A historical thriller set in victorian London. It is a story of a young woman striving to survive in a difficult world but also to achieve her apiration to be an artist. a chance encounter brings her to the attention of Silas who is deeply troubled and troubling with dark secrets. A chance to model for a pre-raphaelite painter with lessons in return seem to give her a way to become an artist but things go wrong and events spiral to a terrifying situation where she has to fight to come out alive. A tv series has been made of this book but I think that the book is better, the series was a bit confused at times

I read this shortly after giving birth to my daughter so didn't have the opportunity to review, but now I definitely do need to do so as I've just watched the TV show (that was adapted by my friend!) and reminded me I never posted a review! Even before watching this or knowing that my friend was adapting the story, I was obsessed with this book. It's a dark and twisting look at how women have been (and still are) treated as possessions. I loved the moments of brightness during it like the Great Exhibition and Albie, especially as they contrast the rest so well. The characters are brilliant, excellently formed as you move through the narrative with them, and the descriptions of Victorian London and the dark and macabre are so rich. I highly recommend this!

I found this book hard to put down as it was so beautifully written & captivating. Dollmaker Iris meets artist Louis. She's always been there for her sister who she works & lives with but finds herself in the impossible situation of doing something for her. Banished by her family she becomes Louis's model and they fall in love.

Silas, a creepy older man she met at the Great Exhibition is captivated by her. The meeting although fleeting he can't stop thinking about her and wants her for himself...

Beautifully drawn you almost feel you are in the story. Would highly recommend.

I am a huge fan of historical fiction and loved this book with a splash of gothic. I loved the characters and the setting. Whilst I was initially unsure if I would like this read I was pleasantly surprised and loved the book and would highly recommend it. It took me a while to pick up the book having had it for some time but so worth the wait.

Wow! This book was a feast for the senses. Beautifully written and described, once I got half way through I had to read it to the end. The details around the characters are just perfect. This would make an incredible film.

Harder to get into, but that is of the era. A story of an aspiring painter The intricate web of family and lovers I really loved it.

An incredible debut, I must keep an eye out for this author!

I don't know what I expected but it wasn't this. Not really for me I'm sorry to say. I think it might have been wrong book/wrong time though!

The Doll Factory, the author’s debut novel, is set in Victorian London and provides a vivid picture of life in the period. Whilst those in the higher echelons of society throng the glittering halls of the Great Exhibition or the Royal Academy, the poor wander ‘narrow and fetid’ passages, dark alleys with ‘green slime on their walls’ and inhabit the crowded rookeries where poverty-stricken young men and women support themselves through petty crime or prostitution. Those lucky enough to find employment, like Iris and her sister Rose, work long hours in thrall to the whims of their employers.

It’s no wonder Iris longs to escape her current occupation painting the faces of dolls and fulfil her artistic potential. When the opportunity comes it seems to her ‘as if her life was charcoal before, and now it takes on the vividness of oil paint’. However, Iris’s new found freedom comes with consequences and also a degree of trepidation. ‘Her life was a cell before but now the freedom terrifies her. There are times when she longs for the enclosed familiarity of her previous life, because this expansive liberty seems like it will engulf her.’ As it turns out, Iris will soon realise just how precious liberty is.

The Doll Factory is a story of obsession and desire in various forms. Artist Louis Frost, and the other members of the self-styled Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, have a desire to challenge current artistic conventions. Street urchin Albie wishes to free his sister from a life of prostitution, one in which, obscenely, dying girls are the most treasured by clients. Albie also has rather specific ambitions of his own. Meanwhile Silas, the owner of a shop filled with curiosities of a rather gruesome nature, harbours an obsession of a more sinister nature. The more the reader learns about his past the more menacing and disturbing his actions become.

There are some melodramatic scenes as events move towards their climax with the book’s ending inviting the reader to reach their own conclusion about the fate of the main characters. Part mystery, part love story, The Doll Factory positively oozes period atmosphere and will appeal to readers who like a good helping of the Gothic in their historical fiction… or those who desire to make the acquaintance of a wombat called Guinevere.

I honestly had no idea what to expect when i started this book. I was very dubious as dolls freak me out.. However, i had no need to worry. There wasn't many dolls in this book!

I really enjoyed it, it was one that I wouls never have picked up if I saw it on a shelf so I'm so grateful for being able to read an ebook copy. I didn't want to stoo reading at some points.

Great characters and really good story telling. I cannot wait to read more from this author. Found a way to make olden day London interesting and makes you feel like you are there along side them all.

A powerful, multilayered book perfectly capturing the Victorian age and its contradictions. The Doll Factory is a complex tale of freedom, the love for art and the darkness of obsession.

Iris is a wonderful main character and is supported by an unforgettable cast: from young Albie to the hedonistic PRB right up to the darkness of Silas's obsession, none of them will leave me anytime soon.

There were some pretty dark moments and some gory scenes (particularly around animal violence), but they had a place within the story and helped in picturing the brutality of life at the time for some people.

I think that the students in our school library need to hear lots of diverse voices and read stories and lives of many different kinds of people and experiences. When I inherited the library it was an incredibly sanitised space with only 'school readers' and project books on 'the railways' etc. Buying in books that will appeal to the whole range of our readers with diverse voices, eclectic and fascinating subject matter, and topics that will intrigue and fascinate them was incredibly important to me.
This is a book that I think our senior readers will enjoy very much indeed - not just because it's well written with an arresting voice that will really keep them reading and about a fascinating topic - but it's also a book that doesn't feel worthy or improving, it doesn't scream 'school library and treats them like young reading adults who have the right to explore a range of modern diverse reads that will grip and intrigue them and ensure that reading isn't something that they are just forced to do for their English project - this was a solid ten out of ten for me and I'm hoping that our students are as gripped and caught up in it as I was. It was one that I stayed up far too late reading and one that I'll be recommending to the staff as well as our senior students - thank you so much for the chance to read and review; I really loved it and can't wait to discuss it with some of our seniors once they've read it too!

Unfortunately I just could not get into this book. It may be one for other readers, but I was unable to finish it.

I ended up giving up on this early on as I couldn't get into the storyline at all. For me there was no hook, nothing to hold onto, which meant my interest waned and I couldnt continue.

This book stressed me out, I loved every second of it. It had an amazing plot, story arc, characters were well fleshed out and it was just an incredible read!

This wasn’t the book for me. It wasn’t what I hoped. Not what I expected. I couldn’t give it a chance. It’s not something I would read

A truly brilliant book. Such believable characters, a fantastic premise and genuinely enchanting writing. Part romance, part historical thriller, there's an ever-growing sinister atmosphere that leads to an incredible climax. You need this book in your life.

I was sent a copy of The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal to read and review by NetGalley. I really enjoyed this book; it had a bit of everything. There was a bevy of well-drawn characters, romance, sibling rivalry, art, taxidermy, passion, obsession and ultimately madness! Set at the time of The Great Exhibition, during 1850/1851, the story encompasses every walk of life conjuring vivid images in your mind. While I haven’t given the ultimate 5 stars I feel that it should be worth slightly more than the 4 which is the next option. I am sure that any reader who enjoys historical fiction set in the Victorian age will love this. Enjoy!

I’ve had The Doll Factory on my TBR since it was released last year and, truth be told, I’ve been a little nervous about reading it. As a fan of historical fiction, this was one of my most anticipated books of 2019 and it ticked all my boxes – Victorian setting, female-focused, hints of the Gothic, blending of real-life figures and imagined persons. Plus, it featured a mischievous wombat – one of my very favourite animals and a creature very ill-appreciated in my native UK.

What eventually led me to get over my nerves and actually pick the book up was a buddy read with some of the wonderful ladies who make up the blogging gang of The Write Reads. Over the course of October, we have taken our time to read and discuss a section of The Doll Factory each week. And despite those insightful and interesting discussions (and occasional rants), I STILL have feeling about this book. Many, many feelings.

The Doll Factory is the story of Iris, a young woman living a life of respectable but uninspired drudgery. Working alongside her embittered sister Rose in the dreariness of Mrs Salter’s Doll Emporium, Iris dreams of being an artist. When a chance encounter with artist Louis Frost – a member of the notorious Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – leads to an offer of both work and painting lessons, Iris is drawn into an expansive and expressive world of rebellion, love, rivalry, and secrets. Unfortunately for Iris her entry into this world has bought her into contact with Silas, a strange and lonely man whose occupation as a taxidermist hides far more sinister proclivities. And as Iris learns to negotiate the freedoms of her new world, Silas is quietly planning a way to constrain it.

Although I’ve done my best, any overview really cannot express how richly layered the world of this novel is. One of the most impressive things about the book for me was the sheer density of the author’s depiction of Victorian London, and of the lives these characters led within it. I could see the decedent clutter of Louis’s rooms, small the chemical acidity of Silas’s grim basement, and hear the cries of the women in the dank rookery tenement inhabited by Albie, the street urchin whose life intersects with that of both Iris and Silas. To have created a world so vividly moving is quite a feat.

The characters too, feel like living and breathing people in all the best and worst ways. Iris makes for an interesting protagonist. Having been born with a misshapen clavicle (the result of a botched forceps birth), she is unused to being looked at or admired and it was fascinating to see how her idea about herself – her own beauty and capabilities – expanded and grew over the course of the novel. I was found her relationship with her sister Rose to be well-realised – the two had been close as children but, following an unfortunate illness, Rose has grown resentful of Iris and they seem to have little common ground at the start of the novel. Seeing these two characters find their way back to each other, and negotiate a more equal relationship, was a high point of the book for me.

Even more incidental characters felt as if they could walk off the page – I challenge anyone not to want to instantly adopt the sweet-natured Albie – and the way in which real people, such as the artists Millais and Rossetti, and the art critic John Ruskin, are integrated into the story is masterfully done. I genuinely had to Google to check there wasn’t a Pre-Raphaelite artist called Louis Frost!

You can also tell that the author is an artist herself (she makes the most marvellous pottery, available on her website in limited numbers) because the way that she talks about art and creativity in the novel is wonderful – you really do begin to see the world through the eyes of an artist and to appreciate the passion and commitment that has gone into every brushstroke.

Unfortunately, the plot didn’t quite live up to the characterisation for me. There is a LOT going on in this book and I felt, at times, as if the plot was foundering under the weight of all the moving parts at play. In addition to Iris’s ‘relationship’ with Silas (if you can call it that), there are plot strands focusing on Iris’ development as an artist, the acceptance of the PRB by The Royal Academy, Silas’ exhibit for The Great Exhibition, Albie’s quest to get a new set of teeth, Louis’ mysterious past, Iris’ relationship with her sister, and Silas’ past misdeeds. And that’s not everything!

Whilst none of these strands were done badly, some of them felt extraneous – I failed to see why Iris’ relationship with her parents (mentioned once) was relevant, for example. It was the same with the opening – I felt as if Mrs Salter and the Doll Emporium would, somehow, be relevant to the plot but, once Iris has left to go and work for Louis, the place is barely mentioned again and Mrs Salter takes no further part in the action. It’s almost as if the author had such fun creating these characters and this world that she couldn’t bear to part with any of them – even if it later became clear that they didn’t really do much in the novel.

My other major issue with this book was with Silas. I don’t mind reading an unpleasant character but I do like to feel that there is some motivation behind their unpleasantness. Silas is most definitely one of the most unpleasant characters I’ve read on the page – there were times when inhabiting his twisted headspace made me so deeply uncomfortable I had to put the book down – but I ended up feeling as if he was predictably evil, with little to no indication as to why he does the things he does. There are some hints – that he had a terrible childhood, that he has been bullied all his life – but then, at the last minute, it’s also implied that he possibly suffers from some sort of illness that results in blackouts and uncontrollable fits of anger that seems to undermine this narrative of suffering and victimhood. Silas is, in many respects, incredibly well realised – he’s a truly creepy and memorable character – but, in others, felt rather one-dimensional. As with so many things about this book, I ended up with very mixed feelings about him.

As a result of both the weighty plot and the characterisation of Silas, I found the ending of The Doll Factory really quite disappointing. I won’t give any spoilers here – and I will say that the journey to get to the end is very enjoyable, despite the misgivings I’ve mentioned here – but I just felt as if the ending came at a rush, and with little resolution for many of the characters. Having created such an immensely creepy villain in Silas, I felt somewhat cheated out of a resolution for him at the end. And don’t even get me started on Albie’s plot strand – I’m still not quite over that. And I couldn’t help feeling as if I’d read sections of the ending before – there are certainly moments that reminded me quite a lot of John Fowles’ novel The Collector.

As I hope you can tell, this book left me with really mixed feelings. A bit of me REALLY loves this book. It’s rich and vibrant and provides one of the best depictions of Victorian London – complete with all its messy, complicated glory – that I’ve read. And the characters are so real and vivid and the art is so beautifully described and depicted. I desperately wanted to love it unconditionally as there really is so much that I did enjoy and admire about it.

BUT (sadly, there is a but), for me the book just didn’t quite fulfil its promise in other ways. The ending left me with quite a bitter taste, and there were just too many elements that didn’t quite come together in a way that left me feeling wholly satisfied when I turned the final page.

I’d definitely read whatever Elizabeth Macneal writes next – I think a lot of the issues I had with the book are what I would term ‘first novel problems’. And I would certainly recommend picking it up if you enjoy historical fiction or are looking for a book club read – it provoked many lively and interesting discussions amongst our reading group! Also, did I mention that it features a wombat? Immediate extra star right there.

This novel follows the fortunes of a young woman, Iris, who dreams of becoming an artist while slaving away painting the faces of dolls in Mrs Salter's doll emporium. Iris falls in with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of artists (including Rosetti and the like) and all her dreams of becoming an artist herself suddenly seem possible. However, a chance encounter with a disturbed taxidermist who develops a terrifying obsession with Iris puts her in enormous danger.

It's a dark, moody historical thriller about art, ambition and obsession, deeply evocative of Victorian London in all its grime and squalor. Very enjoyable.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

''When the streets are at their darkest and quietest, a girl settles at a small desk in the cellar of a dollmaker's shop. A bald china head sits in front of her and watches her with a vacant stare. She squeezes red and white watercolours on to an oyster shell, sucks the end of her brush, and adjusts the looking glass before her. The candle hisses. The girl narrows her eyes at the black paper.''

I loved this. Looking at the quote above it's immediately clear the author is also a physical maker - in real life Elizabeth Macneal is a gifted potter. Set in the build-up to the Great Exhibition of 1850, Macneal's London is beautifully evocative, the gritty streets come to life with description and well-written prose.

But it is the characters which will stay with me from this novel. Iris wants to be an artist, and she is judged harshly by her family for her ambition. But when she is asked to become a model for Louis Frost, life begins to look up...

A novel about art, life, twins, sisterhood, Romantic art, and wombats... thanks to the publisher for my copy.

In reality, it is somewhat rare to find a book so spellbinding that the reader feels positively grieved to finish it, but this was my happy experience with ‘The Doll Factory.’

In a vividly imagined 1850s London, the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood co-exist with those so mired in abject poverty that they have little time to spare for aesthetics- such as Albie, the irrepressible street urchin we meet early on.

Our heroine, Iris, has skill and imagination in spades but like many of her peers is encased in drudgery. Employed by the miserly Mrs Salter to paint faces onto ceramic dolls, the repetitive, stifling environment gives few chances for Iris’ valiant level of ambition to bear fruit.

We are introduced to Louis Frost, a fictional member of the Brotherhood, but drawn so splendidly that we can quite believe he existed. Frost is so enraptured by Iris that he identifies her as his muse and asks that she model for a painting he has envisaged. Iris, astute as she is, agrees- as long as Frost teaches her how to paint. Iris thrives in being able to express her creativity more freely, but she is no fool and her in her pragmatism knows the arrangement is transactional at its very heart.

Enter Silas, a taxidermist whose pieces are often purchased by the Brotherhood to be used as subjects. He may have delusions of grandeur and something of a persecution complex, but initially he holds nothing to particularly alarm us.

The Great Exhibition, and the way it enraptures all of London, drawing them to it with its beguiling arms, forms a key part of the novel’s backdrop. Iris (in an echo of the real life Lizzie Siddal, on whom she is loosely based) understands that the painting she inspires is to be entered into the Exhibition- and is keen to go along. It is the innocuous fleeting encounter between Iris and Silas at the Exhibition that provides the impetus for the darker, more macabre latter part of the novel. It is a section which puts one in mind of John Fowles’ classic novel ‘The Collector,’ with a similarly creepy and obsessional central character. Silas, it seems, has a ideas for a Doll Factory of his own, and one far removed from that of Mrs Salter, dour as she is.

This dazzlingly good novel is as rich as the artistry it depicts especially given that Elizabeth Macneal has her own artist’s eye, meaning that although we cannot physically see what is going on, we can imagine it perfectly, Deftly weaving in themes of misogyny, oppression and infatuation, ‘The Doll Factory’ also rewards with a superbly tense denouement to round off an absolutely stunning debut.