The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe

I wouldn?t have noticed these in a better paced narrative. There are also small continuity errors ? not due to the interlude flashbacks (which were well-done) but more like editing glitches between drafts. The author recreates the external world well, but could have learned from Edith Wharton?s tone and characterization style to weave a more convincing story. I?m not sure which novel unleashed the stream of recent historical fiction with storylines exploring the beginnings of psychiatry, but it takes a very skillful novelist to do that well ? this is a near miss on that count, too.

I downloaded this mainly because of the blurbs promising an 'atmospheric' read/listen - Maybe it's better read The narrator seems the wrong choice to create period atmosphere. I am not a Titantic fan, but if you are considering this download because you are, know those sections are a small part of the novel, though that tragedy colours the entire narrative. As Benton and Sibyl work together to solve a harrowing mystery, their long-simmering spark flares to life, and they realize that there may be something even more magical between them than a medium's crying glass.įrom the opium dens of Boston's Chinatown to the opulent salons of high society, from the back alleys of colonial Shanghai to the decks of the Titanic, The House of Velvet and Glass weaves together meticulous period detail, intoxicating romance, and a final shocking twist that will leave readers breathless. Trapped in a world over which she has no control, Sibyl flees for solace to the parlor of a table-turning medium.īut when her brother is suddenly kicked out of Harvard under mysterious circumstances and falls under the sway of a strange young woman, Sibyl turns for help to psychology professor Benton Derby, despite the unspoken tensions of their shared past. Still reeling from the deaths of her mother and sister on the Titanic, Sibyl Allston is living a life of quiet desperation with her taciturn father and scandal-plagued brother in an elegant town house in Boston's Back Bay. Katherine Howe, author of the phenomenal New York Times best seller The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, returns with an entrancing historical novel set in Boston in 1915, where a young woman stands on the cusp of a new century, torn between loss and love, driven to seek answers in the depths of a crystal ball.

The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe