Weird and wonderful. Exceptionally written and unsettling. Everything I want in a novel! Five Stars!

Unfortunately I was unable to download this book before the archive date, so I'm not able to leave a review. I look forward to reading and reviewing books by this author in the future.

I just really had such a hard time getting into this book. It wasn't very clear what the main plot points where or where the story was going. I also did not feel attached to any of the characters. Felt very different than I was expecting based on the description. Very sad to say I couldn't finish it.

Anna Noyes has crafted a fantastic story with "The Blue Maiden". Following these two wild girls was amazing to see what life dealt them and how in turn it would change them.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Meh, the story was a bit slow and the narrator was quite boring. The sister relationship was great but the overall story just fell flat for me.

This one just didn't work for me unfortunately. I found the tone quite jarring and thought the narrative was a bit meandering. I did enjoy the relationship between the sisters and thought that the community felt authentic, but I just didn't like the reading experience.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

For the residents of Sweden’s Berggrund Island in 1825, the Blue Maiden is a fearful place. An uninhabited neighboring isle, its appearance shifts in dense fog and in morning light, showing itself changeable and untrustworthy—as typical of women, in their view. The island’s perceived gender is no coincidence. It’s rumored that witches fly to a secret realm there, called Blockula, to conduct dark Sabbaths. Five generations earlier, over two dozen women were put to death by Berggrund’s men for purported witchcraft, an event that lingers in everyone’s minds, especially anyone born female.

Noyes’ bleak and poetic novel ripples throughout with this atmosphere of internalized misogyny. It’s a difficult environment for two motherless girls to grow up in. Beata and Ulrika are daughters of the island’s priest, misfits in this isolated place; their 17th-century ancestor was an accused witch who was only saved from burning due to her pregnancy. With only the village healer willing to speak of their late mother—the beautiful but mysterious Angelique, who died at Bea’s birth—the sisters grow obsessed with learning more about her. Over time, the young women’s contrasting personalities become apparent. When a middle-aged mainlander arrives on the island to take up an inherited property, long-suppressed truths about the sisters’ family begin spilling out.

The Blue Maiden takes time to catch hold; Bea and Ulrika, although sympathetic due to their outcast status, are kept at an emotional distance. Bea proves to be the protagonist, but this doesn’t become obvious until past the midway point. Those with an aversion to literary fiction should probably steer clear, but the beautifully described island scenery and rural customs have a compelling draw, combined with the women’s struggle to liberate themselves from patriarchal prejudice. The ultimate reveal is a shocking surprise that will reward patient readers of this moody Scandinavian gothic.

(from the Historical Novels Review, August 2024)

I was very interested in the premise of this novel, however the story’s ambiguity and complex relationships left me somewhat confused. The writing is atmospheric and captures the haunting atmosphere. and I was intrigued by the Nordic folklore.
Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The description of this novel alludes to witchy vibes and buried family secrets, all in the shadow of a mysterious neighboring island. While we open with a sufficiently dark and disturbing witch hunt on Berggrund Island, the ensuing story of two sisters, Bea and Ulrika, growing up generations later, is frankly boring. Was their mother, an outsider and long dead, a witch? Are Bea's visions a result of a supernatural connection to the past? Does the red book really contain spells, or just home remedies? Nothing is particularly clear, the sisters are not terribly compelling characters, and there's unfortunately a lot of telling without much showing. This was overall a lackluster story that never delivered on its compelling promise.

Thanks NetGalley and Grove Atlantic Press for an advance copy of this book.

I wanted to love this book. It follows two sisters who grow up and wanted to better understand who their mother was and in turn, more of their own history.

While the book was atmospheric in some ways, it felt like there were parts that were not developed enough for mthe to connect with the overall story (the threat of The Blue Maiden).

Dnf at 30%

I wanted to start with "i see the value of this story but i just wasn't into it", but in this first 30% i could not yet see the value of the story. I really hope there is more to it after the 30% but it just didn't pull me in, didn't keep my attention, and i just kinda noticed i did not want to read it, actually forcing myself. I really wish i could have enjoyed and finished it, but it wasnt for me. The characters seemed bland, i did not really find a plot in the 30% and overall i think it should have the attentiongrabbing part earlier on. I hope others enjoy it!

Thank you to netgalley and the author for sending me the book in exchange for an honest review

Noyes’ new novel takes place on the island of Berggrund, Sweden, five generations after the witch trials of 1675. Silas, the local priest has lost his wife to childbirth, and is raising his wild and unpredictable daughters, Ulrika and Beata, with some difficulty. The changing affections and emotional journeys of the girls is at the forefront of the narrative, as Bea is desperate to find out more about their mother, Angelique, about whom their father will never speak and about whom Ulrika is somewhat circumspect.

Part supernatural, part coming-of-age, the novel explores family relationships and secrets. Noyes’ spare writing features short, open-ended sentences with vivid description, making for some tense moments. I found the novel slow to develop and sometimes there wasn’t enough plot tension to push the story forward, but the second half went in some unexpected directions and kept me reading. This will appeal to historical fiction readers of gothic noir stories of myth and legend and Scandinavian lore.

Dark and dangerous and heartbreaking. What a story! I loved the history and how we carry thing with us generationally speaking. A great tale for a cold winter day.

This was not a fit for me. I found it hard to follow along and didn't love the writing style. I think there is definitely a target market out there for this style of fiction but unfortunately it is not me.

DNF at 13%

I unfortunately found myself not excited to pick this up. I don't know if it's because I've recently finished a couple different novels set on small remote islands in northern Europe (Clear by Carys Davies and Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor), but the slow pacing and similarities in settings didn't offer me anything new or exciting. Maybe I'll come back to this one in the future, but it just didn't start out giving what I hoped it would give.

DNF @ 25%

The first chapter that took place in the 1600s held so much promise. The writing style was different than what I usually read, but the content was interesting enough.

Enter part II of the book taking place in the 1800s. I am so lost. I can't tell what's real and what isn't. Everything jumps around and I just can't follow the story. I also didn't feel any connection to the characters which left no motivation to continue reading to see what happens.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Please note this is 3 1/2 stars.

This book had absolutely gorgeous prose, and I have to say that I did find myself so caught up in it that I forgot for a while what it was supposed to be about. There's a certain windswept isolation to the words in this book, and I thought it was just fabulous. There's so much that's tied into these sorts of locations, and I will say that I thought that facet of this book was captured perfectly. I found myself feeling like I was in the location, which is always a beautiful thing when reading a book.

With that said, I did find that the narrative side of this book got a little lost. The title didn't quite deliver on the promises that it gave, and I thought that it could have been a lot better from that standpoint. There was the potential to make this a sweeping folk horror piece of work, and I will admit that I was a bit let down by that side of it.

The characters were interesting, although perhaps not as fleshed out as they could have been. I enjoyed the literary style of this immensely, but just didn't quite get where it was going beyond the more 'slice of life' side of things from a dark island.

I found The Blue Maiden incredibly difficult to get into. The description promises folklore and witchcraft, yet the bulk of the story is more coming of age and familial trauma than myth and folklore. The writing is different and definitely reads like a story passed down over time. The beginning origin story with a witch that places children with the devil was more interesting to me than the story of the sisters. I wish it had more magical realism to it.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was really not what I was expecting. The first few pages had me excited, and the description (which promised gothic vibes, witch hunts, children of the devil, critiquing the patriarchy, and discovering island secrets) caught my attention quickly.

Alas, I couldn't find most of that in this book. I just feel lied to I guess. The writing was pretty, but I left equal parts confused and bored. Disappointing.

Publication date: May 14, 2024

The cover for The Blue Maiden inspired me to request an arc from Netgalley. Mushrooms, leaves, a feather, a beetle, and bones...intriguing. How are these connected?

Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Debut

Pages: 240

Setting: Sweden

› The Blue Maiden takes place on Berggrund Island, an isolated island in Northern Europe. This Nordic Gothic is Anna Noyes's debut novel. Inspired by her own great-great-grandfather's story, Boyes began writing with a different protagonist in mind, however, after working on it for a couple of years Boyes realized it should be told from the perspective of the protagonist's mother Beata and her sister Ulrika. In an interview, Noyes talked about how she wanted to write something witchy and living on Fishers Island inspired the setting for The Blue Maiden.

› The Blue Maiden begins in 1675 when thirty-two women on Berggrund Island were accused of being witches by the priest. Children get wrapped up in the drama and claim the women tried to take them to Blockula, the small sister island to Berggrund also known as The Blue Maiden. All thirty-two women were killed.

"That morning, thirty-two women had awoken on the island. Now, there are five."

› The story flashes forward to 1825 when the great-great-grandson of one of those five surviving women, Pastor Silas, lives on Berggrund with his two daughters, Beata and Ulrika. The sisters are imaginative and don't get along with each other. Their mother died giving birth to Beata and I got the feeling Ulrika holds resentment towards Bea for that.

› They want to know more about their dead mother, but Silas doesn't like to talk about her. As young women, they are trying to find their place in the world. Ulrika is responsible and has taken on the many jobs keeping the house. Beata longs for attention. One day, they find their mother's red book filled with herbal remedies. This only leads to more questions.

› A man returns to Berggrund seeking a wife. It was assumed Ulrika would marry him as she is older, but he proposes to Beata. They marry and things seem great, but it all unravels revealing a family secret that changes the sister's lives forever.

› Beata is the smaller sister, like The Blue Maiden island. And like the island, she is strange and mysterious with mismatched eyes. Bea has an incredible imagination and at times I didn't know if things were happening or if I was in a dream.

› For the first half of the book I struggled to understand the point of the story. The blurb calls The Blue Maiden "chilling" and mentions the devil and witchcraft. The small sister island is called the home of witches and satan. I was expecting more witchcraft and evil. That being said, the writing is beautiful and magical featuring interesting characters.

› Final Thoughts
• The Blue Maiden is a challenging, unusual, emotional and haunting slow-paced story about secrets, complex relationships, and the struggles of women in a patriarchal society. It reminded me of Study For Obedience by Sarah Bernstein.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.