If you don't know me ... you should know ... I LOVE books that are unhappy! An unhappy, unresolved ending is one thing that I LOVE more than anything in a book. But its pretty difficult to find these now, as soooo many authors like to finish their books with a definitive ending. This is why I like Michel Faber as his The Crimson Petal and the White ends unresolved and this is why Maitland is one of my new favourite authors!
The Gallows Curse - Karen Maitland
Sooo ... The Gallows Curse is a book that I have had sitting looking at me for a longgg time! So I finally decided to give it a go and I am so glad that I did!!
Set in the middle ages (again my favourite period without a doubt) the prologue gives you the tale of a cunning woman (a witch nowadays) who is burned at the stake for killing a noble mans wife. She leaves behind a mandrake with her daughter. Jump forward in time and a young girl Elena is pulled out of her work and into the Lord's house. She is to serve as a waiting maid for the Mistress of the house, Lady Anne. She eats from a wooden chest, which actually contains the Lord's dead body ... she eats bread and salt ... and from this moment on Elena has taken all of the dead man's sins into herself, and they will be carried with her forever! However she is pregnant at this time with Athan's baby. She is overjoyed as is he, but when she gets bad dreams about killing the baby, she does not want it. After the baby is born she gives her away to a cunning woman to look after! But in the village she is accused of killing this child and is sentenced to be hanged by the new Lord of the Manor. However is escapes and is sent into Norwich to live in anonymity in a brothel (of all places) from here on in her life is one long spiral of chaos and she finally ends her story walking away with NOTHING actually resolved!!
The book does draw you in to the story and the times, it makes you feel for the characters and also hate the characters. Elena is the one that you instantly feel for when her made up life suddenly takes a turn for the worse. But she is the one to blame for doing that to herself!! However Elena always seems to play the victim instead of trying to do anything about her situation and you sometimes do feel like screaming get a grip love and do something about it, instead of sittiing back and waiting for it to happen!!
The way that Karen Maitland has written the book is by far my favourite thing though. Interspersed throughout the novel in between each chapter is also the story of the Mandrake's Handbook, which gives you common plants, animals etc and what they are used for and how they should work in the right hands! Which makes me smile as I love things like this in the middle of books, it breaks up all the boring bits. However it is one of those books that is well written so it is easy to read and easy to take in!!! I spent a couple of days solid reading this book as at the moment im just useless at putting down and picking up and still knowing what im reading. I also managed to class it as 'research' for my dissertation as it is written in the time of King John just after my Richards crusade. Therefore I didn't feel as guilty when I was reading it!!
Overall it is a very good book and I am looking forward to reading more from Maitland!
See you Soon :)
Leanne x
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