3.5 stars
Having put off reading The Essex Serpent for a couple of years, I’ve read more than my fair share of reviews of it, so I think my expectations were suitably low. I wasn’t expecting a rip-roaring mystery with a ferocious serpent at the heart of it - actually, there was more of the serpent than I expected!
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Personally I’d rather read about small town hearsay, mass hysteria, rumoured sightings of something dark and terrible at night which may or may not have been a figment of imagination, than a real life flesh and blood monster. I find it more interesting and enjoy that skin crawling sensation of dread, somehow magnified because you don’t know whether the cause is really there or not...
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So that part of the novel Perry nailed. I also enjoyed her characterisation. There’s quite a large cast of characters in this book and everyone had something to offer. I enjoyed being at the forefront of life-changing surgery with Dr Garrett, I loved Martha and her fight for better housing for the working class, Joanna and her sudden realisation that she can be whatever she wants to be, and her subsequent thirst for knowledge.
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In fact, I’d go so far to say that the two main characters, Will and Cora, were my least favourites as the novel went on. I was thinking I’d be awarding this one a solid four stars, but then we kept barrelling towards a plot point I KNEW was coming but I kept hoping wouldn’t... But it did, and the characters’ lack of moral backbone really put a bad taste in my mouth and I knocked the rating down a bit.
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It is quite a long read (412 pages) but it’s broken up by letters and diary entries, so it actually felt to me like a quick one! I cannot fault the atmosphere and style, so overall I would recommend this one with caution.