Time Will Tell

Switzerland & Germany, Late 18th Century: So I didn’t pick this topic JUST so that I could talk about The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, but I have been trying to sneak this book into a newsletter for weeks. I am more than a little but obsessed with Frankenstein and all its adaptations, but Kiersten White’s YA historical horror is one of my favorite. White recenters Mary Shelley’s original novel around the figure of Elizabeth Lavenza, a hungry, abused, neglected child taken in by the Frankenstein family to be a companion to their strange, frightening son Victor. She grew up doing her best to become indispensable to the family, cementing her place in luxury and ease through her ability to manage Victor’s dark and dangerous moods. But behind Elizabeth’s calm, sweet, tame-the-beast exterior she has teeth and ambition of her own.

New York City, 1899: There is a monster stalking New York, draining the blood from its victims in a manner frighteningly reminiscent of Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula. It is almost as if the monster himself has stepped out of the page and haunts the dim streets of the Gilded Age America. Tillie Pembroke’s sister has become a victim of the killer, her neck punctured and her body exsanguinated (I really don’t get to use that word enough). Tillie is determined to discover the truth – human or supernatural – behind her sister’s death, but her desire for the truth wars with her increasing desire for the laudanum that dulls her pain. As hysteria grips the city and the killer’s trail of bodies grows longer, Tillie struggles to discern fact from fiction, reality from opium dream, and begins to wonder who and what she can really trust.

London, 1855: Helena Morrigan’s business is the dead, and the dead are anything but quiet. A mortician and funeral director struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of London, Helena can free the dead whose souls are trapped in the mortal world. She takes up residence in the home of the newly orphaned Eric, Audrey, and Christian Tarter because the old house is closer to the graveyard, and closer to the souls she seeks to save. But a killer is on the loose, and their violent crimes are complicating Helena’s work. Her business is booming, but she herself is coming under suspicion as the killer’s rampage continues. Soon she finds herself awash in a storm of secrets and blood that threatens to destroy all she has built, and take her life in the process.

Malaya, 1893: Li Lan’s family is bankrupt, which means that despite her genteel birth she has little chance at a comfortable future. Until the day she receives a strange marriage proposal from a wealthy and powerful family. Their only son, Tian Ching, died under mysterious circumstances, and now the family seeks a ghost bride to soothe their son’s restless spirit. It is a rarely used tradition, but one that would see Li Lan secure for the rest of her life. But security isn’t free, and Li Lan soon finds herself being haunted by Tian Ching, who every night draws her into the afterlife – a phantom world parallel to the waking world in which Li Lan finds herself falling for Tian Bai, now heir to the Lim’s in Tian Ching’s place. Torn between the living and the deadr, Li Lan must discover the dark secret behind Tian Ching’s death before she finds ends up trapped in the afterlife forever.

Hungary, 16th century: Anna Darvulia is a scullery maid in the of household the beautiful and terrible Countess Elizabeth Báthory. She catches the Countess’ eye and finds herself being lifted up through the ranks to become the Countess’ chambermaid. No more scraping by in the cramped, dirty servants quarters, unable to provide for her family. Now she is the Countess’ friend and confidante. But blinded by the glamorous Countess’ affections, unable to see how she has been groomed by her patroness, Anna realizes too late that she has been carefully cut off from everyone she knows and loves. And with the bodies piling up around her she knows that she will soon be next.

The second book in this series, Poison Priestess, will be out in April! It will be about Monvoisin and the Affair of the Poisons and I NEED it because I am unapologetically 17th century French garbage.