Book Review: The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart by Leanna Renee Hieber

In this sequel to Darker Still, Natalie and Lord Denbury are back and on the train out west to escape the magical and demonic goings-on that they left behind in New York. But they can’t stay long; soon after arriving, Denbury runs into a man who seems to think he’s still the demon. And Natalie starts having dreams again, this time about her friend Rachel, who appears to be dealing with some ghostly nuisances of her own. Meanwhile, Denbury must face down one of the scariest men of all… Natalie’s father.

Just for reference, I gave Darker Still 4-5 stars. I gave this one two.

My problems with this book aren’t entirely down to the author, I don’t think. The whole thing read like huge chunks had been taken out and the transitions had been forgotten about. Here are my complaints:

1. Timeline. From the first few chapters I was incredibly confused about how much time had passed. The book picks up right where the last one left off–Natalie and Denbury are on a train out of New York. We’re given very little indication about how long it takes the train to travel halfway across the country, and it seems like the pair are halfway across the country for a matter of hours. In which case, why was everyone panicking quite so much when they returned?

2. What was the point of going out west anyway? When this pair got on the train at the end of Darker Still, I was so excited for the sequel because I assumed the next book would be taking place out west. And yet, they were there for all of a few minutes and then back they trotted to New York. Everything that happened out there could have just as easily have happened in New York, and honestly, I don’t think they really tied it all back together at the end, either.

3. The romance. Okay, so I mentioned this in Darker Still as well, but the romance is just over-the-top. I mean, for something set back in the day with an upstanding gentleman who intends to make this woman his wife and a middle-class girl who must have some standards, they go a little too far for my taste, and anyway, it all seems practically irrelevant to the overall storyline. It would have been far more interesting if they were at each other’s throats for most of the book and loved each other at the end.

4. What was the point of Nathaniel? When they get back from New York, Denbury runs off to London to sort out his affairs and sends a message to Natalie telling her to go meet up with Nathaniel. Honestly, the only thing that came out of that really was that she then had a dream about kissing Nathaniel which Denbury walked in on and he was momentarily upset but swiftly got over it. Attempt at love triangle? I have no idea. And then he didn’t show up until the very end of the book after that.

5. Maggie was useless again. I wrote about my misgivings about Maggie’s place in the story in my review of Darker Still and said “maybe she’ll have more of a point in the sequel.” I suppose she did, but all was not revealed until the very end, and even then it seemed like it could be cut.

6. The plot took place in too many different settings, over too short a period of time, with too many plot points that went largely undeveloped. It was like the author was juggling far too many apples at once. I saw two main strands of plot: people are trying to create Frankenstein, and the demon is back. I think these two were supposed to be intertwined, but they weren’t. They were simply separate, a little convoluted, and disappointing.

I honestly can’t say much in way of good about this book, except that it has a good prequel. Darker Still is well worth the read (you can find a link to my review at the top of this post). I mentioned in it that it didn’t seem to need a sequel, and I maintain that. I highly recommend reading Darker Still if you’re interested in historical ghost story type books, but be warned: you might be disappointed in the sequel.

Book Review: Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

Natalie Stewart is mute, and she is in love with a portrait. It isn’t just any portrait, though–it’s that of Lord Denbury, an attractive young man from England who tragically lost his life soon after the death of his parents. Everyone is drawn to the portrait, which seems almost alive… and when Natalie touches the paint, she discovers that it is. She discovers that Lord Denbury’s soul is trapped in the painting, and a demon is walking around in his body, killing girls who bear the names of saints. With the help of Evelyn Northe, a lady of good standing and something of a medium, Natalie begins to unravel the curse in hopes of setting Denbury free. But as their love grows, the likelihood of them being together seems to shrink, especially when it looks like the demon’s next target is Natalie herself. To escape, she will need to regain her voice. Is it true that love can conquer all?

This book was a bit of a surprise for me. I picked it up thinking, “Hm, romance, well… okay.” I actually liked it quite a lot. There WAS an awful lot of romance, which I felt was “too much too soon.” I felt like Natalie was too smart to fall for someone so quickly. It’s explained that they were meant to meet and because their souls met before their bodies they had a stronger connection or something… but perhaps the real problem was that we simply didn’t know enough about Denbury, and the fact that in a few days she went from thinking he was just a portrait to running away with him made it all a bit too Disney with too few catchy songs.

Still, it was also fantasy and ghost story and mystery all wrapped up in one nice shiny package. Walking into portraits? Demons? Magic spells? Talking to ghosts? Count me in. The fact that Natalie was mute added a whole new level of interesting. Imagine for a moment, if you will, being inside a character’s head because you HAVE to be, because she can’t talk to anyone. I think it would have been even more interesting if she’d been mute the whole time, but whatever, it was new and different and I liked it. I won’t say that the other elements were faultlessly played out–I could see things coming from a mile away and had seen much of the same before–but it was a fun, fast read and I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel.

I will say that the characters were pretty well-drawn. I enjoyed the narrator, which is good since we were in her head so much. She had overcome a lot of obstacles but wasn’t down on herself for it. Instead, she was a bit frustrated with her father for never learning sign language and got appropriately angry at others who assumed she was deaf and dumb rather than just mute. Perhaps I took a little bit of joy in it since it reminded me of my elementary school years, when I got picked on for never talking… though of course, my case was less extreme.

I didn’t really see the point of Maggie in it all, though. I wonder if she’ll have a larger role in the sequel. Not that this book really needs a sequel at all, which is why I’m questioning it. She was a friend, then an annoyance, then almost-got-in-the-way-of-the-big-finale-but-miraculously-didn’t. I was waiting for her to be the crux–like, all was going according to plan and then Maggie gets attacked and throws a wrench into everything and these things that make Natalie that much stronger happen to save both Maggie AND Denbury. Alas.

The other thing I will mention is that while the setting is Victorian, the characters’ speech and whatnot isn’t exactly on par. So I guess what I’m saying is if you’re going in hoping for incredibly accurate historical fiction you’re not going to get it.

But if you want a fun, fast read of magic and mystery, go for it. I enjoyed every page, and I think fans of books like Haunting Violet and other Victorian ghost stories will too.