Captivating, thrilling and super creepy. What a ride! I can't fathom how much research must have gone into creating this but it definitely pays off.

3.5*

If you appreciate the morbid curiosity of the Victorian era then this one is for you! Dark and compelling, I enjoyed this but you have to be in the right mood because it can be disturbing.

~ Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this title ~

Though it took me a few pages to get into this, soon I was immersed and it provided a great snapshot into this era as well as a fast paced, tense bit of action! Thoroughly enjoyed!

I can’t say that I really enjoyed all of this novel, especially not the details about taxidermy and freakish animals. However, after a somewhat slow start, the plot picks up and I did enjoy the depiction of mid-nineteenth century London and the beginning of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Parts of the book and some of the characters, in particular Silas, I thought were seriously unpleasant and spooky, so much so that it took me quite a while to finish because I couldn’t bear to read the book in bed just before turning out the light. Thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for this honest review.

This is a dark and twisty story set in London at the time of the Great Exhibition. It follows Iris, an aspiring artist trapped in a miserable existence painting dolls in a shop with her unhappy sister. and Silas, a taxidermist and collector of the macabre. Their paths cross briefly, but the encounter sets off a rapid and unsettling chain of events. Iris becomes a model and apprentice to Louis Frost, a pre-Raphaelite artist, and it seems that her life is improving. But all the while, Silas is nurturing a growing obsession.

The book is well written and the characters engaging and (largely) likeable. I found it gripping.

I really enjoyed this book set in the Victorian era. The author wrote about the building of Crystal Palace and also highlighted the poverty of everyday people. The story is based around a girl called Iris who wants to be an artist. After being taken on as an artist model how she falls in love with the artist. Also the obsession of another man who wants to possess her, body and soul. It the author certainly did lots of research and it showed in the story. Well done, I look forward to reading the next book by Elizabeth Micheal.

The Doll Factory is set in London around 1850, just as the Crystal Palace is being built. The heroine, Iris, is a young woman who scrapes a living, along with her sister, by painting the faces on dolls. The hours are long, the work tedious and their boss an opium-sodden tyrant. Iris is taken up by a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (what a tiresome bunch they appear here!), who wants to paint her. Iris is reluctant because she’s no fool and thinks being a model as good as being a mistress. When her new patron takes an interest in her own painting, she agrees to model for him and is set up with a room and a studio. That’s one part of the story; the other is far more sinister. Silas, a taxidermist, becomes obsessed with Iris and begins stalking her. He’s a fantasist with a record of violence against women but only the street boy Albie suspects him. This dark passion turns the story into a creepy thriller.. Will Silas add Iris to his collection of two-headed puppies and stuffed mice? What will he do to her if he does? It doesn’t bear thinking about.

This is a well-researched book and a good read once it gets going; it didn’t grab me from the start. I felt it didn’t quite come off but that Elizabeth Macneal is an author to watch. I read this thanks to NetGalley. It will be published on May 2nd.

This is both a great thriller and an intriguing, sensitive exploration of the Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood and what it meant to be a woman, a bohemian and an artist at a time when any one of those things would be a burden rather than a blessing. I really enjoyed it.

Looking at the other reviews, I feel as if I'm missing something. This book held so much potential going in with all the different strands of plot, content and backstory Macneal introduces but it felt that she did not use them fully.

The story takes a turn part way through and starts resembling a Neo-Victorian 'Collector' with a move away from the whole discussion about gender and painting being ignored completely. The ending is were I was most let down as two thirds of this was a good book but when it took the 'Collector' twist, it went down hill fast. It was rushed and Silas was very irritating. He lacked any nuance to his actions and was a bit of a whiny brat.
This book felt like me at a dessert buffet, with too much on my plate and not enjoying eating. Only eating one thing to move onto the next.
I would avoid this as there is much better Neo-Victorian fiction out there that look on similar themes as this and it was such a weak final third, it really spoilt the book for me.

Iris is a fantastic character, and one that I admired greatly for making her own choices when everyone advised (told) her to do otherwise. At the start of the novel, Iris and her twin sister, Rose, work together at Mrs Salter's Doll Emporium, painting and clothing dolls. When Iris is offered the opportunity to model for Louis Frost, she sees her chance to escape the tedium of her life as well as the opportunity to learn to draw and paint as she makes this part of their agreement. Her sister and their parents warn her against it, threatening to cut her off, but Iris makes the difficult choice of following her dreams, and I loved the bravery she showed in doing so.

Part of the desire to get away from her life is based upon the relationship Iris has with her sister and their parents. Growing up, Iris was always the naughty one, the one who was told off for anything and nothing, while Rose was extremely well-behaved – roles that have continued into their adult lives. The two sisters were close, with Rose always defending her sister when she was bullied or made fun of because of her twisted collarbone. They remained close to the age of 15, when the beautiful Rose contracted smallpox, and while she survived, she was left with the scarring that can occur. Their relationship was never the same from this point on, and both Iris and the reader are left to wonder at Rose’s change in behaviour. Is it jealousy, or is there something else behind it? It’s a mystery for the reader to unravel.

The novel focusses a great deal on art, and I loved the way that this became part of the novel without becoming overwhelming. Louis is a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and rejects the accepted best practices of the art-world, preferring to use bold colours and the detail associated with more classical works, despite the criticism he receives because of it. I’ll be honest, I know very little about art and the Pre-Raphaelites, and I’ve heard of Rossetti (one of Louis's friends and a fellow artist) only because I studied Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, his sister, at A-level. This didn’t affect my enjoyment of the novel in the slightest, and I don’t believe I’d have enjoyed it any more if I had been more aware of the artistic angle of the novel.

While Iris is improving her artistic skills, Silas Reed, whom she met in a chance encounter that was quickly forgotten by her, begins to obsess over her, and this gives the novel a fantastically creepy edge that will keep you hooked as you wonder how far Silas is willing to go. I absolutely loved the chapters featuring Silas, who is socially awkward, and often looked down upon by those he would befriend. I struggled to feel much sympathy for him, however, as he clearly has some dark secrets in his past which are gradually revealed to the reader as the novel progresses.

The Doll Factory is a wonderful novel which brings to life Victorian London and the Great Exhibition. It is a dark story of love, art, and obsession that kept me gripped from first page to last as it builds up to its climatic ending. Highly recommended.

A fascinating read. Bringing together a cast of characters - from Iris who longs to escape from the drudgery of doll making, her troubled sister Rose who suffered in childhood, Albie a boy who makes his living on the streets to Silas the taxidermist with a shop full of curiosities - this book is teeming with historical detail, characters and gritty reality of the harsh life in the mid 19th century.

For Iris longs to paint - and when she meets Louis Frost, who's part of the pre-raphaelite brotherhood, a group of artists who are challenging the establishment, her life changes. The story evolves and each of the characters brings something different to the story, told in vivid details that explode from the page and transport you to the Great Exhibition (the Crystal Palace) and the Royal Academy.

Beautifully written, this gritty tale draws you in and leaves you wanting to read on and on and on.
A fascinating read, that is magical in places and gritty in others - a real historical drama.

The Doll Factory is a gothic triumph. After a slow start, the story drew me into its' dark world. The setting of the novel during the Great Exhibition of 1851 is inspired. It represents a time of great cultural and technological change.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood produced some of the most beautiful art, and it is a joy to be privy to the creative process. Frost, Millais and Rossetti create art in such contrast to the ugliness of urban poverty that surrounds them.
The writer vividly describes the conditions of Victorian London, and the gulf between the poor and well-to-do. Iris and Rose are stuck together in ghastly servitude , with each one resenting the other. When Iris has the opportunity to transcend her situation she has to take it.
Poor misunderstood Silas the taxidermist transforms into the creepiest villain. His desire to be friends with Iris evolves into a sinister obsession. You long for him to fulfil his creative side all the while he is descending into darkness.
I long to this story brought to life on screen. It would be magnificent, like this novel.

An exquisite novel set amongst the grime of Dickensian London, we follow intricate juxtapositions and a twisting, sumptuous storyline - the macabre art of a taxidermist versus the emerging realist art movement; the twins - one deformed, but beautiful, the other intact, but maimed, the urchin siblings scrabbling an existence.

I really enjoyed this book- gorgeous storytelling, a fabulous sense of place and time and wonderful characters too. Highly recommended.

An intriguing tale of despair and obsession set in ye olden days, 1850 to be precise. This novel gives a fascinating insight in to how life was for our Victorians in London and you can almost smell the rotten veg and sewage! I found this book quite hard to get engrossed in at first. The writing, although authentic was a little stilted for me, I’m much more a modern prose kinda girl. I’m glad I stuck with it though and recommend you do the same. Will you feel sorry for the creepy Silas or shudder at the thought?

This is a beautifully written book, set in Victorian London. It tells the tale of Iris, a young women stuck in a safe but dead end job painting dolls' faces. She dreams of painting and becoming an artist, well aware that her status as working class and a woman reduce her chances to almost zero. Silas is a strange man who runs a taxidermy business and Albie is a young boy who does errands for them both. Iris's life is turned upside down when she is approached to be a model for Louis Foster, a (fictional) artist of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The writing recreates the squalour and struggle of ordinary people in Victorian times but also captures the beauty and ideas of the artistic work of the Pre-Rahaelites. I recommend this book highly.

This reminded me of Dickens by way of Thomas Harris. Echoes of The Old Curiosity Shop and the scary sexual appetites, just held back from tipping into perversity, of Dickens' Quilp seem to feed Silas and his obsession for Iris - tipping him into a scenario that is *very* familiar to anyone who reads modern thrillers. Macneal's research and attention to material details certainly anchor this to its Victorian setting, despite the modern over-use of the plot. A modern sensibility can be discerned though out, not least in the way the heroine rescues herself.

Oh yes, this is more like it. Proper historical fiction with real characters making an appearance. It is gritty stuff. You really wouldn’t want to be poor in Victorian England but the strugglers and chancers make the best reading. It is stuffed full of curiosities and deformity, lightness and dark, hope and despair. It is a cracking read.

I find it difficult to say I enjoyed this book (and I will explain why) but I am very grateful for the chase to read it and I would be tempted to read more from this author. I think to define it as historical fiction is a mistake I would be tempted towards thriller or even Horror. At times the evil was a little too much for my wimpish character. The story is slow to build, but within the building of plot Macneal has created a living picture of 19th century London and the excitement around at the time if the Great Exhibition. The characterisation of Silas and Albie, in particular is vivid and the reader is fully for or against them - I would venture to say that their characters are bigger and bolder even than that of Iris. For me there were times when I really did not want to read on - it was too dark, too vivid a picture in my head, too raw. However I am sure that it is this dark vivid rawness that will make this book the many will enjoy and recommend.

This is an absolute delight of a book, steeped in the atmosphere of Victorian London and rebellion, it tells the story of obsession and one woman's determination to rise above the patriarchy and cleave her own path.
The characters are all wonderful; Silas, the taxidermist with dark and twisted desires, the little street urchin saving for a set of teeth, Louis Frost, the Pre-Raphaelite artist who is obsessive about his art and Iris, the wonderful female character who refuses to bow to any man whose rebellious nature belies a real strength of character. The setting is rich with detail of the PRB, the Great Exhibition, the role of women and life in the slums, and written with such a deft touch that the story never becomes bogged down in detail. The plot is thrilling and I really felt myself cheering Iris on. My only slight complaint is that the ending felt a little rushed, but perhaps that it because I just didn't want the book to end?

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Well written, but, I found it a very slow burner and I lost interest, i am so very sorry. I am not saying it is a bad back, it was well written but the story just did not spark my interest, I am certain I will be in a minority though