The Nature of Monsters - Clare Clark

From the first sentence of the first chapter I was hooked: 'Afterwards, when I knew that I had not loved him at all, the shock was all in my stomach, like the feeling when you miscount going upstairs in the dark and climb a step that is not there'. Clare's style is descriptive without ever becoming flowery, shocking without (usually) aiming simply to shock and strongly focused through the physical world. Her narrator is expressive, honest and bold. Eliza Tally is at once a shocking subject and a frequent event in 1718: she is pregnant but unmarried, a willing conquest of a wealthy young man who refuses to accept any responsibility. Her initial wanton behaviour ...  Read the complete review