Title: The Quickening
Author: Rhiannon Ward
Published by: Trapeze
Publication Date: August 20th, 2020
England. 1925. Louisa Drew lost her husband in the First World War and her six-year-old twin sons in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Newly re-married to a war-traumatised husband and seven months pregnant, Louisa is asked by her employer to travel to Clewer Hall in Sussex where she is to photograph the contents of the house for auction.
She learns Clewer Hall was host to an infamous séance in 1896, and that the lady of the house has asked those who gathered back then to come together once more to recreate the evening. When a mysterious child appears on the grounds, Louisa finds herself compelled to investigate and becomes embroiled in the strange happenings of the house. Gradually, she unravels the long-held secrets of the inhabitants and what really happened thirty years before… and discovers her own fate is entwined with that of Clewer Hall’s.
As much as I adore my cosy, romantic fiction, the opposite side of me loves a chilling, gothic novel, those types with the creepy, old houses shrouded in mystery, with tales of ghostly sightings, and secrets hidden away behind locked doors, so when I saw Rhiannon Ward’s The Quickening available to request on NetGalley, I just knew I had to read it because it instantly appealed to me.
Immediately, I was drawn into this story, swept away by Louisa’s history of grief and loss, and my interest further piqued when Louisa was asked by her employer to accept a commission regarding Clewer Hall, in which she was to go and photograph a number of items which were to be sold at auction at a later date. A keen photographer, and in need of the money due to having a baby on the way, Louisa accepts without first consulting husband Edwin because she knows he’ll say no, and heads to Sussex almost immediately.
There is no denying that Rhiannon Ward is a beautifully descriptive and capable writer, and the way in which Clewer Hall was presented to me in this novel was testament to that. It was not hard for me to encapture this dark and decaying residence within my mind, to imagine the very atmosphere which occupied and swamped the many rooms and corridors beneath its roof. I could see it all so clearly as if I had been there myself, could smell the damp that lingered and see the wallpaper that had unravelled itself from the walls. Ward captured the very essence of Clewer Hall in the most beguiling of ways, rocking my mood back and forth with every new discovery that Louisa made during her time there.
‘… the once austerely imposing Hall had become a wreck of itself. The bare bones were still there – the angular design, the tall chimneys and the long, imposing windows, reflecting back my gaze. Through the drizzle, though, I could see where mortar had fallen away from around the bricks, encouraging seeping damp…’
Ward’s powerful descriptions of Clewer Hall were utterly mesmerising and held me captive throughout, a slave to the story she wove.
Louisa was an artistically-carved character, and I grew fond of her rather quickly. Reading from her first-person perspective, I felt as close to her as I could possibly get, almost traversing her journey beside her. I found Louisa to be quite tenacious when it came to her own life and knowing what she wanted, and this was only confirmed when, rather than consulting with Edwin of her plans to head to Clewer Hall before she left, she chose instead to leave a message with his mother to pass on to him, and he hardly crossed her mind at all once she had arrived at her destination. It’s hardly surprising though, considering how much Louisa has to keep her busy once there. The home is filled with a multitude of characters for the reader to be introduced to, from Helene and Felix, to Lily and Ada, all of which were brilliantly written and so very interesting to become familiar with. Each of these people had secrets of their own and stories to tell, those of which I found utterly fascinating.
I love a novel that makes you want to switch off the lights then run across the landing to escape the darkness, a book that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand if you happen to hear a noise from somewhere within your home with no immediate explanation. This book certainly had that effect on me, so much so that I had to call it a night and switch off my Kindle, because I’d reached a point where I felt that my mind was running away with me a little bit too much. Of course, I’m sure it was entirely to do with the talk of seances and ghostly apparitions within the book that were lending to my overactive imagination, those of which I enjoyed reading about immensely, even going off-course at one point to do my own research on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the whole subject of spiritualism in the time frame that the novel was based around. So, not only did I enjoy reading this novel, but I enjoyed the other path that it had me stumbling down whilst reading it.
Amongst the chilling eerieness of this tale, there were an army of themes touched upon by Ward. Loss, grief, motherhood and sacrifices being the prominent ones I think, but also the movement of women becoming more independent than ever before, and I truly loved that this was included within the story. There was love being found in unlikely places, and the threat of something much uglier than peeling walls and darkening stains, something much more evil simmering just beneath the surface waiting to reveal itself, but only when the time is right.
The Quickening by Rhiannon Ward was a unequivocally atmospheric and deeply engrossing novel sweeping across the hands of time, leading readers down an eerie corridor of deceit, betrayal and cryptic clues leading to what will be the ultimate conclusion. The Book Babe is giving The Quickening by Rhiannon Ward a rating of four out of five. I’d like to thank Trapeze for the advanced reading copy of this book, that of which has no reflection on my providing a fair and honest review.
You can pre-order your copy here.
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