The Gifts- Blog Tour

 

Author: Liz Hyder

Publisher: Zaffre Books/ Bonnier Books 

Publishing Date: 17th February 2022 

Many Thanks to Compulsive Readers book tour and the publishing team for my physical copy and a spot on the tour. 

Blurb 

In an age defined by men, it will take something extraordinary to show four women who they truly are...

October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders. Meanwhile, when rumours of a 'fallen angel' cause a frenzy across London, a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grip of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger...

My thoughts

I am super excited to be joining this mega blog tour and this book sure lived up to the expectation of  a historical fiction. 

It was interesting to read from 5 different narrative viewpoints. We hear from four  women and one man; Mary, Annie, Etta, Edward and Natalya and they each bring unique prescriptive to the story.. They each tell a different story of social hierarchy, power, religion and patriarchy.  We go on a journey of who they are and how they reached a point in their lives today. 

The story tells us Etta realises she has grown wings and soon word gets out and she is dubbed Angle of the Thames. Soon surgeon Edward sees a way to make him self known and wants to solve this mystery at any cost.  Edward is a merciless and horrific character that you despise from early on. He is on a power hungry trip and deems himself far superior to women, even his own wife he treats as a possession rather than an human. I felt great sadness for Annie who longed to be a mother, so gives up her other dreams and settles to be a wife to surgeon Edward and soon realise she cannot have children due to infertility. 

Along the way Mary who is with her reporter uncle and friend Richard let her lead the the investigation and soon the women's paths cross. Mary is uber confident, self assured and wants to find the truth. Etta and Mary are both forceful characters and had so much build up rage dare anyone go against them.  I loved Natalyas' resilience to all the horrific things that happen to her, she seems to have this inner strength to keep pushing forward at all cost.

I really liked how this book as well as being atmospherical and magical it conveyed the seriousness of control and the hardships of women during this time.  The chapters are short and due to the 5 narration can be a bit hard at times to keep up with the switch but it's fantastically written. 

A fab female led novel!