![]() ![]() The long 12-hour shifts are monotonous and dull. When we first meet independently minded Iris she is working (and living) in a doll factory (hence the book’s title) alongside her twin sister Rose, painting faces onto dozens of porcelain dolls every day. ![]() What results is a fast-paced story in which Iris, oblivious to Silas’s increasingly dangerous obsession with her, falls prey to his dark, manipulative ways… Painterly ambition Silas becomes obsessed with Iris and her deformity - a collarbone that is twisted out of shape so that she has a slight stoop to her left side - and makes plans to befriend her, whether she likes it or not. ![]() It’s set in London during the Great Exhibition and the era of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), a loose association of English painters who rebelled against the art standards of the day (read more about them here), and focuses on a young woman called Iris Whittle who is drawn into their circle, first as an artist’s model, but then as a burgeoning painter in her own right.Īlong the way, she attracts the unwanted attention of a taxidermist, Silas Reed, who is constantly in pursuit of the weird and wonderful. I practically devoured this book on a seven-hour train journey (from Kalgoorlie to Perth) last weekend and have been thinking about it ever since. This debut novel marries historical fiction with elements of the psychological thriller to create a proper page-turner. Fiction – Kindle edition Picador 384 pages 2019.Īrt, freedom and obsession collide in Elizabeth MacNeal’s The Doll Factory. ![]()
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