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The Girl from Rawblood
Winner of BEST HORROR NOVEL (August Derleth Award) at British Fantasy Awards 2016
For generations the Villarcas have died mysteriously, and young. Now Iris and her father will finally understand why. . .
At the turn of England's century, as the wind whistles in the lonely halls of Rawblood, young Iris Villarca is the last of her family's line. They are haunted, through the generations, by "her," a curse passed down through ancient blood that marks each Villarca for certain heartbreak, and death.
Iris forsakes her promise to her father, to remain alone, safe from the world. She dares to fall in love, and the consequences of her choice are immediate and terrifying. As the world falls apart around her, she must take a final journey back to Rawblood where it all began and where it must all end...
From the sun dappled hills of Italy to the biting chill of Victorian dissection halls, The Girl from Rawblood is a lyrical and haunting historical novel of darkness, love, and the ghosts of the past.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 24, 2015
About the author
Catriona Ward
23 books4,449 followersCATRIONA WARD was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. Her fourth novel, the gothic thriller Sundial (2022 - Viper, Tor Nightfire) was Observer Thriller of the Month and a USA Today, CNN and Apple Books selection for best new fiction. Stephen King called Sundial ‘Authentically terrifying…. Do not miss this book.’
Ward’s third breakout novel The Last House on Needless Street (2021 - Viper, Tor Nightfire) won the August Derleth Prize and has been shortlisted for the Kitschies, the British Book Awards, the South Bank Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Esquire magazine listed it as one of the top 25 best horror novels of all time. Rights have been sold in twenty-nine territories, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection, a Times Book of the Month, Observer Book of the Month, March Editor’s Pick on Radio 4’s Open Book, a Between the Covers BBC2 book club selection and a Sunday Times bestseller. The Last House on Needless Street is being developed for film by Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s production company, The Imaginarium. Stephen King said of The Last House on Needless Street, ‘I was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end. Haven't read anything this exciting since GONE GIRL.’
Ward’s second novel Little Eve (2018 - W&N, Tor Nightfire) won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award, the August Derleth Prize at the British Fantasy Awards and was a Guardian best book of 2018. Nightfire will publish Little Eve for the first time in the US in 2022. Ward’s debut Rawblood (2015 - W&N, Sourcebooks) also won the 2016 August Derleth, making her the only woman to have won the prize three times. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and have been shortlisted for various prizes. She lives in London and Devon.
Ward’s third breakout novel The Last House on Needless Street (2021 - Viper, Tor Nightfire) won the August Derleth Prize and has been shortlisted for the Kitschies, the British Book Awards, the South Bank Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Esquire magazine listed it as one of the top 25 best horror novels of all time. Rights have been sold in twenty-nine territories, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection, a Times Book of the Month, Observer Book of the Month, March Editor’s Pick on Radio 4’s Open Book, a Between the Covers BBC2 book club selection and a Sunday Times bestseller. The Last House on Needless Street is being developed for film by Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s production company, The Imaginarium. Stephen King said of The Last House on Needless Street, ‘I was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end. Haven't read anything this exciting since GONE GIRL.’
Ward’s second novel Little Eve (2018 - W&N, Tor Nightfire) won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award, the August Derleth Prize at the British Fantasy Awards and was a Guardian best book of 2018. Nightfire will publish Little Eve for the first time in the US in 2022. Ward’s debut Rawblood (2015 - W&N, Sourcebooks) also won the 2016 August Derleth, making her the only woman to have won the prize three times. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and have been shortlisted for various prizes. She lives in London and Devon.
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June 18, 2018
"She comes in the night. Sometimes, in mist or fog. A woman, or once a woman. White, starved...Have you not felt her? Waiting in the shadowed places outside the lamplight, at the bottom of wells. Behind you, in long dark corridors..."
I just explained this book from start to finish in full spoiler-ridden glory to my fiancé. He looked at me afterward, slightly aghast, and said, "The hell did you just read?" Then he started laughing. "How the hell do you review that?"
I'm still struggling to answer both.
This book is a gloriously gothic horror story, reminiscent at times of the great masters who birthed the genre. The fact that this is the author's debut is slightly mind-blowing. This reads like something you'd expect from a person in their mid-60s, who has been writing for thirty plus years, honing their craft, building their vocabulary, perfecting their prose.
The story itself is unlike anything I've ever read. Set in the early 20th century, on the moors of southwest England, it opens with a young girl named Iris, and her friend Tom. Her only friend. The rest of the locals fear and revile her and her father, who is her sole surviving relative, for they are descendants of not one, but two cursed bloodlines - the Hopewells, and the Villarcas - and hail from an ancestral home with an ominous name: Rawblood.
"Rawblood. Home. It sounds like a battle, like grief, but it's a gentle name. "Raw" from scraw, which means "flowing", for the Dart River that runs nearby. "Blood" from bont, a bridge. Old words. The house by the bridge with the flowing water.
It's a struggle, in the beginning, to understand the superstitious locals, for Iris is but a child, and sees the world through a child's eyes. It's only as she begins to grow that she notices that sometimes the shadows in her house don't move the way you expect them to. That she begins to realize there is more to her father's frenzied protectiveness. At first, she thinks it's protectiveness of her, but as she blossoms into a teenager, she begins to fear that in reality, he's protecting everyone else from...them.
I mentioned above that she's the heir apparent to two cursed bloodlines. Most of her ancestors died young and tragically. Those who survived into old age died alone in their beds with only their cold, shriveled hearts for company, for, you see, the killing curse is triggered by romantic love.
The moment one begins to fall, she appears out of the darkness. And she takes them. Iris' father tells her the tales the day he begins to fear that her friendship with Tom is blossoming into something more. He tells her of all those in their family who have succumbed to the curse. Some see her and go mad, and kill their loved ones before she can. Others simply die of fright. Still more claw their own eyes out to rid themselves of the sight of her.
Iris, in a fit of supreme arrogance, thinks that he is manipulating her. That he's afraid that she'll leave him, and that's why he's been so overprotective. If he cages her in, she can never fly away.
If only that were the case. She learns the error of her arrogance the hard way. Violently and tragically. But this is only the beginning of her story, and to understand how it all ends, we must first go backward, through time, to how it all began.
This book is told in alternating timelines. It's not often that this brand of storytelling works for me, but Ward pulls it off beautifully, weaving together the past and present in such a way as to keep you fully engaged with every narrator. Of which, there are many.
A bit of advice: don't get frustrated when you switch from one storyline to the next. Slow down. Don't rush. Pay attention to each. For every single chapter in here is important. Every character and every scene playing a pivotal role in the tragedy of this family. This book is a slow burn, a longer read, so I suggest saving it for a time when you feel you have plenty of attention and patience to devote to it.
I do want to say that this is so much more than a ghost story. It's a tale of life and love and heartache and grief and death and survival. Every chapter builds upon the one that came before it, every character feels raw and real.
I'm not sure if everyone will love it as much as I did, because it's just so...different that I almost hesitate to suggest it. I guess I'll say that if passages like the following give you a prosegasm:
"Sometimes, I walk through it in my dreams - the interior of my heart. It is like a black land, where black flags hang in tatters and venomous plants grow in sickly clumps and serpents writhe...A deadly night garden, my heart."
Or if you ever thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be neat if The Historian, The Thirteenth Tale, Dracula, and Bleak House got together and had a love child?" then this book is for you.
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December 1, 2015
Rawblood is a gothic horror love story that falls into the annals of literary classics. Indeed, the undercurrents of the novel whisper of Wuthering Heights, The Turn of the Screw, Rebecca, the Woman in White and others.
At the beginning, we are introduced to the family trees of the Villarca family and that of the Gilmores and the Coulsons. Time unravels in a non linear orientation and we encounter the people (major and minor) in the family tree in what appears to be a random fashion, and their lives and events are related in the same way, lending them an episodic, dream like, impressionistic quality. The opening line by Iris “This is how I come to kill my father” sets the ominous portentous tone which leads to the spine chilling ending that speaks of such intense suffering and trauma.
Located on the Devon moors with its mists, downpours and bogs, Rawblood is a house steeped in blood, haunted by a malevolent spirit which seeks the death of all its inhabitants and the Villarcas in particular. Iris lives there with her father as the last remaining Villarcas. Shunned by the locals, Iris is further isolated by her father’s desire to protect her by banning her from leaving the house and in mixing with the locals. His attempts are doomed to failure as Iris develops deep emotional ties with local boy, Tom.
Suspense is built up as we slowly start to understand the nature of the ghost/spirit and why it inhabits Rawblood and seeks the demise of the Villarcas. There is much blurring of boundaries epitomised by the living and the dead, and the supernatural and science (experimental medical research such as vivisection). The most malignant aspect of the novel is the depiction of the asylum and the practices that flourished in such institutions at that time. The horrors of it cannot be overemphasised nor the grievous actions of those who ran such establishments and had the nerve to call themselves doctors, whilst in reality operating as unrestrained butchers.
An evocative and epic resolution of some kind does come at the end, which is hinted at throughout the novel. I won’t spoil it for others by going into detail, other than to say read it. I suggest that this is a novel which is destined to be on bookclubs “must read” lists and in time will join the illustrious lists of classic literature. I cannot thank Orion enough for giving me a free copy of this book via the goodreads giveaways.
At the beginning, we are introduced to the family trees of the Villarca family and that of the Gilmores and the Coulsons. Time unravels in a non linear orientation and we encounter the people (major and minor) in the family tree in what appears to be a random fashion, and their lives and events are related in the same way, lending them an episodic, dream like, impressionistic quality. The opening line by Iris “This is how I come to kill my father” sets the ominous portentous tone which leads to the spine chilling ending that speaks of such intense suffering and trauma.
Located on the Devon moors with its mists, downpours and bogs, Rawblood is a house steeped in blood, haunted by a malevolent spirit which seeks the death of all its inhabitants and the Villarcas in particular. Iris lives there with her father as the last remaining Villarcas. Shunned by the locals, Iris is further isolated by her father’s desire to protect her by banning her from leaving the house and in mixing with the locals. His attempts are doomed to failure as Iris develops deep emotional ties with local boy, Tom.
Suspense is built up as we slowly start to understand the nature of the ghost/spirit and why it inhabits Rawblood and seeks the demise of the Villarcas. There is much blurring of boundaries epitomised by the living and the dead, and the supernatural and science (experimental medical research such as vivisection). The most malignant aspect of the novel is the depiction of the asylum and the practices that flourished in such institutions at that time. The horrors of it cannot be overemphasised nor the grievous actions of those who ran such establishments and had the nerve to call themselves doctors, whilst in reality operating as unrestrained butchers.
An evocative and epic resolution of some kind does come at the end, which is hinted at throughout the novel. I won’t spoil it for others by going into detail, other than to say read it. I suggest that this is a novel which is destined to be on bookclubs “must read” lists and in time will join the illustrious lists of classic literature. I cannot thank Orion enough for giving me a free copy of this book via the goodreads giveaways.
February 23, 2022
(Review originally published on my blog, November 2015)
Rawblood opens with the idiosyncratic voice of eleven-year-old Iris Villarca. She lives with her father in a lonely mansion, the titular Rawblood, on Dartmoor. There, he has convinced her of the legend of their family: the Villarcas suffer from a hereditary condition, given the evocative moniker 'horror autotoxicus', and Iris will die young if she neglects to follow his strict set of capital-R Rules. Essentially, the Rules say she must stay away from other people, with the sole exception of her father, and avoid strong feelings and excitement at all costs. It is when Iris starts conspiring to venture out after dark with her best friend, Tom, that she breaks the Rules and risks her father's wrath - but also comes to believe the condition is not merely her father's invention.
When Iris narrates, her voice is mesmerising, though it takes a while to get used to. She twists words in strange ways and relates dialogue in staccato fashion; sometimes she seems to talk in riddles, and once you've finished the book, it's easy to see how many of her enigmatic declarations might be considered a form of foreshadowing.
The story of Rawblood is rooted in the landscape of Dartmoor - a place made up of clouds, bracken, cold streams, and the vast, lonely moor. The way Iris describes it, it's like countryside remembered from childhood. The Villarcas are always drawn back to this stark and beautiful place in the end (and it's exactly this that proves to be the key to the story), but they're often taken far away from it, and it's these diversions that produce some of the book's best moments. The Mary and Hephzibah chapter is incredible - a five-star short story in its own right. The conversation between Mary and Leopoldo, Iris's final journey through the house; these are stunning scenes, unlike anything I have come across in any book, never mind a ghost story, a genre typically riddled with cliches (cliches I love, but cliches nonetheless).
Rawblood's only failing is that it is slightly uneven, not always as brilliant as its own most brilliant moments. There are points when it seems like a mostly conventional piece of creepy historical fiction and is liable to drag slightly. Iris's voice dominates, and while Charles Danforth's narrative is obviously distinguished from hers, with some of the other narrators it is not so clear. Iris has such a distinctive way of describing things that when the same style bleeds into other characters' inner monologues, it's very noticeable. Similarly, Danforth's journal sometimes reads like a journal but often reads very much like part of a novel. But these are small flaws in an otherwise excellent book.
You may guess the tragic twist before the final chapters, but even if you do, Rawblood's climax is executed so perfectly that it barely matters. Rarely have I felt so thrilled by the climactic scenes of a book, not particularly because they're terribly scary, but because they're simply so good and complete, bringing everything together so neatly. The way it's all done is really quite awe-inspiring.
When I first sampled this book, I wrote that 'Rawblood appears to be quite unlike any other horror/ghost/gothic story I've read'. That turned out to be even truer than I suspected. It's a thing of melancholic beauty, an immediate addition to my list of personal favourites in the genre. Haunting, atmospheric, heartbreaking - a perfect winter read.
I received an advance review copy of Rawblood from the publisher through NetGalley.
Rawblood opens with the idiosyncratic voice of eleven-year-old Iris Villarca. She lives with her father in a lonely mansion, the titular Rawblood, on Dartmoor. There, he has convinced her of the legend of their family: the Villarcas suffer from a hereditary condition, given the evocative moniker 'horror autotoxicus', and Iris will die young if she neglects to follow his strict set of capital-R Rules. Essentially, the Rules say she must stay away from other people, with the sole exception of her father, and avoid strong feelings and excitement at all costs. It is when Iris starts conspiring to venture out after dark with her best friend, Tom, that she breaks the Rules and risks her father's wrath - but also comes to believe the condition is not merely her father's invention.
When Iris narrates, her voice is mesmerising, though it takes a while to get used to. She twists words in strange ways and relates dialogue in staccato fashion; sometimes she seems to talk in riddles, and once you've finished the book, it's easy to see how many of her enigmatic declarations might be considered a form of foreshadowing.
Loneliness is not what people think it is. It is not a song. It's a little bitter thing you keep close, like an egg under a hen. What happens when the shell cracks? What comes forth?In chapter two, Rawblood switches to the diary of medical student Charles Danforth, 30 years before Iris's story. For a while it is a two-hander, with chapters alternating between these viewpoints. Then, for reasons I won't spoil, it moves on from them, and new voices are added to the mix.
The story of Rawblood is rooted in the landscape of Dartmoor - a place made up of clouds, bracken, cold streams, and the vast, lonely moor. The way Iris describes it, it's like countryside remembered from childhood. The Villarcas are always drawn back to this stark and beautiful place in the end (and it's exactly this that proves to be the key to the story), but they're often taken far away from it, and it's these diversions that produce some of the book's best moments. The Mary and Hephzibah chapter is incredible - a five-star short story in its own right. The conversation between Mary and Leopoldo, Iris's final journey through the house; these are stunning scenes, unlike anything I have come across in any book, never mind a ghost story, a genre typically riddled with cliches (cliches I love, but cliches nonetheless).
Rawblood's only failing is that it is slightly uneven, not always as brilliant as its own most brilliant moments. There are points when it seems like a mostly conventional piece of creepy historical fiction and is liable to drag slightly. Iris's voice dominates, and while Charles Danforth's narrative is obviously distinguished from hers, with some of the other narrators it is not so clear. Iris has such a distinctive way of describing things that when the same style bleeds into other characters' inner monologues, it's very noticeable. Similarly, Danforth's journal sometimes reads like a journal but often reads very much like part of a novel. But these are small flaws in an otherwise excellent book.
You may guess the tragic twist before the final chapters, but even if you do, Rawblood's climax is executed so perfectly that it barely matters. Rarely have I felt so thrilled by the climactic scenes of a book, not particularly because they're terribly scary, but because they're simply so good and complete, bringing everything together so neatly. The way it's all done is really quite awe-inspiring.
When I first sampled this book, I wrote that 'Rawblood appears to be quite unlike any other horror/ghost/gothic story I've read'. That turned out to be even truer than I suspected. It's a thing of melancholic beauty, an immediate addition to my list of personal favourites in the genre. Haunting, atmospheric, heartbreaking - a perfect winter read.
I received an advance review copy of Rawblood from the publisher through NetGalley.
July 23, 2015
Iris and her father, Alonso, live at Rawblood on Dartmoor. Alonso does not allow Iris to make friends because of the family curse. Iris doesn't want to be lonely so she makes friends with Tom Gilmore. This is a mistake.
I have to say that it was realy difficult to write a first paragraph summary of this story because a) there isn't one and b) what there is is in so many disjointed parts that it makes no sense whatsoever. I really struggled to work out who the characters even were; in fact, the family tree at the front is totally confusing and that's before you even read a word.
This book is touted as 'for fans of Kate Atkinson'; if I was Kate Atkinson I am afraid I would not be very happy with that statement. It is supposed to be a book of atmosphere and horror - I found it boring and confusing with nothing to explain what was happening, no chance to get to know any of the characters and a real slog to have to get to the finish.
I am very sorry to write this, as I am not an author and I know Catriona Ward must have laboured over this novel. It may well be for some people, but I absolutely hated it and I would not recommend it to anyone.
I have to say that it was realy difficult to write a first paragraph summary of this story because a) there isn't one and b) what there is is in so many disjointed parts that it makes no sense whatsoever. I really struggled to work out who the characters even were; in fact, the family tree at the front is totally confusing and that's before you even read a word.
This book is touted as 'for fans of Kate Atkinson'; if I was Kate Atkinson I am afraid I would not be very happy with that statement. It is supposed to be a book of atmosphere and horror - I found it boring and confusing with nothing to explain what was happening, no chance to get to know any of the characters and a real slog to have to get to the finish.
I am very sorry to write this, as I am not an author and I know Catriona Ward must have laboured over this novel. It may well be for some people, but I absolutely hated it and I would not recommend it to anyone.
September 19, 2017
A literary horror story that follows the cursed Villarca family and their ancestral home.
We start in the early 20th century with the last surviving Villarcas, young Iris and her father Allonso living at Rawblood, their estate in Devonshire. Iris lives a sheltered and proscribed existence because of her father's obsession with a curse which has killed everyone in the family for generations. As we get different points of Iris's life the story jumps around in time giving us the story of the family going back generations at Rawblood.
I don't read a lot of horror, but if I were to list the best horror books I've read, then this story tops that short list. I found every member of Iris's family fascinating and the structure perfect to tell the multi-generational tale. It has a strong horror elements though, with the haunted house component being the least of them. Mostly it's an exploration of what people will do to other people to further their own ends and in the name of misguided beliefs. The strictures on women in the 19th and early 20th centuries also features strongly and the misogyny of the eras covered just reinforces the general theme.
We start in the early 20th century with the last surviving Villarcas, young Iris and her father Allonso living at Rawblood, their estate in Devonshire. Iris lives a sheltered and proscribed existence because of her father's obsession with a curse which has killed everyone in the family for generations. As we get different points of Iris's life the story jumps around in time giving us the story of the family going back generations at Rawblood.
I don't read a lot of horror, but if I were to list the best horror books I've read, then this story tops that short list. I found every member of Iris's family fascinating and the structure perfect to tell the multi-generational tale. It has a strong horror elements though, with the haunted house component being the least of them. Mostly it's an exploration of what people will do to other people to further their own ends and in the name of misguided beliefs. The strictures on women in the 19th and early 20th centuries also features strongly and the misogyny of the eras covered just reinforces the general theme.
October 14, 2021
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Horror
Rawblood is the story of Iris Villarca. An eleven-year-old girl who lives with her father at their isolated house Rawblood. Iris soon finds out that there is a horrible congenital disease that runs in their family and that is why her father wants to isolate her and keep her away from everyone else especially her friend Tom. Whether the disease is the truth or just a cover-up to something more sinister that’s for you to find out.
Rawblood was a part of my horror October read. Right from the beginning, I felt the gothic atmosphere of some of the classics. The author’s writing is interesting and brings out lots of mysterious feel from the story. The first half was well written and a lot more focused. Unfortunately, the second half did not work for me. I think the multiple POVs along with the different timeframes were just too much. It felt disjointed and I found myself losing focus and attention.
The concept of the story is exceptional. The characters also felt well developed. In the second half, I feel the author had priority to keep the writing more poetic with the use of lots of prose here and there by different characters. Despite all that, I still feel this could have been better than what it is. It had a considerably solid potential.
Genre: Horror
Rawblood is the story of Iris Villarca. An eleven-year-old girl who lives with her father at their isolated house Rawblood. Iris soon finds out that there is a horrible congenital disease that runs in their family and that is why her father wants to isolate her and keep her away from everyone else especially her friend Tom. Whether the disease is the truth or just a cover-up to something more sinister that’s for you to find out.
Rawblood was a part of my horror October read. Right from the beginning, I felt the gothic atmosphere of some of the classics. The author’s writing is interesting and brings out lots of mysterious feel from the story. The first half was well written and a lot more focused. Unfortunately, the second half did not work for me. I think the multiple POVs along with the different timeframes were just too much. It felt disjointed and I found myself losing focus and attention.
The concept of the story is exceptional. The characters also felt well developed. In the second half, I feel the author had priority to keep the writing more poetic with the use of lots of prose here and there by different characters. Despite all that, I still feel this could have been better than what it is. It had a considerably solid potential.
May 9, 2023
3.5*
Rawblood.. where do i start!
I had conflicting views while reading this. The start seemed intriguing and i was wondering where it was going to go!
I love the mixture of timelines. Its a fav thing of mine. The characters in this i can say ...i appreciated them all in their own way.
This is a slow burning gothic style horror. Not one of those leave you sleeping with the light on types and to be honest it lagged a little in the middle for me and drifted in parts. I felt sometimes there was too much going on.
I went between will i finish this or wont i. But! After getting to the last chunk of the book and things stitch together im thinking you know what this all makes it worth it. This makes sence and to be fair its one of those books that you would need to read a second time before you can get it and appreciate it.
It grows on you. It just lacks that grip that we have in last house on needless street. For me anyway. Rawblood was this authors first book.
Got to admit tho,like needles street, catriona ward really does get into her stories and puts a LOT of effort in to deliver.
This is a completely different style and almost like its from a different author in parts. Very interesting. The variation shows how talented this author is.
Due to the wording of course for the time period, atmosphere she sets up and the grim messed up story of it all... i can say i would reccommend it but bare in mind that its a slow burn and you may need to keep your brain firing on all cylinders to get to grips with it. I can see me re reading this in the future
Rawblood.. where do i start!
I had conflicting views while reading this. The start seemed intriguing and i was wondering where it was going to go!
I love the mixture of timelines. Its a fav thing of mine. The characters in this i can say ...i appreciated them all in their own way.
This is a slow burning gothic style horror. Not one of those leave you sleeping with the light on types and to be honest it lagged a little in the middle for me and drifted in parts. I felt sometimes there was too much going on.
I went between will i finish this or wont i. But! After getting to the last chunk of the book and things stitch together im thinking you know what this all makes it worth it. This makes sence and to be fair its one of those books that you would need to read a second time before you can get it and appreciate it.
It grows on you. It just lacks that grip that we have in last house on needless street. For me anyway. Rawblood was this authors first book.
Got to admit tho,like needles street, catriona ward really does get into her stories and puts a LOT of effort in to deliver.
This is a completely different style and almost like its from a different author in parts. Very interesting. The variation shows how talented this author is.
Due to the wording of course for the time period, atmosphere she sets up and the grim messed up story of it all... i can say i would reccommend it but bare in mind that its a slow burn and you may need to keep your brain firing on all cylinders to get to grips with it. I can see me re reading this in the future
September 22, 2017
This book is freaking brilliant. If you like literary gothic horror with a bit of the supernatural and like non linear timelines with plot lines that have puzzles to solve. This book is your jam!
February 24, 2017
When it comes to horror a Gothic tale has something that with all likelihood always will appeal to me. Add a mysterious family haunted by an entity just called "her" and I'm sold. THE GIRL FROM RAWBLOOD instantly appealed to me with its fascinating cover and interesting description. Iris and her father live in a lonely old mansion on Dartmoor and he warns her that she should never fall in love because strong feelings bring on "her" and when she comes, brutal death will follow. Nevertheless, Iris does fall in love and with that, a series of events begin that lead Iris to learn the truth about "her."
READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
February 24, 2022
This book is many things; an interesting reverse ghost story, an experimental Gothic story, the debut of horror literature’s shooting star Catriona Ward… It is many things but it is not my book.
Even trying to describe the plot seems like a rather difficult task, in retrospect, but I’ll give my best shot. The story starts with two young friends, Tom Gilmore and Iris Villarca, spending their days on a Gothic property in Dover named Rawblood and owned by Iris’ father Alonso. They’re very close and sweet but feel the impending weight of a curseful illness that runs in the Villarca family.
Their story alternates with a past storyline of scientists Charles Danforth and Alonso Villarca, who try to shed light on the mysterious illness that affects the Villarcas.
Their story, in turn, is interrupted by the background story of Charles’ sister and Alonso’s future wife Meg Danforth, by the adventures of Mary Hopewell and Hepzibah Brigstocke, one of whom is Alonso’s mother, and by the impressions of a nameless soldier.
I guess a gnarled story can have its charm too, and being a lifelong fan of endless telenovelas I’m certainly not averse to complicated family ties. But the characters were really unrelatable and uninteresting for me, especially in the beginning. The really juicy things start happening in the last third, but up until that point the pace is unfortunately frustratingly slow. The crazy arrangement of different timelines and the confusing ending did nothing for me either.
So, as much as I loved her latest book, this isn’t it. If you like unconventionally structured slow burners this might be your case, unfortunately, it wasn’t mine.
Even trying to describe the plot seems like a rather difficult task, in retrospect, but I’ll give my best shot. The story starts with two young friends, Tom Gilmore and Iris Villarca, spending their days on a Gothic property in Dover named Rawblood and owned by Iris’ father Alonso. They’re very close and sweet but feel the impending weight of a curseful illness that runs in the Villarca family.
Their story alternates with a past storyline of scientists Charles Danforth and Alonso Villarca, who try to shed light on the mysterious illness that affects the Villarcas.
Their story, in turn, is interrupted by the background story of Charles’ sister and Alonso’s future wife Meg Danforth, by the adventures of Mary Hopewell and Hepzibah Brigstocke, one of whom is Alonso’s mother, and by the impressions of a nameless soldier.
I guess a gnarled story can have its charm too, and being a lifelong fan of endless telenovelas I’m certainly not averse to complicated family ties. But the characters were really unrelatable and uninteresting for me, especially in the beginning. The really juicy things start happening in the last third, but up until that point the pace is unfortunately frustratingly slow. The crazy arrangement of different timelines and the confusing ending did nothing for me either.
So, as much as I loved her latest book, this isn’t it. If you like unconventionally structured slow burners this might be your case, unfortunately, it wasn’t mine.
February 21, 2022
I'm in the minority with this one according to the other reviews. I finished it but I didn't really want to. The writing style was uncomfortable for me and I wasn't able to connect with the characters. I got a bit more into it towards the end, but not much. So, this one wasn't for me. But, I will absolutely read this author again.
February 19, 2017
A thank you to Catriona Ward, Sourcebooks, and Netgalley for sharing this copy for an unbiased review.
Ward has an impressive grasp of the metaphor and leads the reader to conclusions instead of blatantly stating what's happened. I appreciate both of those methods.
Ultimately The Girl from Rawblood is a book about love and who belongs together, not just a ghost story. Relegating it to that box would sell it short. It's written like a diamond, facet upon facet, one section shining into the next then another five away. All coming together at the end to produce a lovely gem of a tale. I'd say the last 90% of the book was the most fascinating for me, as that was the Big Reveal. Kudos to Ward for writing what I think should be a popular book club selection this year. It inspires discussion and debate, and comes with a reader's guide, which is always helpful.
Side note: I want to read The Waking of Angantyr! The bedtime story sounds amazing!
Ward has an impressive grasp of the metaphor and leads the reader to conclusions instead of blatantly stating what's happened. I appreciate both of those methods.
Ultimately The Girl from Rawblood is a book about love and who belongs together, not just a ghost story. Relegating it to that box would sell it short. It's written like a diamond, facet upon facet, one section shining into the next then another five away. All coming together at the end to produce a lovely gem of a tale. I'd say the last 90% of the book was the most fascinating for me, as that was the Big Reveal. Kudos to Ward for writing what I think should be a popular book club selection this year. It inspires discussion and debate, and comes with a reader's guide, which is always helpful.
Side note: I want to read The Waking of Angantyr! The bedtime story sounds amazing!
February 18, 2017
Set in 1910 in Dartmoor,this ghost story as a unique feel to it, gothic and creepy I loved it.
The author did a fantastic job with the characters,with a awesome setting you felt as if you were there,living and feeling what irises-pest, was going through.
Brilliant back story which jumps to the present and back which the author did effectively and seemingly with appropriate ease, we learn of the curse, I won't give anything away as I believe everyone would enjoy this novel highly recommended it amazing.
The author did a fantastic job with the characters,with a awesome setting you felt as if you were there,living and feeling what irises-pest, was going through.
Brilliant back story which jumps to the present and back which the author did effectively and seemingly with appropriate ease, we learn of the curse, I won't give anything away as I believe everyone would enjoy this novel highly recommended it amazing.
September 11, 2015
We first meet Iris Villarca in 1910 when she is eleven. She lives with her father at Rawblood, a lovely house on Dartmoor. However, although her existence appears idyllic, there are dark issues beneath the surface. The Villarca’s always die young and Iris’s father has implemented, ‘The Rules.’ This means that Iris and her father must live alone, with no servants and no friends. Iris only has one friend – Tom Gilmore, a local boy – but even that is forbidden.
This novel ranges backwards and forwards through the life of young Iris Villarca; who is taught to always be quiet and not go among people or to towns because of the disease. However, despite the fact that she respects her father and tries her best to obey, it is obvious that Tom is going to be the cause of her breaking the rules and – as we discover – her problems are echoed throughout her family. For people are not meant to live solitary lives and Iris, and the reader, gradually begin to discover both what the disease the Villarca’s suffer from actually is and what happened to other members of Iris’s family.
This creepy and unsettling novel has the perfect setting in the great house of Rawblood, sitting up on the moors and acting almost as a beacon to the Villarca family. We read of Charles Danforth, a medical student from 1881, who befriends Alonso Villarca, his sister Meg, and of Mary Hopewell and Hephzibah Brigstocke and their story in 1839. Gradually, the reason becomes clear to Iris, but can she break the family curse? I enjoyed this supernatural novel and thought it had a good cast of characters, while the author managed all the intertwining storylines with ease. Perfect reading as winter draws on and an interesting, rather than scary, read. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.
This novel ranges backwards and forwards through the life of young Iris Villarca; who is taught to always be quiet and not go among people or to towns because of the disease. However, despite the fact that she respects her father and tries her best to obey, it is obvious that Tom is going to be the cause of her breaking the rules and – as we discover – her problems are echoed throughout her family. For people are not meant to live solitary lives and Iris, and the reader, gradually begin to discover both what the disease the Villarca’s suffer from actually is and what happened to other members of Iris’s family.
This creepy and unsettling novel has the perfect setting in the great house of Rawblood, sitting up on the moors and acting almost as a beacon to the Villarca family. We read of Charles Danforth, a medical student from 1881, who befriends Alonso Villarca, his sister Meg, and of Mary Hopewell and Hephzibah Brigstocke and their story in 1839. Gradually, the reason becomes clear to Iris, but can she break the family curse? I enjoyed this supernatural novel and thought it had a good cast of characters, while the author managed all the intertwining storylines with ease. Perfect reading as winter draws on and an interesting, rather than scary, read. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.
Shelved as 'dnf'
September 7, 2023DNF at page 192
Not for me. Not gripping, not really getting to the point and too many POVs already. Onto the next!
Not for me. Not gripping, not really getting to the point and too many POVs already. Onto the next!
October 17, 2022
I have read quite a few of Catriona Ward's newer books now and hearing that her newest Little Eve may or may not be a follow-up to The Girl from Rawblood meant I had to read it first. Little did I know this is actually her debut, and I am seriously in awe that she spent like 6 years writing it. I loved the gothic and slight horror vibes to the story, and of course, ghosts always make me happy. There are a lot of characters and a lot of different time periods though and that made this story somewhat confusing. Ward did add a small family tree-type graphic to the front of the book, but for the most part, it was pretty unhelpful for me. This is also a VERY slow burn, and not a lot of action happens. Honestly, I was also hoping for even more of a creep factor and I think the slowness of the plot and all of the time period changes kind of took away from that potential.
I did really enjoy the audiobook of The Girl from Rawblood which is narrated by a full cast - also a bonus! Liz Pearce, Steven Crossley, John Keating, Elizabeth Sastre & Jenny Sterlin were all great, and I loved my time with them, but because of the different characters and time periods, I actually think reading the book would have been the better way to go. The ending made no sense to me at all, and I definitely feel like I missed something. This might be the ONLY book that I didn't love that I would be willing to do a reread of, and I swear that is saying something about Ward's writing, but also my need to see if the end actually makes sense in my head. I bought a copy and have every intention of hanging onto it, and there was also a great conversation with the author at the end of it as well. I am telling you now that if you read (or listen to) The Girl from Rawblood, you MUST make sure you get that in your copy. The audio didn't have it and I would have been sad if I hadn't gotten to read it. CHILLS man, that is all.
I did really enjoy the audiobook of The Girl from Rawblood which is narrated by a full cast - also a bonus! Liz Pearce, Steven Crossley, John Keating, Elizabeth Sastre & Jenny Sterlin were all great, and I loved my time with them, but because of the different characters and time periods, I actually think reading the book would have been the better way to go. The ending made no sense to me at all, and I definitely feel like I missed something. This might be the ONLY book that I didn't love that I would be willing to do a reread of, and I swear that is saying something about Ward's writing, but also my need to see if the end actually makes sense in my head. I bought a copy and have every intention of hanging onto it, and there was also a great conversation with the author at the end of it as well. I am telling you now that if you read (or listen to) The Girl from Rawblood, you MUST make sure you get that in your copy. The audio didn't have it and I would have been sad if I hadn't gotten to read it. CHILLS man, that is all.
September 25, 2016
"Rawblood" by Catriona Ward is a gothic novel written today; meaning that it mingles all of the classical elements of gothic horror and creates a gruesome story. It takes a lot of classical texts that we love such as "Macbeth", "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" as well as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and uses them in this modern story about Iris, a young girl who lives in the house of Rawblood with her father. The house is haunted, and there is a curse on Iris and her family which creates complications for her in her romantic life.
I loved the first part of this novel exactly because it was gruesome, mysterious and perfect. I was thrilled to discover old, beloved horror classics of mine in the story, and I felt appropriately creeped out.
I did not care for the last part of the book which turned out to become a messy, fragmented narration which went on for far too long. Timelines kept shifting, and I felt detached to the story - a feeling that unfortunately that continued on until the very last pages.
I definitely see the potentials of this novel, but I'm sad that it didn't deliver a captivating story all the way through.
I loved the first part of this novel exactly because it was gruesome, mysterious and perfect. I was thrilled to discover old, beloved horror classics of mine in the story, and I felt appropriately creeped out.
I did not care for the last part of the book which turned out to become a messy, fragmented narration which went on for far too long. Timelines kept shifting, and I felt detached to the story - a feeling that unfortunately that continued on until the very last pages.
I definitely see the potentials of this novel, but I'm sad that it didn't deliver a captivating story all the way through.
December 18, 2015
I'm sorry, but I didn't enjoy this book very much. It was fine for the first 200 pages, then it became increasingly difficult to understand, and by the end, I didn't have the faintest idea what had happened or why. The book seems to have been written in a deliberately obscure way in order to confuse the reader; there are multiple viewpoints, time-shifts and attempts at over-literary, semi-poetic writing that ultimately are a complete turn off. I ended up feeling deeply frustrated and really rather annoyed, as all the promises on the dust-jacket of a thrilling Gothic read remained unfulfilled. None of the characters are sympathetic and the novel is deeply incoherent in places, not to say dull; some of the sections read as though the author has cut and pasted in parts of some other creative writing project she was working on. What was the Villarca curse? Who was the ghostly 'she'? Frankly, I don't know and I'm not sure I care.
I've read widely in the Gothic genre, and I don't mind encountering a few teasing ambiguities, but this novel takes obfuscation to a whole new level.
I've read widely in the Gothic genre, and I don't mind encountering a few teasing ambiguities, but this novel takes obfuscation to a whole new level.
March 2, 2017
3.5 stars: somewhere between "I liked it" and "I really liked it." Rounding up for a great ending.
This book has strong elements of horror in it; sensitive readers might want to avoid. (Animal violence included.)
It's really hard to describe this book without spoiling anything. It's a gothic novel about a family cursed with a "white lady," who has haunted their ancestral house for generations. It's about Iris, the last daughter of the house. And it's about her family before her and how the curse affected various members.
I was expecting the book to focus on Iris, and was a tad disappointed when subsequent chapters were about earlier family members instead. However, there's a good reason for this, and at the end of the book, I could appreciate why this approach was taken (even if I found some of the narrators less compelling than Iris).
I absolutely loved some of the very-gothic elements of this book: the decaying house. The mysterious cave. The multigenerational curse. The reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because I found parts confusing--either I didn't know who was speaking, or events were nebulous enough that it took me a while to figure out what was going on.
However, I loved the ending.
I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!
This book has strong elements of horror in it; sensitive readers might want to avoid. (Animal violence included.)
It's really hard to describe this book without spoiling anything. It's a gothic novel about a family cursed with a "white lady," who has haunted their ancestral house for generations. It's about Iris, the last daughter of the house. And it's about her family before her and how the curse affected various members.
I was expecting the book to focus on Iris, and was a tad disappointed when subsequent chapters were about earlier family members instead. However, there's a good reason for this, and at the end of the book, I could appreciate why this approach was taken (even if I found some of the narrators less compelling than Iris).
I absolutely loved some of the very-gothic elements of this book: the decaying house. The mysterious cave. The multigenerational curse. The reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because I found parts confusing--either I didn't know who was speaking, or events were nebulous enough that it took me a while to figure out what was going on.
However, I loved the ending.
I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!
February 28, 2022
Papa always said there was no heaven, no hell. But there is. I’m in it. In the dark beating heart of it all.
Wow. This was absolutely awesome. Possibly the most gothic book I’ve ever read. The first half of this book I wasn’t sure what to make of it but I’m glad I persevered.
Wow. This was absolutely awesome. Possibly the most gothic book I’ve ever read. The first half of this book I wasn’t sure what to make of it but I’m glad I persevered.
March 11, 2018
Moving writing, but ultimately the story didn't quite do it for me. A lot of it was quite boring.
February 2, 2023
NOPE. Choppy, disjointed, confusing, overly bleak, trying too hard, horribly unappealing characters, & depressing as fuck—everything I hate to read in one ungainly bundle. I only managed to finish by scanning entire sections & cranking my AC/DC playlist, because holy hell, I can’t decide which problem I hated the most. 😶 Suffice it to say I hated everything. I hated it so much I literally threw it in the garbage—something I’ve done only 4 other times in my life.** Yup. I felt THAT strongly about it.
As I’ve said in other reviews—I despise literary bleakness that exists solely for its own sake. On behalf of Punch the terrier & all those unfortunate rabbits, I want to set this book on fire & dump the ashes over a cliff. This isn’t gothic. This is…I don’t even know. But it sucks. I neither expect nor desire all my reads to feature HEAs with rainbows & unicorns & peace on earth, but c’mon. There needs to be something to lighten the burden of gloom—dark humor, or an upbeat ending, or at least the protagonist saying “Hey, guess what? I SURVIVED! And so could you.” This book has none of that. So what did it have? Awkward shifting between tenses. Lots of sentence fragments. And rather than lighting a candle *or* cursing the darkness, a vaguely delineated plot devoted to rolling around in bleak inevitability. How charming! 😑
Read MR James or Sheridan LeFanu or E.A. Poe or Marjorie Bowen if you want authentic 19th/early-20th-c ghost stories with a foreboding edge. Read The Haunting of Las Lagrimas or Joyce Carol Oates’ gothic series if you want a post-modern, non-linear pastiche horror/gothic combo. Read Machen or Lovecraft or even The Death of Jane Lawrence if you want your gothic aesthetic touched by cosmic terror. But don’t read this one unless you enjoy being oppressed by inevitable d00m + endless suffering.
1 star for the pretty blue cover. 0 stars for the content.
**Those other 4 tossers: The Painted Bird, Gallows Wedding, The Awakening, & some cheesy epic fantasy chunkster whose title I can’t recall. It probably didn’t deserve tossing, tbh, but I was in a really bad mood that day. 😇
As I’ve said in other reviews—I despise literary bleakness that exists solely for its own sake. On behalf of Punch the terrier & all those unfortunate rabbits, I want to set this book on fire & dump the ashes over a cliff. This isn’t gothic. This is…I don’t even know. But it sucks. I neither expect nor desire all my reads to feature HEAs with rainbows & unicorns & peace on earth, but c’mon. There needs to be something to lighten the burden of gloom—dark humor, or an upbeat ending, or at least the protagonist saying “Hey, guess what? I SURVIVED! And so could you.” This book has none of that. So what did it have? Awkward shifting between tenses. Lots of sentence fragments. And rather than lighting a candle *or* cursing the darkness, a vaguely delineated plot devoted to rolling around in bleak inevitability. How charming! 😑
Read MR James or Sheridan LeFanu or E.A. Poe or Marjorie Bowen if you want authentic 19th/early-20th-c ghost stories with a foreboding edge. Read The Haunting of Las Lagrimas or Joyce Carol Oates’ gothic series if you want a post-modern, non-linear pastiche horror/gothic combo. Read Machen or Lovecraft or even The Death of Jane Lawrence if you want your gothic aesthetic touched by cosmic terror. But don’t read this one unless you enjoy being oppressed by inevitable d00m + endless suffering.
1 star for the pretty blue cover. 0 stars for the content.
**Those other 4 tossers: The Painted Bird, Gallows Wedding, The Awakening, & some cheesy epic fantasy chunkster whose title I can’t recall. It probably didn’t deserve tossing, tbh, but I was in a really bad mood that day. 😇
April 13, 2021
”What would it be,” I ask, “not to die, ever, anyhow? If by putting a glove on a stone, you could do it? Might be awful.”
“People shouldn’t die,” Tom says. “Just shouldn’t.”
The Girl from Rawblood put me very much in mind of China Mieville's This Census-Taker. Both take the conventions of various genres - horror, mystery, the supernatural - and work hard to, as I noted in my review of The Census-Taker, "form a thing that is both old and new, familiar yet strange." Both also draw heavily on the atmosphere and presence of the English landscape (in Ward's case, a specific location) making it as much a character in the stories as any of the humans. And both will keep you on your toes and make you work for what you get out of it, right down to the final sentence.
Where I think this story really shines is in the strength of its ending which has its roots in the most powerful of emotions: love. It is because of the love that Iris’s mother Meg, and later Tom, Iris’s childhood friend, feel for Iris that
First there’s Meg who, after suffering three miscarriages, is desperate to carry her fourth to term. Previously, Alonso chose to save her life over that of the baby, but this time Meg has a plan, one born from her experience and talent with ritualistic magic.
Then later Tom, suffering mentally and physically following World War I, makes a simple gesture, heartfelt and born of sorrow:
Only
And thus a connection is made between past and present, a connection . They had all become bound together in an ancient place that’s been the focal point of belief for generations, a place of folk tales and old magic. (”No one made it - it’s here, that’s all.”) In places such as these, you tread lightly and be careful what you wish for. The terrible truth of Meg’s words is slowly revealed over the latter half of the book.
Perhaps even Iris unknowingly binds herself to this coming together of intention, desire, love, magic and ultimately to Maybe a little bit of that was an offering to that same altar, even if it wasn’t deliberate.
A large part of the real horror of the ending comes from This is where Ward weaves social history and commentary into the horror genre.
And this is where Ward really puts the bow on the whole thing, in my opinion. Because
Ward now starts to bring together two seemingly separate threads that form the spine of the narrative: the story of the Villacra family curse and the story of Iris. In doing so Ward manipulates convention to great effect. She resists a simply linear structure (with the latter following the former) and instead
Say what you want about the ending but you have to give Ward points for pulling that out of her hat.
As much as the story is rooted in and grows from the (seemingly) simple concept of love, so too is it finally put to rest, , with the knowledge that grief is not love.
The story isn’t perfect. It does flag in places, notably the backstory about how Meg’s mother met her father in Italy. For me it was such a change of tone and feel from the rest of it. The rest of book evokes a very Twilight Zone kind of atmosphere but that bit felt like a straightforward Austen-esque period piece. Plus I thought it just went on for too long and was too detailed. There’s a resolution of sorts much later in the book when Ward While you naturally want to know the history of the Villacra family, as it’s such a central thing in the book, that whole section felt like a clunky way to get some of that early history in, to be honest.
Otherwise, I thought this was an intriguing and challenging take on a number of fundamental genre conventions. I think you have to let it settle in your mind for a bit, maybe go back and give it another read with the ending in mind. It's worth a second - or third, or fourth - look.
November 30, 2018
As an author, it's very hard to not to read with a critical eye. You think "I would have done that differently" or "An editor should have caught that." Reading often feels like an exercise in critique.
From the very first page of RAWBLOOD, I knew that I was out of my depth.
The scent and vividness of Ward's prose takes hold from the off and clings tight until the fading of the last. She writes like a master impressionist painter, simultaneously colouring the Devon moors with subtlety, intricacy and emotion. From the moment I began reading, I felt as though my brain were floating somewhere else, slightly out of reach, lost on clouds of words so cleverly etched that they belonged in the sky. Ward's prose are scintillating; effervescent; ephemeral; the casting of dreams in words as light as cobwebs.
It takes quite a lot to frighten me in text. Ward accomplished it with incredible simplicity. Brief, fleeting clutches of daunting, blackest terror left me wondering whether I really could bear to turn out the light. Or whether *she* would be waiting for me in the darkness.
The storytelling of Rawblood is complex, deep, and spans numerous character viewpoints, each of whom tells their sad tale with a unique voice. It is a lesson for budding writers on creating character through perspective, but it is a story that requires thought, introspective consideration, patience and an ability to retain details over the length of the narrative. The payoff, when it arrives, shows just how finely woven every thread has been.
Rawblood is my book of the year for 2018. It came out before then, but that's when I read it, so yah.
From the very first page of RAWBLOOD, I knew that I was out of my depth.
The scent and vividness of Ward's prose takes hold from the off and clings tight until the fading of the last. She writes like a master impressionist painter, simultaneously colouring the Devon moors with subtlety, intricacy and emotion. From the moment I began reading, I felt as though my brain were floating somewhere else, slightly out of reach, lost on clouds of words so cleverly etched that they belonged in the sky. Ward's prose are scintillating; effervescent; ephemeral; the casting of dreams in words as light as cobwebs.
It takes quite a lot to frighten me in text. Ward accomplished it with incredible simplicity. Brief, fleeting clutches of daunting, blackest terror left me wondering whether I really could bear to turn out the light. Or whether *she* would be waiting for me in the darkness.
The storytelling of Rawblood is complex, deep, and spans numerous character viewpoints, each of whom tells their sad tale with a unique voice. It is a lesson for budding writers on creating character through perspective, but it is a story that requires thought, introspective consideration, patience and an ability to retain details over the length of the narrative. The payoff, when it arrives, shows just how finely woven every thread has been.
Rawblood is my book of the year for 2018. It came out before then, but that's when I read it, so yah.
June 7, 2018
i don't do zero stars, since i feel every book should be star-rated regardless... this was unbelievably terrible... i can tell i don't like a book when i stop reading it to clean the cat litterbox, go out to weed my sunflower garden, and then decide to pull small rocks from around the fence of my yard for a while... i have absolutely no understanding of what was going on in this book... gothic? mystery? horror? ramblingmessofshite? i read many of the rave reviews and still can't figure what i missed, or if i got an ARC or a galley or some version that cut-and-pasted paragraphs from hundreds of other novels into the text, removing the original words... i don't mind timeline changes, though there were arguably too many, maybe? what bothered me right off was the immersion into a tale with zero background or lead-in, i kinda felt like i missed several chapters of introductory text... and entirely too many characters... yeah, i get the "historical origins of the curses" thing, but jesushchristonafuckingcrackerwithcheese try limiting the back-and-forth or simplifying the tale or starting at the, um, beginning... nothing worked here for me, the writing came across as overwrought and striving-to-be instead of actually fitting the period(s)... ugh... but try it, since lots of readers have loved it, just not this reader (me)...
May 9, 2021
Who do GHOSTS think they ARE, going around and scaring others and ruining their lives, just because the GHOST had HARD TIMES, well tough shit buddy, so many people are sad and scared and dying (for example, because a war is going on, like in this book??), and it's not a reason to harm others!
If you ever see a ghost, just IGNORE IT, that's what I always say.
Ok, but seriously, it's a well-written book, but I just wasn't able to get invested in it.
Liked the descriptions of love, which I rarely do, but the pace was quite slow and I couldn't start caring about the characters. A very gothic tale with a very gothic ending.
If you ever see a ghost, just IGNORE IT, that's what I always say.
Ok, but seriously, it's a well-written book, but I just wasn't able to get invested in it.
Liked the descriptions of love, which I rarely do, but the pace was quite slow and I couldn't start caring about the characters. A very gothic tale with a very gothic ending.
Read
September 10, 2018This started very well and then....went off the rails for me.
I'm not leaving a rating because my feelings on this book may be entirely personal and specific to me and I don't want to grade the book harshly. I went into it with incredibly high hopes for an interesting, creepy, and atmospheric gothic story and I did get that! Lots of atmosphere and twists and creepiness. But the plot just. Made this a very difficult book for me to love.
The problem, I think, is that the author doesn't spend enough time with Iris, who is meant to be the focus of the story and because she is so rarely given space, her plotline becomes less engaging than other plotlines in the book. I found the story of Charles and Alonso (told through Charles' diary entries) to be the most cohesive, most affecting, and honestly the most successful part of the book. I would've appreciated just that story on its own. There was an emotional connection that existed within these sections that I found lacking in the other narratives.
And the ending. Ugh. I just. Did not like it at all. It took a story that was fractured but still fascinating and just.....threw it into a plot blender and spattered it everywhere. I appreciate the reveal and how the author tied up all the various narrative threads but. Ugh. I was not a fan.
Ok I have to include some MASSIVE content warnings for this book and another thing I disliked was that these content warnings weren't even hinted at in the book's description. I will put them under a spoiler warning:
I'm not leaving a rating because my feelings on this book may be entirely personal and specific to me and I don't want to grade the book harshly. I went into it with incredibly high hopes for an interesting, creepy, and atmospheric gothic story and I did get that! Lots of atmosphere and twists and creepiness. But the plot just. Made this a very difficult book for me to love.
The problem, I think, is that the author doesn't spend enough time with Iris, who is meant to be the focus of the story and because she is so rarely given space, her plotline becomes less engaging than other plotlines in the book. I found the story of Charles and Alonso (told through Charles' diary entries) to be the most cohesive, most affecting, and honestly the most successful part of the book. I would've appreciated just that story on its own. There was an emotional connection that existed within these sections that I found lacking in the other narratives.
And the ending. Ugh. I just. Did not like it at all. It took a story that was fractured but still fascinating and just.....threw it into a plot blender and spattered it everywhere. I appreciate the reveal and how the author tied up all the various narrative threads but. Ugh. I was not a fan.
Ok I have to include some MASSIVE content warnings for this book and another thing I disliked was that these content warnings weren't even hinted at in the book's description. I will put them under a spoiler warning:
June 29, 2020
I love a gothic novel but this didn't totally work for me. It is very much in the tradition of the original gothics, complete with spooky old estates, women committed to asylums, cursed families, etc etc. I often enjoy books that jump around in time, and on the surface everything says I should love this kind of book, that also includes queer characters and a complex structure that it's almost a Sarah Waters comp. And yet. It just didn't hold me. I felt like I was meandering through it, circling the plot instead of moving it forward. I didn't feel like I got grounded in many of the characters/storylines, and I didn't have much of a feeling of suspense.
What I enjoy most from a gothic novel isn't all those checked boxes, it's the feeling of shivery dread. And I never really felt that for the vast majority of this book. There were glimpses but it never came together, sadly.
What I enjoy most from a gothic novel isn't all those checked boxes, it's the feeling of shivery dread. And I never really felt that for the vast majority of this book. There were glimpses but it never came together, sadly.
December 28, 2018
Gothic novel about a family curse, with a ghostly haunting of their estate. The plot goes back and forth in time (from early 1800s to 1919), and has a number of narrators. More sad, tragic and melancholy than it is scary. I really could not feel that close to any of the characters, so the story didn't have as strong an impact with me. There were some very well-written passages in the book. This was the author's first novel, and I'd be interested in reading more of her work as she grows as a writer.
October 29, 2022
All the while, I had thought I was forging my own path. It seems to me now that I have wandered blindly, tangled in old, old events, as if in brambles. Caught on their piercing thorns.
Insanely beautiful but frequently confusing, The Girl from Rawblood is a melancholy fever-dream. It’s horrific and lovely in equal measures.
The story begins, or not so much begins considering the long history and extensive backstory, but our introduction to the story is to eleven year old Iris Villarca. Iris and her father Alonso are the last members of the Villarca family, living in their beautiful and private family estate, Rawblood.
Home. It sounds like a battle, like grief, but it’s a gentle name. “Raw” from sraw, which means “flowing,” for the Dart River that runs nearby. “Blood” from bont, a bridge. Old words. The house by the bridge over flowing water. It has been in my family since I don’t know when. Rawblood is us, and we, the Villarcas, are Rawblood.
Heartbreak and death follow the Villarcas. They sicken if they leave the family home for too long. But returning home isn't a guarantee of safety either - the curse will claim them all eventually. And they will see her. To look into her eyes is to feel terror itself.
This is no mournful lady, floating through deserted halls. She bears no message from beyond the grave. She has no desires save one, which is to end you, to take your life.
The Girl from Rawblood is a massive and layered story spanning generations. There are several POVs - seven, if I can remember correctly, and we bounce through timelines and locations frequently. Unsurprisingly, this is a story well acquainted with confusion. It sort of shrugs in the general direction of linear storytelling, and decides to do its own thing.
And for the most part, these choices worked well for me. It's not the easiest read, that's for sure. I remain eternally grateful for the family trees in the intro. And it's not an easy read in terms of content either - it's all done tastefully, but there are cruel experiments on rabbits and everything related to what happened to her is horrific beyond measure. About halfway through there was a chapter that was extra upsetting - I had to set the book aside for a bit and listen to some relaxing music.
The confusing timelines and upsetting content are uncomfortable hurdles, but they're necessary elements of the story. Paired with the gorgeous writing and the gothic atmosphere, they make a complex, moving, and unique story.
Some acts have such power that they never really end.
Catriona Ward has impressed me twice now, first with The Last House on Needless Street and now with The Girl from Rawblood. Talk about creativity! I love any book that can chill me to the bone and warm my heart at the same time.
Insanely beautiful but frequently confusing, The Girl from Rawblood is a melancholy fever-dream. It’s horrific and lovely in equal measures.
The story begins, or not so much begins considering the long history and extensive backstory, but our introduction to the story is to eleven year old Iris Villarca. Iris and her father Alonso are the last members of the Villarca family, living in their beautiful and private family estate, Rawblood.
Home. It sounds like a battle, like grief, but it’s a gentle name. “Raw” from sraw, which means “flowing,” for the Dart River that runs nearby. “Blood” from bont, a bridge. Old words. The house by the bridge over flowing water. It has been in my family since I don’t know when. Rawblood is us, and we, the Villarcas, are Rawblood.
Heartbreak and death follow the Villarcas. They sicken if they leave the family home for too long. But returning home isn't a guarantee of safety either - the curse will claim them all eventually. And they will see her. To look into her eyes is to feel terror itself.
This is no mournful lady, floating through deserted halls. She bears no message from beyond the grave. She has no desires save one, which is to end you, to take your life.
The Girl from Rawblood is a massive and layered story spanning generations. There are several POVs - seven, if I can remember correctly, and we bounce through timelines and locations frequently. Unsurprisingly, this is a story well acquainted with confusion. It sort of shrugs in the general direction of linear storytelling, and decides to do its own thing.
And for the most part, these choices worked well for me. It's not the easiest read, that's for sure. I remain eternally grateful for the family trees in the intro. And it's not an easy read in terms of content either - it's all done tastefully, but there are cruel experiments on rabbits and everything related to what happened to her is horrific beyond measure. About halfway through there was a chapter that was extra upsetting - I had to set the book aside for a bit and listen to some relaxing music.
The confusing timelines and upsetting content are uncomfortable hurdles, but they're necessary elements of the story. Paired with the gorgeous writing and the gothic atmosphere, they make a complex, moving, and unique story.
Some acts have such power that they never really end.
Catriona Ward has impressed me twice now, first with The Last House on Needless Street and now with The Girl from Rawblood. Talk about creativity! I love any book that can chill me to the bone and warm my heart at the same time.
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