Estella by Barbara Havelocke
Description.
The world’s most famous jilted bride.
This is her daughter’s story.
Raised in the darkness of Satis House where the clocks never tick, the beautiful Estella is bred to hate men and to keep her heart cold as the grave.
She knows she doesn’t feel things quite like other people do but is this just the result of her strange upbringing?
As she watches the brutal treatment of women around her, hatred hardens into a core of vengeance and when she finds herself married to the abusive Drummle, she is forced to make a deadly
Should she embrace the darkness within her and exact her revenge?
A stunningly original, gripping Gothic read, perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Madeline Miller and Jessie Burton
My Thoughts
Wow! What a wonderful compliment to Great Expectations this book is.
I must admit I went into it with a touch of trepidation, as Great Expectations is my favourite Dickens work and I didn’t want it sullied in any way. Well I needn’t have worried. The author, new to historical fiction, is a pen name for an already hugely popular psychological thriller writer whose works I have already loved, and this new book is their equal.
Tense and twisty this is the story of Estella, the story of Great Expectations, but told from the young womans perspective and very effectively.
Unsurprisingly, having grown up as the ward of the strange and twisted Miss Havisham, Estella is a little bitter herself. What she has been told about men by her jilted and embittered adoptive Mother, is reinforced by her dealings with men and she grows more and more vengeful and vindictive throughout the book which is told in two timelines, then and now.
Splendidly complex, the author takes already formed characters and really gets inside their psyche, creating and riveting and satisfying read.
I do hope we see more of this kind of historical novel from Barbara Havelocke, and I eagerly await her next book
