Tilly Wallace

All in all an entertaining read.
One thing rubbed me the wrong way though.
The book goes pretty much all in on regency England.
It has a quirky writing style and word choice, all of which emphasize the time period and its stuck-up and conceited nobility.
And all this is great and I found it very enjoyable, but it clashes badly with how little subtlety the story has in communicating concepts like female empowerment and inner beauty and all that crap. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the general ideas but it's done in such a prescriptive and preachy way.

The writing seems inspired by Jane Austin's writing but without any of the subtlety and dry wit which makes her writing so ingenious.
Where Jane Austin is a delicate touch of a feather, this book is a brick to the face.

I don't want to end on a negative note but I don't have more to say.
I don't regret having read it. It was much better than I expected.… (más)

While Lord Wycliff investigates a monster terrorising the residents in Chelsea, Hannah Miles tries to discover the owner of a mischievous hand with a mind of its own.

Following on from the events in Manners and Monsters, readers encounter the same mix of horror and humour in a novel of manners, with the rather independent hand providing some light relief among the killings and experimentation on the dead. However, the pace was more uneven than in its predecessor, and I got the distinct impression that the thread involving the hand was acting as a filler, because not much else was happening. However, there is an unexpected plot twist fairly early on in the novel that will have repercussions for the rest of the series, I imagine, and it will be interesting to see how this will be resolved.… (más)

As a result of French enemy action, a curse has been unleashed on the women of Britain's upper class, which has turned them into zombies, referred to as 'the Afflicted'. To keep their monstrous appetite for human brains in check, they are now consuming them pickled and sold legitimately. However, someone is being greedy and murdering servants in order to devour their brains. The unpopular Lord Wycliffe from the Ministry of Unnaturals has been tasked to investigate the matter, with Hannah Miles, the daughter of a former military surgeon and a mage, both searching for a cure for the Afflicted, acting as a chaperone so the Viscount doesn't upset the ladies too much. Can they discover who is behind the killings before more servants lose their lives and any secondary Afflicted are created?

Manners and Monsters is a fun paranormal fantasy set during the Regency in London and surrounds. The mixture of a novel of manners with an undercurrent of zombie horror works well, with tongue firmly in cheek. I normally shy away from anything to do with zombies, but the author has managed to portray the afflicted women as tragic figures deserving of sympathy, which was rather unexpected. Since Hannah stands outside of polite society because of her family background, she is freer than most young women of her age to indulge in "unladylike" pursuits, such as helping to find the perpetrator of two horrendous and brutal killings, and thus makes a relatable central character to take the reader through events.

I've already started the second volume in the series, Galvanism and Ghouls.… (más)