Belladonna Book Review
From Goodreads: Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation, and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.
However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.
Hello friends, hope you’re all having a great week!
I recently added Belladonna to my to be read pile. Annoyingly, my local Waterstones had just run out of copies on the morning I visited, but I was fortunate enough to pick up a copy on Kindle for only 99p. I was taking a bit of a risk, since I bought the follow-up Foxglove in hardback while I was book shopping, but oh my I am so glad that I did!
Belladonna is a perfect pick for this time of year. It’s a gloriously gothic tale with a bit of horror and murder mystery thrown in, and there’s just enough of a dash of humour mixed in to stop it from being too dark. I was really drawn into the world-building and the characters. The writing style is a careful balance, and while it is decadent and gorgeous in places, it’s also not too flowery. It reminds me a little bit of Sorcery of Thorns or The Dark Days Club.
Signa was a delight. As an orphan, with a history of guardians who have met unfortunate endings, she’s a bit of an outcast and seen as eccentric at best and suspicious at worst. This means that she yearns for connections and friendship, and dreams of fitting in with society. I liked how the author used the regency-era setting to play into this, with Signa constantly trying to decide if she should follow the rules of polite society, or if she should break them. There’s a lot of nuance here, especially since there’s so many rules in society for women in particular, so seeing her coming to terms with this, and then begin to question and even rebel against these restrictions, was so intriguing. Death is a fantastic character, and I really enjoyed the antagonism between him and Signa. I also liked Sylas, even if I was second-guessing his intentions all the way through the narrative. The other characters in the story are a little less fleshed out, although it makes some sense since one character is ill throughout most of the book, and many of the others only sort of pop in for a scene or two every now and then.
I also LOVED the romance in this story. It’s definitely a slow-burn, but it feels earned and built-up, rather than sudden and unsatisfying. There’s a fair bit of angst in here. I feel like anything regency-inspired is always quite angsty, since there’s so much potential with ideas about needing to find matches and proposals and things. But still. The romance is also quite healthy, and there’s several discussions in there about agency and consent, and my goodness I love when YA books do this, because it is so important to show these things in fiction. It’s so nice to be able to get fully behind a relationship in a book and just cheer for the characters. While I love all kinds of YA, including those novels which have toxic romances, it’s refreshing to see a story where the characters are treating each other as equals, and where they’re trying to support one another, even when it isn’t in their own best interests.
The twists in the narrative were quite clever, and while I guessed at a couple of things, there’s enough red herrings in there to keep you on your toes. I’m still suspicious of some characters, even having now read the sequel. As someone who can usually predict plot twists with far too much accuracy (a skill my boyfriend still rolls his eyes at when I guess a twist in a show and turn out to be right), it was fun to see how wrong I was. It was a thrilling mystery, one which very almost had me sneaking glances at the last page because I just HAD to know, but I’m glad I stuck it out and waited.
The ending is very intense, and I pretty much ran to the next room to grab my copy of Foxglove to start on it the instant I finished Belladonna.
Overall, I’m giving Belladonna:
Genuinely, if I hadn’t read and fallen even more in love with Foxglove immediately after this one, I think this novel would have been my book of the year. It’s a beautiful read, full of jaw-dropping twists and turns and a delicate gothic touch. The fantasy aspects of it, and the main character’s ability to talk to Death, adds a great amount of intrigue to a murder-mystery narrative, and I adored all the characters.
If you haven’t read this book, run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookshop.
Has anyone else read this book or plans to? What do you think about it? Let me know by joining in the discussion in the comments section down below! <3
