The House in the Water - Victoria Darke - ★★★.½
AUTHOR: Victoria Darke
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PUBLICATION DATE: May 27, 2024
RATING: 3.5 stars.
In a Nutshell: A Gothic novel in dual timeline, focussing on some strong themes and incorporating actual events. The character development could have worked better for me, but the research and the fabulous setting of the Thames, were impressive.
Plot Preview:
2013. Meredith and her husband Philip have just purchased May Day house, a semi-dilapidated historical mansion that served as a hospital during WWII. They intend to restore it and open it up for events. But as the house stands on its own island in the Thames, the riverside community is against any restoration fearing environmental pollution. As the couple struggle to get things going, Meredith begins to hear voices from the river and see strangers in the house. This worsens when she finds an old notebook in a room, detailing what happened at May Day during the war.
1942. Ellen has just arrived at May Day House to serve as a nurse, helping the men there to get over their mental trauma and return soon to duty. However, though she is experienced in handling such patients, she isn’t sure about the approach used by the doctors. Things get further complicated with the arrival of a new patient.
The story comes to us in the third person perspectives of Meredith and Ellen, alternating between the two timelines.
Avid historical fiction readers might wonder why to pick up yet another novel with a dual timeline with a journal/diary serving as a link to the past set during WWII. This is a common pattern, right? But there are many features in this story that set it apart from the standard formula.
Bookish Yays:
💙 The strong Gothic feel generated by the enigmatic May Day House and its complicated history.
💙 Each timeline has enough to make it stand on its own, while still being interconnected. The distinct vibe in each provides us with two strong stories within a single novel.
💙 Unlike most dual timelines with old letters or diaries or journals, the contemporary character isn’t obsessed with her discovery. She is curious about the content but also handles her own issues. The link between the two timelines isn't the key focus, though it's important.
💙 I am often puzzled by just how much *journals* reveal about historical events, including details on physical intimacies, but this problem is avoided by the use of third person for the historical timeline, with Ellen’s letters forming only a part of the past narrative. This gives a genuineness to Ellen’s story.
💙 The River Thames is almost a character in this book. It is always present, whether silent in the background or bursting from its banks. The description of the river and the river people feels totally authentic, which isn’t a surprise once you learn about the author’s place of residence from her parting note. I always love it when authors make proper use of a novel location rather than just mentioning it in passing and then forgetting all about it.
💙 Further from the above, I've read other books with river people but all were historical fiction. I never knew that river people are still in Britain. It was eye-opening to learn about them, and how they are looked upon by “land-dwellers”.
💙 Appreciate the incorporation of several real-life events into the fictional plot, both historical and contemporary. The author’s note gives great insight on her writing choices.
💙 Love how mental health is the key focus in both timelines, albeit in different ways. The change in the attitude towards mental issues now and then is interesting to read.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🔷 While the plot and the setting leave a strong mark, the characters (main and secondary), especially in the contemporary timeline, didn’t impress me so much. Their detailing seems somewhat ad hoc. The historical timeline has somewhat better characters, with their moral greys generating intriguing conundrums. But I couldn’t connect with both Ellen and Meredith. I find it tough to root for characters who mistrust their own family instantly but readily believe what strangers tell them.
🔷 There are many intense themes in the story, many of which are handled excellently. However, some of the themes felt superfluous as they don’t directly impact the plot. I wish the themes had been streamlined as the story went into misery overload at times. Some of the topics could be triggering.
🔷 While Ellen is an army nurse, there’s not much direct medical action on the page. We do get to hear procedural details, but only in conversations. I was hoping for a more intimate depiction of the job of a WWII nurse. Then again, I suppose it is better this way than to have an inaccurate representation of medical details. (As happened in Kristin Hannah’s ‘The Women’, where every other patient needed a tracheotomy!)
🔷 Romance has a key role to play in the historical timeline, which is never to my liking. This is a personal preference, and won’t bother those who like romantic tracks in non-romance genres.
🔷 While there were enough twists throughout the book, the final quarter took me by surprise. I thought I had guessed the mystery, but the plot ended up going in a different direction. I am not sure if I liked the resolution, but at least it was not entirely predictable for me.
Bookish Nays:
🔵 The prologue is fabulous and creates great expectations about the paranormal content of the book. However, the rest of the book doesn’t match up. I am not at all happy with the otherworldly instances as they were too convenient to be convincing. Moreover, I am still trying to figure out who exactly the prologue was about.
🔵 A couple of the plot inclusions and character decisions were farfetched.
All in all, this is a good book, with the storyline and the setting creating an appealing combination. I just wish the character detailing, especially in the contemporary timeline, had been more consistent.
Recommended to historical mystery readers as well as contemporary fiction lovers, who would enjoy a story highlighting mental health issues with a dash of romance. The author also writes contemporary fiction under her own name, Victoria Scott. This is her first Gothic mystery under this pseudonym.
My thanks to Rachel's Random Resources, Boldwood Books, and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of 'The House in the Water', and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
Content warnings: Mental health issues, PTSD, sexual abuse, pregnancy and related heartbreaks, infidelity, war-related trauma, natural disasters.
The digital version of this book is currently available free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
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Blurb:
A secluded house. A lost notebook. A wartime secret.
1942: Young Irish nurse Ellen arrives at May Day House, tasked with helping the men there rehabilitate. But there’s something strange about the house, surrounded by water, on its own island in the Thames. And then there are the traumatised by their experiences of war, and subject to troubling methods in a desperate race to get them back to duty. As Ellen gets drawn into the world of May Day House, she starts to realise this will be no place to hide away from her own troubles…
2013: Philip and Meredith are the proud new owners of May Day House. Following a string of tragedies, the couple have moved to the area in search of a new start. But all is not what it seems in the riverside community. As their plans for the rundown house meet resistance from the neighbours, Meredith finds herself slowly she hears voices on the water, sees figures where there can be no one there. When she finds an old notebook from the war, she seeks solace in the stories about the former patients of the island.
But will shadows from the past threaten her future happiness – and even her life?
Curl up with this rich and spellbinding story of love and war, perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Eve Chase and Lucinda Riley.
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Author Victoria Darke:
Victoria is the author of three novels writing as Victoria Scott - Patience, Grace and The Women Who Wouldn’t Leave. Patience, her debut, was the Booksellers’ Association Book of the Month.
Her first book for Boldwood will be a dual timeline historic suspense novel, writing as Victoria Darke. The House In The Water will be published in May 2024.
She lives on an island in the Thames with her husband and two children and a cat called Alice..
Connect with her on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Toryscott
Website: https://www.toryscott.com/
Newsletter Sign-up: https://bit.ly/VictoriaDarkeNews
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Check out this book:
Purchase from: https://mybook.to/HouseWaterSocial
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This has been a stop on the #TheHouseInTheWater blog tour conducted by Rachel's Random Resources. (@rararesources) Thanks for stopping by!
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