The Other Side of Mrs. Wood - Lucy Barker - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Lucy Barker

GENRE: Historical Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: June 13, 2023

RATING: 3.5 stars

In a Nutshell: A historical fiction about the rivalry between two mediums. Interesting characters. Excellent look at the prevalent obsession with spiritualism and seances in 1870s England. Great atmosphere. Slow pacing. Somewhat predictable plot. Goes a bit downhill in the second half. Inspired by real events. A good debut that could have been better but still entertains.

Plot Preview:

1873. England. Mrs. Violet Wood, who is in her late thirties, is the most successful medium in London at present. Ambitious and diligent, she does her best to ensure that her patrons get the complete experience from her seances. She is aware of the fickleness of their nature, always wanting something newer and more exciting. Moreover, a newspaperman who specialises in spiritualist content is out to expose all fake mediums in order to retain the sanctity of spiritualism. This, combined with her increasing age and her dwindling savings, forces Mrs. Wood to take bigger risks. And one such risk is investing in the training of a poor but promising young girl named Emmeline Finch who appears to have a knack for spiritualism. Can training a new medium in such competitive times work for or against Mrs. Wood?

The story comes to us in the third-person perspective of Violet Wood.

Bookish Yays:

👻 Mrs. Violet Wood. She’s not likeable in every way but not unlikeable as well. I liked her complex personality, especially how she held herself against a different standard from the rest.

👻 The depiction of how our insecurities interfere with common sense. The characters constantly follow their impulse and think only of the short-term situation, which isn't always a great thing.

👻 The sketching of spiritualism and its components, not just the actual seances but also the behind-the-scenes info about what went into the seances. I like how the writing doesn’t make any immediate declarations, leaving it for us to discover whether each medium is genuine or not.

👻 The rest of the female characters: Mrs. Wood’s competent assistant Miss Sarah Newman, her snarky cook Emily, the various high-society patrons of the seances, and of course, the competitive young Miss Emmeline Finch. All comes in varied shades of human. I especially liked Sarah and Emily.

👻 The interludes containing letters and newspaper articles. A great way of letting us know the prevalent hot topic in Mrs. Wood’s world.

👻 The portrayal of historical Victorian London, highlighting not just the era’s fascination with spiritualism but also the lifestyle of the rich and the plight of the women. The plot includes quite a few good topics connected to women such as the compulsion towards marriage, the attitude against spinsters, women’s suffrage, and ageism.

👻 The undertone of humour, which is especially strong in the first half. The characters aren’t laughing, but we definitely feel like laughing at them.

👻 The author’s note. Very interesting! I like how she wrote an entire novel from the squabble between two actual mediums in Victorian England, even if the story is entirely different.

Bookish Okays:

🕯 The male characters are relatively drab and one-noted, which is often the case in women-oriented historical fiction. I wish the men had more depth to create a greater realism. Only Mr. Claw the slick newspaperman had some potential.

🕯 The predictability, not just in terms of how the rivalry proceeds but also in terms of how it will end, is somewhat disappointing. While I did enjoy the basic storyline, I wish it had gone a little beyond in making me feel invested.

🕯 The pacing is mostly slow, which was okay for me as the story felt more character-driven. However, the middle doesn’t just drag but also becomes repetitive.

🕯 The repeated references to Mrs. Wood’s age (along with the style of calling her ‘Mrs. Wood” for most of the story) makes it tough to remember that she is only thirty-nine. While the ageism is possibly true to the era, I wish it had been a little subtler. Similarly, the repeated use of the “Mrs. Wood” and “Miss Newman” and “Miss Finch” becomes somewhat tedious after a while, even if that was the social norm. Surely those who were close to each other used first names!

Bookish Nays:

☠ The last one-third or so goes overly dramatic. Until then, the book was still a good read for me, but the unrealistic self-sabotaging behaviour in several scenes affected my satisfaction.

☠ The epilogue. Unnecessary and disappointing.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 11 hrs 8 min, is narrated by Tracy-Ann Oberman. She does an excellent job, imbuing each character with such a perfect voice and accent that it felt as good as a multi-narrator book. It was very easy to keep all people and their behaviour straight in our heads thanks to her commendable voice performance. I’d definitely recommend the audio version. Though there are many characters, it is easy to keep track of the story, so it ought to work for audio newbies as well.

Overall, I did like most of this novel, even though the predictability and the lacklustre finale were disappointing. The look it offered at seances and spiritualism was its most interesting appeal. Given the nature of the characters and the drama inherent in the story, this would make a great TV series.

Recommended to historical fiction fans who enjoy reading morally complex characters and don’t mind slow or predictable plots.

3.5 stars, rounding down wherever applicable for the weak final section.

My thanks to HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing the DRC of “The Other Side of Mrs. Wood” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.