BEAUTY AND THE BLOOD : FICTION. BOOK REVIEW SNIPPET

INNAMORATA by Ava Reid. A richly imagined gothic fantasy novel blends necromancy, court intrigue, forbidden love and visceral violence into an unsettling tale.

The author pulls out all the stops in Innamorata when it comes to underscoring the most evil of human instincts - lust, gluttony, cruelty, sadism and violence, to name just a few.

While her writing is elegant and clear, Reid makes an undeniable impact on her readers by means of her vocabulary and nomenclature - medics, for example, are called 'leeches' in the book.  

The writing is visually striking throughout, and uncompromisingly graphic at times. 

The love scenes are sensual without being obscene. However, the violent episodes are very disturbing, and more sensitive readers may benefit from perusing trigger warnings prior to engaging with the novel.

When the reader first encounters Agnes, one finds that the heroine is mute, although that is by choice rather than of a speech defect.

She is portrayed as being especially close to her cousin Marozia. On the passing of their grandmother Adele Blanche [ whose remains per custom are brutally desecrated in order to prevent her being resurrected by means of necromancy ], Marozia becomes the head of the matriarchal House of Teeth.

She is wed to Prince Liuprand, the son of King Nicephorus, Liuprand's father, a thoroughly detestable character, who delights in the pain and misery of others, rules over all the seven kingdoms in the city of Drepane.

The name of Nicephorus's late wife, Philomel, conjures up images of the ravaged wife of King Tereus in Greek mythology, who was left mute and mutilated by her fiend-like husband.

!WOW! thanks Nadya Chishty-Mujahid.