Custom House, 320 pp.
Published October 16, 2018
DISCLAIMER: I received a free physical ARC of this title from the publisher for review purposes. This did not inform or influence my opinion in any way.
For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters—and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction.
It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy.
But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. . . .
You'll LOVE it if...The Essex Serpent was a favorite release of yours last year.
One cannot do full justice to Sarah Perry's writing when providing a review after only one read-through of her novel. I believed it when I shared my thoughts on last year's The Essex Serpent and I continue to believe it as I formulate my thoughts on her Gothic novel, Melmoth. Perry meticulously recreates the style and mood of the genre, distinguishing her story with a certain perspective not necessarily possible two hundred years ago. Once again the emphasis lies on the characters' relationships with themselves and one another; plenty happens throughout Melmoth—including a particularly devastating revelation near the end—yet it is how Helen and a slew of others react to these events that drives the novel's momentum.
As in The Essex Serpent, morality remains a central question that goes unanswered. Rather than the pressures of societal expectation, the dark and towering figure of Melmoth supplies a festering dread among those who hear of her. And despite my comparisons, Melmoth and The Essex Serpent are distinct, unique, and singular novels, rather than rehashes of the same material. They are related to one another in the same way that Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth are to one another: spiritual siblings that explore shared themes through different characters and, by extension, different experiences. If you enjoy one, you will almost certainly appreciate the other as well.
You MAY NOT LIKE it if...you're expecting traditional scares.
Written in the truth Gothic tradition, Melmoth emphasizes atmosphere and uncertainty over the kind of frights you might associate with Stephen King. Perry executes the genre beautifully, but readers unfamiliar with her first novel might read the synopsis and expect an abundance of literary jump scares...which never come. This is not a criticism of the work itself—where many authors attempt to reinvent the Gothic novel, Perry instead reverently crafts one of her own, simultaneously modern and traditional. Readers who don't know quite what to expect, however, might wind up with disappointed expectations if they start out looking for explosive thrills and chills. If you're in the mood for something along the lines of Frankenstein or Jane Eyre, you've picked up with right novel. But if your fingers are itching for the next Stephen King, this might not be the material for you.
RATING:
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