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Book: The Winter Garden
Author: Alexandra Bell
Publication Date: 31st August 2021
Book 1 Of The Year
If you are a fan of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus and Stephanie Garber's Caraval trilogy you will be like me and adore this book! I found this such an easy read and I couldn't put it down I was reading it everywhere. What I loved the most was the world that Alexandra created through the words that she used, it was full of descriptions and I could see perfectly in my head what it was she was describing which is my favourite part of any book/literature.
Alexandra Bell hasn't just written a show stopper of a book but she also highlights what women of the 1800's. Marry for money and social standings instead of love, pass their children onto maids/nurses for them to take care of the babies, women weren't allowed to be inventive, unmarried women weren't allowed to spend time with a unmarried man alone (had to have a chaperone even when married in their own home) and so much more. Alexandra explores all of these rules that women had to follow and goes against them. Through this book we follow two grown women Beatrice (British Duchess) and Rosa (American Woman) and how their lives change drastically as the novel goes on. Like The Night Circus the chapters of this book begin with a month and a year so that we can follow it along easier, one thing I struggled with at certain points was when Beatrice and Rosa were sending letters via Rosa's clockwork pigeon, to show it was a letter Alexandra changed the font on the page so it looked like it had been handwritten. I did struggle slightly to read these certain pages as some of the words and letters were tight cursive and small (which is why I have deducted this book a star).
Following on with the themes throughout the novel I love how Alexandra has gone into detail on how Rosa is feeling when something rather large happens to her (no spoilers here), Bell dives deep into a topic that today us women still don't or can't talk about as it isn't the done thing. Alexandra delights our senses by switching points of view as the chapters go on which definitely keeps you on your toes especially towards the end when the two ladies compete against each other. I will most definitely be reading this book again, the imagination that Alexandra has is exquisite and is the type of writing that I adore. So if you love all things The Night Circus with a dash of Caraval and a sprinkle of Midnight in Everwood this is the book for you and I would highly recommend it just please before you do read the trigger warnings below this book is quite a dark read, with the theme of child death, abuse and postpartum depression running through the entire book. So please take care when reading and you're not alone please speak to someone or myself.
Trigger Warnings: Death Of Parents/Children, Grief, Spousal Abuse In All Forms, Drug Use, Pregnancy Complications, Violence, Gore, Detailed Injuries, Drug Influenced Hallucinations and Intense Postpartum Depression.
Happy Reading!
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