A rather lovely and haunting tale in a richly-evoked Italy. Apologies that I didn't reach this sooner when it would have been useful!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For now this is a DNF for me, I might come back at a later point to this one, but I am just not connecting with the story at the moment.

Petition to make authors who decide to write about a country/culture outside of their own think hard about whether they can pull it off. I found Fine’s vision of Venice and Italian characters laughable. Sprinkling in Italian words does not make your work more authentic (especially if said words don’t ring true: “They’ll go together, tutte due”....). And why oh why make the choice to refer to il lido as “The Lido”...? Just call it “the Lido” or since you decided to leave “La Serenissima” as is, do the same and call it “il Lido”. Anyway, I found the prose affected and the dialogues ​​unconvincing. In a way, I was reminded of The World Cannot Give, a book I did not care for in the least. Anyhow, this was a major disappointment. Maybe non-Italian readers, or less nitpicking readers, will find it to be a blast but I found the dynamics to be trying and failing to go for that Sarah Waters vibe. (less)

Many thanks to Headline and Julia Fine for the advanced copy of Maddalena and the Dark via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel.

This is a tale of longing and horror. Of lust and jealousy.

I do wish book blurbs would stop comparing books to other, already-published books. This can unfairly set a book up to fail if it is compared to a particular favourite if it does not quite meet the standards of the mentioned book in the reader’s mind.

Maddalena and the Dark is well written and is a sapphic tale of unrequited, jealous love. The strong and, at times rather terrifying, emotions come through well on the page, and Julia Fine is obviously an accomplished writer.

However, somehow the book just didn’t quite do it for me. It just fell flat for me. Maybe it’s a lack of detail surrounding some of the more important aspects, a convenient ability for the characters to do what they like to make the story work, when it would not really work that way.
Maybe it’s a lack of depth that would have added too many pages to this novel. I’m not sure.

Overall, this is a good book and well written and I do recommend it. I just can’t say it’s a great book. And that’s fine!

Moods: challenging, dark, emotional, mysterious, sad, tense
Themes: forbidden love, ‘If I can’t have you, nobody will’, LGBTQ+, oblivious to love, orphan, peril, unrequited love
Pace: medium
Character development: weak
Plot or character driven: plot
Diversity: low
Spice: 0.5/5
Trigger warnings: Death, Misogyny, Physical or mental abuse, Sexism

Rating: 3.5 rounded up to 4/5

I just finished reading Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine and I have to say, it left me feeling both enchanted and haunted. It's an atmospheric and gothic tale that will draw you in and keep you captivated until the very last page. Julia Fine has such a unique style and her words have the power to make you feel as if you are right there in the story. I highly recommend it!

Beware because it's one of those books that slowly build the scene and ask you to be patient. It's a dark fantasy set in a XVIII century Venice, a city which is on the verge of losing the independence but it's still full of charm.
Luisa and Maddalena are the poor and rich girl, bound by a wager done with a dark power.
The plot is quite slow even if the descriptions of Venice are well done. The second half of the story is fast paced and I was fascinated.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

First of all, I loved the prose. It was kept me reading and did so well in immersing me in the setting. While the plot itself didn't feel concrete, the characters were. Alternating between the two girls we get their perspectives and really connect with them.

Overall an enjoyable read

Maddalena and the Dark awas a luscious tale of desire, jealousy and obsession. Set against the backdrop of 18th century Venice, it follows two girls making a bargain with a dark power. One of them is Maddalena, a noble's daughter, who gets sent to an orphanage in the wake of a scandal in her family. That orphanage, the Pietà, also functions as a music school, one of the most famous ones in Venice. Until her family can sort out the scandal and marry her off, Maddalena is to stay there and learn how to be a good wife. In the Pietà, Maddalena meets Luisa, a violin prodigy, and the two quickly form an almost obsessive friendship. Maddalena promises to help Luisa become first violin and secure the tutelage of Antonio Vivaldi. What Luisa doesn't know is that Maddalena made a bargain with a mysterious power within the lagoons of Venice which demands a high price.

This book was absolutey gorgeous. The prose was lush and evocative, transporting you right into the alleys of Venice. The book was clearly very well researched and I couldn't put the book down as we were brought into the gondolas, and carnival, and palazzos. As the plot, the book was very much a character study, so there wasn't all that much. Yet I was glued to my seat as you slowly watched the two girls grow apart and careen towards disaster as events overturn.

The relationship between Luisa and Maddalena was the heart of the book for me. I loved the exploration of toxic, somewhat homoerotic, female friendships and obsession. Basically, this book did for me what The Last Tale of the Flower Bride failed to do. Maddalena is clearly the more brazen and confident one of the girls, feeling almost an ownership over Luisa as soon as they meet. Luisa herself, having grown up in the Pietá, is the quieter of the two and very naive and sheltered, letting Maddalena drag her along for whatever she fancies. When Maddalena took Luisa into her childhood home, I could already see the beginning of the end. The last quarter of the book was absolutely thrilling and terrible, like watching a car crash in slow-motion.

The book did the deal with the devil aspect very well, working almost as a cautionary tale to heed your ambition and desire. While Maddalena was always bold, Luisa develops from having smaller, but reachable goals, to wanting more and more, and it was ultimately her downfall. I also really liked the exploration of girlhood and how limited women's choices at the time were. Maddalena and Luisa have no good choices, yet they are being made to choose. Even a deal with a dark power couldn't preserve them from the fate of women at that time. The book balks at the injustice of it while still remaining more or less realistic to the time. Lovers of music, and especially the violin, will also love this.

The ending of the book was perhaps a bit rushed, but I nevertheless loved it. 5/5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful gothic fairytale.

I loved loved loved the beautiful Venetian setting and how everything was described, but this book took an awfully long time to get going. It wasn't even particularly long, but the pacing was very slow. I think if that had been edited, it would have definitely gone up another star for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

I’m sorry to say this one was a dnf for me. I felt it was too wordy and overwritten without an interesting plot and underdeveloped characters
I was bored and gave up at 25%

This one was very atmospheric and gothic, but it started incredibly slow. It wasn't until about 75% in that the pace started to pick up and I became truly interested in it.

It had a surprise ending, which I enjoyed, but I can't get over how slow the first 75% was.

This is an enchanting and suspenseful tale of desire, music and fate. The characters are mysterious and powerful. Secrets and darkness lies beneath the waters of Venice. Fate gets intertwined and desire takes the shape of envy turning their world upside down. The book is about female friendships, marriage prospects, envy, music and mysterious canal.

Set in Venice, 1717. It has been narrated in the span of four seasons and has dual POV. Maddalena has poignant back story and she wanted to become recognised. But her brothers sends her to Ospedale Della Pietà. It’s a music school in Venice that cultivates best young musicians. There she meets a fifteen year old orphan Luisa. Their bond grows over time but their fates gets intertwined. The book has offerings, secrets, and oath laced in desire and darkness leading to a fateful destiny.

Thank you Netgalley, Author and the publisher.

"Maddalena and the Dark" by Julia Fine is a bit of a slow-grower in terms of plot and likeability. I was going to rate it a 3 but it picked up towards the end, hence my improved rating. Interesting story of female friendships, jealousy, music, marriage, Venice and a mysterious gondolier. I'd have perhaps enjoyed it a bit more if the magical fairytale qualities were brought out earlier in the book, still worth persisting with.

MADDALENA AND THE DARK flows deep as the lagoon that is an ever haunting presence in the world of this enchanting novel about lost innocence. Maddalena enters into a pact with the sea that is the city of Venice, thinking she knows what she wants. For a while it seems to work. But everything has its price, whether it is magic that lives in the water, or the spell of first desire.

I read and loved both of the author's earlier novels, and this is closer in spirit to WHAT SHOULD BE WILD, and such a rich and heart-breaking escape. Officially love everything Julia Fine writes now.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating:5/5
The premise of this book gave me vibes similar to the last tale of the flower bride, aka my favourite book of all time, and it did not disappoint! Maddalena and the dark is a lush, decadent fairytale about toxic female friendship set in 18th century Venice....... what's not there to like! The prose is gorgeous and suits the setting. Unlike many other reviewers, I actually enjoy this particular style of writing in books It is a deeply atmospheric story, told over the span of four seasons in the perspectives of Maddalena and Luisa, to fifteen year old girls who meet at the Pieta, a music school for girls. I liked how the magical realism element was connected to the city itself.
It's best to enter this book blind and fully immerse yourself in the atmospheric, magical city that is Venice. I'm so glad I got to read an early copy of one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and that it was not a miss.!

This was perfectly enjoyable, but for me never really had anything that stood out over and above other books.
I enjoyed the scene setting, and the music bits, but never sure how I felt about Maddalena.
Not one I rushed back to.