Not Good for Maidens is a hauntingly enticing and bloody spectacle of a book. It’s the type of story that sits heavy on your bones after reading and haunts your nightmares.
This book is one that you will not forget in a hurry. It is chilling and spectacular, with the terror building and the chill on your spine only ever getting more intense. Tori Bovalino caught my attention last year with the tightly plotted, horrifyingly brilliant The Devil Makes Three. That same attention to detail and innate ability to craft such perfect horror rings true once more. This feels like the whisper in the dark that promises you everything you have ever wanted, but at an unimaginable cost. It is genuinely tantalising. Right from that atmospheric opening, you will be hooked. Instantly the scene of intertwining timelines and the legacy of that traumatic experience is established. You know this is going to be a book that does not hold back and grapples with intergenerational trauma. Bovalino constantly keeps you wanting more, drawing you into this blood-drenched world where every action has consequences and everything has its price. Her writing is stunning in every way. It is evocative, descriptive and endlessly gorgeous, but tinged with such darkness. It resembles the market in the way it shines, but that shine is a veneer of bright promises to conceal the horrific underbelly. The pacing is immaculate, keeping the pages flowing past you. For me, the reading experience was transportive, compelling and utterly enrapturing. Time flew past as the pages flowed and the blood spilt.
This is the sort of retelling that honours the essence of the original but spins it into something entirely new. The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti is an impactful poem warning of the dangers of temptation and damnation, particularly periodical taboos surrounding sexuality and desire. Bovalino brings these moral panics into the modern day, interrogating societal assumptions and the underlying judgement of female sexuality. It is a deeply feminist and empowering book, complicating Rossetti’s original challenges to society. The way Bovalino brings the original tale into the timelines is excellent and a creative way of merging these two worlds. Her reinterpretation is a brutal, blood-drenched one, but also one that maintains hope.
Lou was such a fantastic protagonist and really acted as the audience’s eyes, as she enters this darkly magical world. Her spirit and determination is admirable, but she is not entirely immune to temptation. The way she wavers is so human and the conflicts she encounters are both mental and physical. I loved the way Bovalino explores family ties, heritage, and intergenerational trauma. In fact, the entire central cast of characters is so fractured and fascinating to read about. The representation was so amazing, particularly the speech about being asexual. This representation is not something you see too often in books and Bovalino brings sensitivity and authenticity to it. Also, the choice of setting is perfect. Aside from some Northern representation, Bovalino really taps into that environment of small town superstitions. It is claustrophobic and suffocating. At the same time, it speaks to folklore of old and the knowledge of something beyond. It pays homage to the history embedded in these small towns and the way that traditions are upheld. At its core, this is a book about temptation and damnation in a way that examines societal pressures and judgements. It asks why society deems certain values and people as forever unsullied and others as above judgement.
Not Good For Maidens is one of those books you cannot get out of your brain. It is a gory, complex, and emotionally fraught book centring on trauma, family, and temptation.
Not Good For Maidens is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of June 14th 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Salem’s Lot meets The Darkest Part of the Forest in this horror-fantasy retelling of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.”
Lou never believed in superstitions or magic–until her teenage aunt Neela is kidnapped to the goblin market.
The market is a place Lou has only read about–twisted streets, offerings of sweet fruits and incredible jewels. Everything–from the food and wares, to the goblins themselves–is a haunting temptation for any human who manages to find their way in.
Determined to save Neela, Lou learns songs and spells and tricks that will help her navigate this dangerous world and slip past a goblin’s defenses–but she only has three days to find Neela before the market disappears and her aunt becomes one of them forever.
If she isn’t careful, the market might just end up claiming her too.
