The Doll Factory Hardcover – May 2, 2019

"‘I would say observing. It’s an important skill for an artist".The Doll Factory by Elizabeth MacnealI am editing this because I want to be clear. This is a good book but NOT FOR ME. Different books are for different people.Were it not for the Taxidermist and killing of an animal, graphic scenes of stuffing animals ETC I would have most likely given this a higher rating. And I did read most of it although I cannot even say how much I skimmed or ignored entirely because of this issue. If these things DO NOT bother you, you may indeed like this book. I skimmed to finish. Not the writer's fault. She writes beautifully. But I cannot read a book with intense animal cruelty that starts literally on page one. I do understand the main character is a taxidermist but there is such focus on what he does to the animals. He also thinks nothing of murdering an animal to work on it in his store. It was all a bit much.I love Historical Fiction and I love Gothic novels which is what I understood this book to be and in a sense it is but did not know how brutal it was and most importantly the unrelenting scenes of dead animals were nauseating and really interfered with any enjoyment of this book. As I said, it is well written, beautifully written actually, but is not at all for people who loath graphic scenes of Taxidermy, animals being murdered, and animal brutality as it is pretty much through the whole book. I am not one who stops reading all that easily and I have read books with one or two scenes of animal brutality and I usually dock a star but this is unrelenting, throughout the book and I wish I had looked more closely on what it was about. My mistake.I would also describe this as more of a Horror/Gothic then Traditional Historical Fiction.It is more geared toward Horror in my opinion then even Gothic. This is a pretty twisted story that made me think of the show "American Horror story".She writes beautifully about the time period and the book is genuinely frightening at some points. I understand why it has such positive reviews as if one likes Historical Gothic fiction and do not have issues such as I described that would like this most likely.In short..I made a mistake with this one. Not for me at all.

Perhaps the best thing about the DOLL FACTORY by Elizabeth MacNeal is the setting, 1850 Victorian England. It has that Jack the Ripper environment where nobody seems to be in charge of keeping the city, or at least this part of the city clean. Also poor abandoned children who live anyway they can are referred to as urchins.The title refers to a shop owned by a woman her two employees refer to as Mrs. Satan. Iris and Rose are twins. Iris has a mild hunchback, but Rose who was once a beauty, has smallpox scars that have disfigured her. Iris has no idea how beautiful she is. She's a prisoner here in this doll shop with no future that she can see. It's her job to pain the dolls; her sister adds ornamentals to the tiny doll dresses brought to them by one of the street urchins.This is where we meet my favorite character, street urchin, Albie. He apparently sews the little doll dresses himself. He love Iris because she gives him more money than the dresses are worth. He has a couple of sidelines; he sells “curiosities” to any shop owner, Silas. One is conjoined puppies that Silas will skin, stuff and disarticulate, showing the skeletal remains of one of the dogs. He will submit the results to one of the first world fairs that is currently being built in London. Three of his curiosities are accepted. Albie also steals small items from well off women. Iris catches him stealing a rather nice scarf. But he won't steal the really valuable stuff like suitcases he could snatch at the train station. He has a code. He also has a sister who's a prostitute. Albie only his one tooth and he'd like to buy dentures, but he'll never be able to save four pounds to buy them. When he does luck out, he thinks of his prostitute sister first and tries to rescue her from her unfortunate profession.Iris also lucks out. She's chosen as a model by Louis Frost a rising young painter who's willing to pay her a shilling an hour to sit for him. She also wants to be a painter herself and only takes his offer when he promises to teach her. Modeling is only a touch above prostitute and her parents abandon her. Ruth also feels abandoned and won't answer Iris's letters.Now for the plot. It's about Silas and his habit of kidnapping and sometimes murdering young women who have rejected him. He's so crazy he blocks out the murders. Then he meets Iris and he's immediately obsessed with her; he watches her all the time, at the expense of his occupation. He knows she's fallen in love with Louis and is jealous. Then there's a tiff between Louis and Iris and she runs away. Silas has been planning for months on how he'll take her, despite Albie's efforts to warn her.Albie is trying to save her when MacNeal takes the easy way out and makes Iris situation even more deplorable. She keeps adding to the suspense. Will Iris escape Silas's basement? Sometimes he pouts and doesn't feed her. He even forgets the possibility that a beauty like Iris might have to use the bathroom. So then then the story becomes about determination and the will to survive. It is modernistic in that Iris must save herself. Twice others come looking for her or one of the other missing girls, but Silas is able to talk his way out of it, avoiding a search which would have revealed Iris in the basement. So how does she do it. It will keep you turning pages and leave you wanting an epilogue when the story comes to a screeching halt.

This book started off great, but it got very predictable and the end left much to be desired. It was very interesting to learn about the group of artists named PRB. The story and character building was ok, but there could have been more detail in the bad guys history. There was a lot of hype about this book, and it just didn’t live up to it.

I loved this book, but I felt the end was not quite sewn up tight (no pun intended), I wanted more of what happened after the last page. If there was another few pages, of what I wanted to read, I’d have given it a 5. But a 4 it gets as I was not entirely happy with the last page. But it’s a good book, and I enjoyed reading it.

I was excited about this book after all the hype. But it just fell short.The story idea was good. And the narration was pretty good, but maybe I was expecting another Midnight Circus and that's why I was disappointed.

I couldn't get more than 25% into it, it was so violent and awful.

Very slow. Usually love suspense period novels but this was very dull.

This book was recommended as a really good book by someone whose opinion I respect, so I gave it a try. I don't usually like period piece novels that take place in Victorian England, but this was a gripping story. A young woman who worked in a doll factory is unknowingly being stalked by an unknown owner of a Curiosity Shop. He is obsessed by her, while she barely knows he exists. This story is creepy, thrilling, and engrossing. I highly recommend it.

This is a truly breathtaking read. I’m not normally one for historical fiction (but I’d say I might be now!!). The way the author captures the sights, sounds (and smells!) of Victorian London is incredible - utterly evocative without ever distracting from the story. And the characters - they are wonderfully cast, complex, with great depth. The story of Iris, the lead character, explores the societal constraints of class and gender, without ever feeling trite, anachronistic or contrived. Likewise joyful Albie, whose perseverance and optimism in the face of so many difficulties utterly wins you over. And Silas - well, he is as far from a two dimensional villain as their could ever be. He is disturbing and yet the author is able to build compassion for him, before whipping it away.This complexity extends equally to the ‘good’ characters - their behaviour is not unblemished, and the consequences are writ large. It is wonderful to have such a cast of individuals whose stories thread together in the most wonderful way.But for me, above all, this book really challenges the reader to see on the one hand how far we have come - in terms of growing equality, in terms of the constraints we put on groups of people - while also realising how the idea of a ‘doll factory’ still continues to bedevil so many.A magnificent and thought provoking novel, and one I would heartily recommend to everyone I know.

Striking, auburn-haired Iris Whittle works with her twin sister, Rose, painting the faces of china dolls in Mrs Salter’s Doll Emporium in Victorian London. Bored with the low-paid work and feeling stifled by the vulnerable, demanding Rose (whose previously beautiful face has been scarred by smallpox), Iris dreams of leaving the doll shop and of becoming an artist. When she meets Pre-Raphaelite painter Louis Frost, who persuades her to become his model in return for teaching her to paint, Iris is disowned by her family and moves to a furnished room paid for by the artist. Aware that she is in danger of losing her reputation and saddened by the loss of her twin sister, Iris is nevertheless excited at the prospect of learning from a talented artist and gradually begins to produce work that Louis believes shows promise. She also begins to succumb to Louis’s physical attraction towards her, despite being aware that, as a married man, there is no real prospect of a future with him. And then Iris meets the introverted Silas Reed, a taxidermist and collector of curiosities, who becomes dangerously and disturbingly obsessed with her and makes plans to ensure that Iris becomes one of his possessions.Elizabeth MacNeal’s debut novel has been compared with John Fowles’ ‘The Collector’, Sarah Waters’ ’Fingersmith’ and Michel Faber’s ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’, and although this debut is not in the same class as the aforementioned, it is rich in Victorian atmosphere and Ms MacNeal has certainly researched her subject well. Filled with vivid descriptions of Victorian London and colourful depictions of characters from both ends of the social spectrum (such as: Cockney urchin, Albie, who collects dead animals for Silas Reed and who lives with his prostitute sister; certain members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais; and the heroine, Iris, bears more than a passing resemblance to Lizzie Siddal in some respects) this made for an immersive and entertaining reading experience. However, I do have to say that, despite the Victorian atmosphere, some aspects of the story made me feel as if I were reading a more contemporary novel - both with regard to the heroine’s responses to certain situations she found herself in and with respect to the 'thriller-type' parts of the plot itself - but to discuss this further would reveal too much of the story for those who have yet to read it. Although not quite the literary feat I was expecting from the pre-publication publicity, this is certainly a good debut novel where the author’s enthusiasm for her subject shines through on every page and one which makes me interested in discovering what Ms MacNeal will tackle for her next book.

The blurb inside has various comparisons to The Collector, The Scarlet Petal and the White , Fingersmith and so on. To be honest I don't believe the Doll Factory is anywhere near the same league as those notables. That doesn't mean it's a bad book, its just not a great one.Plenty of good atmospheric writing, just found some of the dialogue on the trite side.There are plenty of good reviews and obviously many people highly rate it, unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

For me not quite hitting the mark as I thought it would do. I was expecting more I think reading all previous blurb on this book. Yes you get the evocative Victorian England. A most unlikeable character Silas and the two headed puppies yes that has still stayed in my mind. You can almost feel the dark dingy lowlife of those who live downstairs, the have nots and those not even knowing there is more outside of their sad existences. I wouldn’t call it gothic horror more a macabre mad taxidermist sort of story. Glad I managed to get it on offer as at full price I would have wanted to stuff Silas myself.

It was a real wrench finishing it! Such a great world, vividly realised with excellent characterisation, that it makes you reluctant to let it go. Immediately re-read. Can't wait for the TV series!