The Quick by Laura Owen

Lauren Owen’s debut novel is an enjoyable and sometimes gripping read, set against the Gothic backdrop of Victorian England. The story begins at a country estate deep in Yorkshire, where a brother and sister grow up in a house shadowed with secrets. After a traumatic childhood event divides them they are eventually reunited in gloomy London, where they discover everything has changed. The novel glides through the tropes of Victorian fiction, from Wildean depictions of social manners to the fantastic Gothic horror of Bram Stoker.

While Owen creates well-drawn characters with authentic relationships, The Quick feels somewhat overcrowded at points. As a result, there is disjointedness in the novel, as shifts in perspective demand new backstories. This disruption of the momentum leaves the novel feeling somewhat anti-climactic.

Nonetheless, Owen expertly draws the unnamed menaces that haunt the first stages of the book into full, horrifying focus. Her subversion of the easy binaries between good and evil sets her story apart from lesser works in the genre and lead to the book’s most satisfyingly horrific moments. Men and monsters are more alike than we realise, it would seem.