I liked this less than I had hoped. Atmospherically, it was a really immersive book. I felt like gothic Venice was a setting I would happily read more about and more books set in. The characters were interesting, but their development in the final third of the book felt a little rushed. The conclusion felt hasty compared to how detailed the first third of the book was.

Super disappointing book. It has such a great overall plot idea, interesting setting, fun dark fairy tale vibe. Yet boring as can be and badly written.

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- unfortunately, i didn't enjoy this one as much as i hoped i would. the prose was very heavy handed, and i ended up getting distracted a lot when i was reading. it's not to say that Fine is a talented writer, but the prose distracted me from truly enjoying the story.

What would you do to win your heart’s desire?

And what happens when you get it?

Those are the questions at the heart of Maddalena and the Dark, Julia Fine’s sumptuous novel about two teenage girls in a Venetian convent in 1717. Fifteen-year-old Luisa’s deepest desire is to become a student of the great composer Vivaldi and then go on to greatness from there. But while Luisa is a good musician, she is not among the best. And she is lonely. Until she meets Maddalena.

Forced into the convent after a family scandal, the beautiful and spoiled Maddalena is not devoted to music, the convent, or anything else. She has her secrets, though. Dark secrets of a hidden world outside the convent, where she communes with strange forces that give her what she wants- for a price. Soon, Maddalena has Luisa wrapped around her finger and before either of them knows it, Luisa is getting her heart’s desire, too. Soon, both girls find their lives expanding outside the boundaries of the convent and beyond what they imagined they could have, and they must face the idea that their childish desires may not fit in with the lives they are building. And both must face the consequences of their deals with the forces that dwell under the dark Venetian waters.

With its sumptuous and musical prose, Fine brings eighteenth-century Venice to life while weaving in fantastical elements that feel natural- as though, if one could find the right gondolier, one could make a deal with the dark waters themself and possibly end up in a similar conundrum as Luisa or Maddalena.

But the heart of the story does not rest solely with the deals the girls make with the waters. It lies with what the girls decide to do with their good fortune. Their reactions are true to the characters, who are teenagers realizing that the world never was the way they imagined it to be, and that their lives could be so much different than what they dreamed they could be. It is also true to teenagers’ reactions to life in general, as Maddalena and Luisa often fail to come to grips with reality, and make choices based on their limited experiences and often selfish desires, leading to an ending that is dark and tragic, but ultimately inevitable.

I thought this was.... fine. I was really excited about the setting, and that was probably my favorite part, but both the writing and plot fell a little flat for me.

Don't get me wrong, I love purple prose, but MAN this prose was very purple.

I think this book could've used a bit more massaging in the editing process and it would've been a lot stronger.

I loved Julia Fine's THE UPSTAIRS HOUSE, and this was excellent as well. A very different kind of story that nonetheless plays with history in equally intriguing ways as its predecessor. A lovely bit of slowburn gothic darkness.

Luisa worked tirelessly to succeed at her elite music school in 17th century Venice, determined to become a violin virtuoso. But Maddelena landed at the school because her wealthy family was trying to avoid scandal. When the two girls recognize each other’s passion and hunger, they develop a deep and dark friendship that will lead them to dangerous places.

This novel is dark, transportive, and haunting, with a fascinating setting and fantastical themes. I questioned some of the historical accuracy, which took me out of the story at times. But it was unlike anything else I've read, and for that, I definitely enjoyed the ride.

If you enjoy dark mysterious settings and dialogue, then this is the book for you. It is set in early 1800s venice and follows Maddalena who is a the only daughter of a noble family. She has questionable parentage and so is not a highly sought after potential bride. She is sent to a girls home to "redeem" her wifely qualities and meet Louisa. She is not of nobale birth and you spend time learning about their music skills and interactions with Vivaldi. Utlimately a one sided romance develops, then the husband matchmaking starts. The results of that send the story in a different unexpected direction which then puts Maddalena into a psychologic tail spin and it gets very dark. Not my favorite kind of story and it is incredibly descriptive and excellent at painting a picture. I felt it was too solem for my taste.

Maddalena and the Dark was simply delicious! It can be slow-paced in parts but it works well for drawing out the suspense from beginning to end. Julia Fine creates a world where we have multiple love triangles, obsession, betrayal, intrigue, and a healthy appreciation for the gorgeous music of the time period.

While I did feel the end was a bit rushed to the inevitable outcome foreshadowed in the beginning I really enjoyed this book and had to sit with it a bit a savor it after reading. I will definitely be reading more Julia Fine books in the future.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a copy for an honest review.

This book was gothic, weird, and just what I like in my historical fiction. I would certainly recommend it for spooky reading.

A gothic novel about girls living in a secluded music school in Venice in 1717? Sign me up!

There is much to like in this story of two very different girls, both sent to live in a cloistered music school. Luisa is a poor but talented girl, awkward and shy. Maddalena is a rich, spoilt, and punished girl, sent to school to reign her independence and prepare her for a marriage determined to help the family. Their meeting proves powerful to them both- pulling Luisa out of the shadows and into the spotlight of Maddalena's charms, giving Maddalena a sense of the kind of mutual caring she has never received.

I loved the world-building done in the novel but found the mystical elements confounding, if not a bit silly. It didn't seem to add much to the story but instead got in the way and made it far more theatrical than needed. These characters were able to create enough chaos on their own. But that could be the right touch for those who like magical, supernatural elements to their gothic books.

I would like to thank the publisher for access to the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a historical fantasy fever dream. Julia Fine is an auto-buy author for me, and Maddalena and the Dark was everything I expect from a Julia Fine novel. This book was dark and twisty. You weren't sure who to root for in the best possible way.

Did not finish. This was very slow and difficult to continue reading. There wasn’t anything that grabbed my attention in the first 50 pages.

Lovers of dark historical fiction - drop everything now and pick up Maddalena and The Dark. Julia Fine has captured the decadence of 18th century Venice, and created two irresistible teen characters, Maddalena and Luisa, whose friendship almost makes you forget the stink coming from the canals.

Maddalena’s life is complicated. She is part of a wealthy family, but there is some doubt as to her true parentage. She is approaching 15, and is expected to find a suitor imminently, so her family sends her to the Ospedale della Pietà to try and smooth out her edges. It is here she meets Luisa, an accomplished but shy violin student.

But here’s the coolest thing about Maddalena: she has a mysterious gondolier at her beck and call, and he can seemingly give her anything she desires, but at a cost. So when Maddalena shares this with Luisa, and Luisa makes a choice to change her future prospects, things get incredibly complicated.

It took me a couple of attempts to get into this novel. In the first few chapters, I felt a little overwhelmed by all the characters. But once Maddalena and Luisa meet, the adventure truly begins.

Fine has captured the intensity of teenage girl friendships perfectly. While Maddalena’s love for Luisa is unrequited, their emotional and physical closeness is truly magical, and makes the conclusion even more devastating.

Fine’s writing talent was highlighted for me during the passage when Maddalenda takes Luisa on her strange gondola for the first time. I could almost smell the damp, and was absolutely terrified by the surrounding darkness.

I absolutely loved the drama of Luisa and Maddalena’s lives; the complete absurdity of their limited life choices (marriage or nunnery), and their complex relationship. And the supernatural, Faustian element fit perfectly.

I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, but this really won me over. It is so utterly engaging and exciting. Again, I urge everyone to read this; it’s truly remarkable.

<b>Julia Fine's Maddalena and the Dark is a gothic story set in 1700s Venice in which two young women's lives and destinies become intertwined through a series of dark, magical promises designed to secure the elusive destinies they desire.</b>

<b> <blockquote>There has already been a bargain, and this is something else that Luisa does not know. </b></blockquote>

It's early 1700s Venice at a prestigious music school for orphans, the Ospedale della Pietà.

Quiet, unassuming Luisa has always aimed to be the best at the violin. She wants to join the famed girls' orchestra and to one day become a protégé of Antonio Vivaldi. But her meek and mild manner invites only cold shoulders and contempt from her fellow students. That is, until the mysterious Maddalena arrives.

Maddalena is sent to the Pietà temporarily after scandal threatens to ruin her family's longstanding reputation. Her attendance at the school is a last-ditch attempt to preserve her marriage prospects and assert some sense of propriety. Yet she desperately yearns for some measure of independence, which is not easily available to the women of that time.

<b> <blockquote> And what is there to trust? A mother who runs out on you? A brother who sells you like chattel and a father too busy to care? </b> </blockquote>

The other girls at school only know that Maddalena draws them into her orbit, and everyone wants to be near her. Some are puzzled when she chooses Luisa to be her bosom friend. Nevertheless, Luisa and Maddalena become fast friends, and their link grows every deeper. Then Maddalena hatches a plan in which each of them might help the other achieve her ambitious dream.

But a young woman in that time has little say over her destiny. The girls make dark deals and may need to give up all that is precious in order to secure the power they need to determine their fate.

<b> <blockquote> Why is it that a girl must always lead the way into unpleasantness?... So many of the girls she grew up with have already been given to old widowers--no one says a word if a husband is sixty and his new bride is sixteen. So many of the girls she grew up with die in childbirth, to be replaced by fresh blood, ad infinitum, until the old man finally dies. </b> </blockquote>

<i>Maddalena and the Dark</i> has a distinct gothic tone, and the story treads ever deeper into seedy, suspect, forbidding scenes of magical realism that seem to foretell certain destruction.

I received a prepublication version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Flatiron Books.

<b>To see my full review on The Bossy Bookworm, or to find out about Bossy reviews and Greedy Reading Lists as soon as they're posted, please see <a href="https://www.bossybookworm.com/post/review-of-maddalena-and-the-dark-by-julia-fine/"><i>Maddalena and the Dark.</a></i></b>

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Solid 4 out of 5 stars. I can't wait to listen to the audiobook of this as I expect it will be delicious.

1717 Venice, two young girls dabble in the "seedy" outside world while they are expected to stay cloistered to ensure their 'marriage prospects." This book dives into the world of exploration one experiences when their life is measured and caged. It is also a beautiful exploration of love and finding life beyond 'the closet' as you might say.

I have heard complaints about this book utilizing 'purple prose.' I would counter-argue that the language in this book aids in tying it to the linguistic flourish of Venice in the 1700s without utilizing arcane languages. It has also broadened my term utilization.

A beautiful book that I highly suggest.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

(3.5)

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for allowing me to read this ARC!

Content Warning: violence, death.

Maddalena and Luisa are opposites: Maddalena from a wealthy, patrician family, Luisa a foundling, forever indebted to the Ospedale della Pietà, the convent school that has taken her in and taught her music. When Maddalena's fortunes change -- due to the questions surrounding her parentage, and her mother who has apparently run off with a lover -- her brothers and father decide to send her off to the Pietà, too, hoping to make her into a respectable young woman who will be married off to an equally respectable young man. When Luisa and Maddalena meet, they feel an immediate connection, beyond anything either of them has ever experienced before. But Maddalena has dangerous plans to secure her own future, and as she draws Luisa deeper into her world, both girls learn that everything comes with a price.

Starting off truthfully, I have very conflicted feelings about this book. The first few pages were captivating, filled by beautiful, flowery writing, but it quickly became a double edged-sword. Having never read anything by Fine before, I didn't know what to expect, but any book set in eighteenth century Venice, featuring a romance between two women, is enough to entice me into requesting the ARC. However, as I went through the novel, I found myself never quite able to fully invest myself in the story, particularly when it came to Luisa's character.

The setting is rich with potential, and our opening, with the bold and slightly calculating Maddalena, certainly caught my interest. Maddalena is like many female characters who end up being my favorites: not quite likable, in a way that actually increases one's interest and enjoyment of her. Luisa, on the other hand, seems all right upon our first meeting with her, but as time went on, I grew increasingly irritated and frustrated with her naïveté and her inability to take any initiative whatsoever. Although Maddalena is manipulative and borders on being unkind, she's fascinating, layered and her motivations change and shift throughout. Strangely enough, it was Luisa who stuck me as being slightly false, and because of this, not very likable.

Perhaps it's partly my fault, but I also wasn't aware that the storyline heavily features magical realism, and that a large part of it includes rather abstract and surrealistic scenes. I'm not against those things by any mean, but I felt that to some degree, it was used to orchestrate and engineer the plotline to the author's liking. Not quite a deus ex machina, but something very like it, which for me, doesn't work. One more thing I'm awfully sore about: the relationship between Luisa and Maddalena. This is categorized as LGBT, and in some ways it is (Maddalena is very obviously a lesbian), but if you're hoping for a complex relationship between Luisa and Maddalena, I'm afraid you'll be very disappointed indeed. Look, I'm a huge fan of toxic, slightly cruel relationships between women (a la Villanelle and Eve, or Frances and Lilian in The Paying Guests), but this flops between being one-sided and maybe? Possibly? Something else. It's confusing, but not in a rewarding way.

Now, for the positives: Again, Maddalena's character is one that has stuck with me for a while, even after completing this book months ago. Fine's writing is really, genuinely beautiful, and I think there was so much potential here, but unfortunately it just ended up falling flat. By no means is this an awful book, but instead, sadly a bit mediocre.

This one really wasn't for me. The language is over worked, the plot is murky, and the supernatural is mild to nonexistent. I was excited when I received the DRC of this book, but only a few chapters in I struggled to stay interested and didn't have any investment in the characters.
The setting was very well described. Multiple times. In multiple ways. For the most part, I didn't mind the setting descriptions the first time.
Overall, I can see the appeal for this book for other readers. Flowery prose and unlikeable MCs are often popular among various genre readers. I think this newest Fine work will be right up there ally.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the DRC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this dark fairy tale of a story - a perfect match for fans of the Brothers Grimm and the YELLOWJACKETS TV show. Twisty and unexpected, compelling and captivating, everyone should read MADDALENA AND THE DARK!