Michael Barnes
Story is set in alternative London in 1883, in our 19 century England belief in spirits and the existence of mediums were widespread in this world, in our alternative worth the Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Mediums can be identified by their Violet-eyes. In England this is administered the Royal Speaker Society. Men who are mediums if they have the wealth can become speakers, able to move through society with little to limit their authority, women with violet eyes are considered too 'hysterical' to contact the veil and admonished "you know what happens to girls who deal with ghosts"
"Our protagonist sixteen-year-old Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. According to Mother, he’ll be married by the end of the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s needed a decade of tutors to hide his autism; that he practices surgery on slaughtered pigs; that he is a boy, not the girl the world insists on seeing.
After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School. The facility is cold, the instructors merciless, and the students either bloom into eligible wives or disappear. So when the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its rotten guts to the world—as long as the school doesn’t break him first". -Booksthatburn
I have read Andrew Joseph White and his novels are powerful, and well-grounded in his voice. At points in the book I wanted to skip over parts because I knew something terrible was going to happen to Silas, but I was grateful to the author because even though something terrible happens he was kind to the read, certainly kinder than what was happening to the characters.
Also Silas's inner voice was embodied as a rabbit who provides comments throughout the book and Silas resolution with the voice was very satisfying.
Story is set in alternative London in 1883, in our 19 century England belief in spirits and the existence of mediums were widespread in this world, in our alternative worth the Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Mediums can be identified by their Violet-eyes. In England this is administered the Royal Speaker Society. Men who are mediums if they have the wealth can become speakers, able to move through society with little to limit their authority, women with violet eyes are considered too 'hysterical' to contact the veil and admonished "you know what happens to girls who deal with ghosts"
"Our protagonist sixteen-year-old Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. According to Mother, he’ll be married by the end of the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s needed a decade of tutors to hide his autism; that he practices surgery on slaughtered pigs; that he is a boy, not the girl the world insists on seeing.
After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School. The facility is cold, the instructors merciless, and the students either bloom into eligible wives or disappear. So when the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its rotten guts to the world—as long as the school doesn’t break him first". -Booksthatburn
I have read Andrew Joseph White and his novels are powerful, and well-grounded in his voice. At points in the book I wanted to skip over parts because I knew something terrible was going to happen to Silas, but I was grateful to the author because even though something terrible happens he was kind to the read, certainly kinder than what was happening to the characters.
Also Silas's inner voice was embodied as a rabbit who provides comments throughout the book and Silas resolution with the voice was very satisfying.
