The Fascination
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A dark kaleidoscope of a novel, set in the chaos of the Victorian fairgrounds, the glamour of the Drury Lane pantomimes, and an anatomy museum in London’s Oxford Street.
Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.
Theo is an orphan raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who is obsessed with freaks and curiosities … particularly the human kind. Always resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir has been produced, Theo is told to leave his home without a penny to his name. He finds employment in London at Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy, and it is there he meets with Captain, and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks, and outcasts. But, it is Theo’s fascination with both Tilly and Keziah that will lead all three of them into a web of jeopardy …
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The title of this is somewhat apt as it seems modern authors have a fascination with freakshows and grotesqueries of the Victorian era. I am not sure it fascinates me enough to warrant the number of books that get written on the subject though. This one is competent enough, following the story of the bastard heir to a rich estate who gets disenfranchised when a new and more legitimate heir is born. He reconnects with a pair of twins, one normal the other suffering from dwarfism, that he met once at a carnival, whilst at the same time working at a public ‘cabinet' of the macabre. A mystery follows that links everyone back together in weird and mystical way.
It is dealing with some fairly classic tropes of both the gothic and carnival genres. The story flows well enough, although the convenience of all the links exposed does feel somewhat contrived in places. Ultimately I found it blended in with a lot of other books in these tropes and whilst competent it just wasn't memorable enough for me.
