We meet his first muse, his sister, the woman that will be his wife and his sister-in-law, and how they came to be instrumental to his success as a painter. We also have a modern-day thread that opens the book, connecting today to the past through one of the women.

Given the subject matter, I felt the writing lacked some gravitas and depth, the structure felt overly complicated, and the ending was a bit too melodramatic. It ended up feeling more like a palate cleanser/lighter fare than what I was looking for on the subject. It was more of a 2.5-star rating for me.

I do want to thank the publisher for giving me access to a digital arc of the book in return for an honest review.