Review by Booklist Review
In 1825, on Berggrund Island, Sweden, village pastor and widower Silas lives with his young daughters, Ulrika and Beata (Bea). When Ulrika and Bea uncover the key to their mother's long-abandoned room, they find mementos, some of which are rather mysterious, that are connected to their mother's past as well as a harrowing event that took place on the island generations prior. Silas pays little attention to his daughters' rambunctious comings and goings--including their earnest attempts at witchcraft--and Ulrika and Bea are social outsiders. Though Bea is eager to learn more about her mother, who died giving birth to her, her father shares little. When Bea is nearly 17, August, a mainlander, returns to Berggrund Island, where he once lived, and takes Bea as his wife. While initially happy to start a married life away from Silas and Ulrika, Bea's relationship with August becomes strained as secrets from her mother's past, and August's unexpected connection to it, are revealed. Backdropped by the aura and lore of the island, Noyes' captivating debut novel is a vivid journey into womanhood, self-discovery, and the bonds of family.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Noyes's bracing debut novel (after the collection Goodnight, Beautiful Women) charts the troubled history of a 19th-century Nordic family descended from a woman who survived a witch hunt. Near the isolated and windswept Berggrund Island lies its smaller sister island, the Blue Maiden, which is uninhabited and rumored to harbor demon spirits. One day in 1675, after months of passionate preaching by the priest of Berggrund, 27 of the island's 32 women are accused of witchcraft and executed. Of the accused, only pregnant Signe is spared, despite wanting to "stay linked" to the others on their way to have their throats cut. The story then jumps to 1825 and Signe's descendants Ulrika, 10, and Bea, six. Bea anticipates the return of their dead mother, Angelique, who Bea believes will summon her by tapping on the window with dirty fingers. Meanwhile, Ulrika seeks to distance herself from the memory of their mother and from their preacher father, whose love is often smothering. Noyes shows with incisive and imagistic prose how the specter of the eerie, ever-changing Blue Maiden hangs over the residents of Berggrund like a pall as the sisters come of age to face horrifying tragedies. Noyes evokes Shirley Jackson in this inspired and memorable gothic tale. (May)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Beata and her older sister Ulrika live on the Finnish Island of Berggrund in 1825. A nearby island called the Blue Maiden, thought to be the home of the Devil, is an ever-present source of potential evil in their lives. Beata and Ulrika's father, Silas, is Berggrund's priest; their mother died when Beata was born. The girls run wild on the island, learning its secrets, while their father incessantly prays and repents for deeds that he keeps secret. Ulrika is capable, solitary, hard-working, while Beata is dreamy, clumsy, scattered. When an older man inherits a farm on the island, Silas envisions him as a husband for Ulrika, but the man chooses to marry 16-year-old Beata instead. Now, as a married woman, Beata is plagued by dreams and hallucinations and has several miscarriages. Ulrika comes to help with the household chores, until Beata produces a son. When he is old enough, Beata takes him to the Blue Maiden, where she literally finds her center. Through mysterious and musical prose, Noyes (Goodnight, Beautiful Women) delves into the folklore, paternalism, and superstition that keep women in their place, tied to the unforgiving religious beliefs of the time. VERDICT A captivating Nordic gothic about a search for self.--Joanna M. Burkhardt
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Noyes' Nordic gothic follows two young sisters on a small Swedish island shadowed by witchcraft trials four generations earlier. Berggrund Island in 1825 is a quiet, pious community with a haunting past: In 1675, the village priest coerced two orphans into accusing several women of consorting with the devil in Blockula, the "shadow realm" of an uninhabited nearby island called the Blue Maiden. This kicked off a chain of accusations that culminated in the murders of nearly 30 women. Six-year-old Beata and 10-year-old Ulrika are descendants of the only accused woman spared from death (not by any grace toward her, but because she was pregnant). Their father, Silas, the current priest, is a somber man who dismisses whispers of Blockula as superstition, but Bea and Ulrika become fascinated with witches all the same. This obsession bleeds into the girls' greatest desire: to connect with their dead mother, Angelique. Both pursuits are forbidden in their father's home, but, as they grasp at feminine knowledge--rifling through their mother's things and attempting to cast their own spells--the girls increasingly suspect that Angelique had her share of secrets. It is the arrival of handsome mainlander August that propels the girls into womanhood, a place far less glamorous than they once believed. This debut novel churns with the smell of sea-damp wool, day-old bread, and elderflower-scented smoke. This is a place steeped in tradition, yet, for Bea, who surfaces as the protagonist, "history…is too far removed to feel real. What matters is its lore: Be good, or the witch will take you." The girls must accept that the hushed stories--the bits of history blotted from the lore--are even more foreboding in their absence. While the narrative is quite fragmentary, Berggrund and its inhabitants are alluring; Noyes' rich descriptions create a setting that, in all its consuming bleakness, is perfect for a story about the burdens of generational and gendered trauma. A twisting narrative of the horrors of patriarchal subordination that will appeal to fans of classic gothic novels. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
