I'll be honest, I spent a lot of the time reading this with a frown on my face simply because I didn't know what I was supposed to deduce from the story.

We start with the story of the island's strange history where women were burned as witches and since then there appears always to have been suspicion that all or any of the women are evil. Certainly it is never clear whether sisters, Ulrika and Bea are practising witchcraft or not. They have a fascination with their mother's red book which may, or may not, contain spells -- or it might just be herbal remedies and poisons.

As I said I got very bogged down with trying to work out what the book was saying. There is an odd relationship between the sisters - rivalry, love, hatred, jealousy, dependency - all mixed up together. Their relationships with others are also all strange.

At times it felt being in the middle of a Bosch painting - uncomfortable, disturbing and dangerous. Whether that was what Anna Noyes was attempting I may never know. I don't mind being a little confused at times but not for half the book. I'm sure cleverer people than I will appreciate the symbolism more.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advance review copy.14 s Dessi249 43

*I received this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Well, this… wasn’t quite what it says on the tin.

The blurb of Noyes' debut novel caught my eye enough to request an advanced copy - with mentions of witch hunts, the devil, buried history, the patriarchy, isolation, mystery, Gothic horror… but little of that felt of much relevance in the way I expected.

The story opens in the past, as all but a handful of the women in an isolated Northern European island are accused of dancing with the Devil in The Blue Maiden, a neighboring island, and assassinated.

Several generations later, we follow sisters Ulrika and Beata as they grow up with their father, a widower and the community’s Pastor, trying to discover who their mother (an outsider in the island) was and who they could be, living with the stigma of Otherness.

This was a beautifully told story, full of rich, atmospheric descriptions, with a dream- quality and interesting main characters that we follow as they grow up and their bonds and their place in the world are tested.

Unfortunately, for me, there wasn’t much connection with the history of the wrongfully accused women or the mystery of The Blue Maiden. They existed as a vague threat, neither part of a supernatural horror plot nor directly connected to the sisters in the present. It felt more a character study than anything else, so if you that kind of stuff, you might enjoy it. Ultimately, it wasn’t a bad read, but I was expecting a different kind of story.women-s-fiction10 s Patty121 23

It is 1825 and sisters Ulrika (10), and Beata (6) live with their father. Only Ulrika remembers their mother (Angelique) who died while giving birth to Beata. Their absent and aloof father keeps their mother’s room, belongings, and memories locked up, never speaking about her. The girls hunger for a connection with their mother (from their father to Beata, “You might look a bit her, but Ulrika behaves her, time to time...a beast with Viking blood.”), and must search on their own to find it.

Despite their father’s admonitions, they explore Angelique’s room where they find a journal containing descriptions of poisonous and medicinal native plants. The writing is in their mother’s hand: can the book bring them closer to understanding and knowing their mother? Will the information in the journal awaken them to the possibilities of power and agency?

As they get older, Beata wants to separate herself from her sister. She wants to be adored and popular, and thinks her older sister is holding her back. Due to her father’s lack of affection, Beata craves male attention, and thinks she has found it when a man returns to Berggrund. When it appears he is there for Ulrika, Beata interjects herself into the man’s life. Will he cause a further rift in the girls’ relationship??

So, what is The Blue Maiden? It is a fictional island where the secluded and hidden Blockula can be found. According to lore, it is the place where witches/women go to commune with the devil. According to the male population, witches abduct children and fly them to Blockula where they include the innocents in sacrifices and lewd acts. By the end of a particular day in 1625, only five women are spared getting their throats cut.

As I read, I expected everything I read to have a surrealistic bend to it. I could not tell if dreams were dreams, actions were actions, or people just plain people (maybe this is what the author intended). I always had the witches of the first chapter in the back of my mind which clouded my take on events. I was waiting for the Blue Maiden to make an appearance, and possibly turn the lore into reality. Were the sisters tied to the Blue Maiden? Or was it their father who is a direct descendant of one of the five, spared women? Would he sacrifice his daughters his ancestors did? I won’t tell.

I would to thank Grove Park and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.




5 s inês111 16

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with an ARC of Anna Noyes’s debut novel The Blue Maiden.

The Blue Maiden follows two sisters who look nothing a, while they navigate their island life as outsiders. Their mother has died giving birth to Bea (the youngest daughter), forcing Ulrika (the oldest) to assume a caretaker role from a very early age. Their father is the island's priest and is glaringly absent and neglectful so they grow inseparable as girls. Until their paths deviate from one another once Bea becomes part of the "socially accepted" crowd that has always excluded her sister.

Whilst I found the eery setting interesting, I admit that I struggled with the narrative. The ending took me by surprise but it could be because the book felt a little underdeveloped for me. There were some plot points that made very little sense to me, and the characters, while engaging, could not compensate for the hollowness of their arcs.

I feel this is perfect for people looking less for a plot, and more for witchy, weird Scandinavian Christian vibes.4 s Sarah-Hope1,222 143

I'm really not sure how to rate this title. The prose is lovely—to the extent that one can separate prose from narrative—but the narrative was fully of so many painful moments, both big and small, that had to stop reading. I would definitely look for other work by this writer, but the sorrow in this title was too deep for me to make it all the way through.2024 edelweissplus netgalley4 s Pipbish5 2

Absolutely gorgeous storytelling from Anna Noyes in The Blue Maiden wasn’t a surprise: what caught me off guard was the sustained emotional impact of the writing. It’s rare that someone who writes such clean, crisp short stories as Noyes can sustain a novel with the same neatness, but The Blue Maiden is intricate without feeling weighty or slow and Noyes gives us beautiful evocative prose from beginning to end.
The Blue Maiden is a coming of age story that gives us entry to a small community in early nineteenth century Northern Europe: its historical fiction that doesn’t feel historical, and the cast of characters is interesting in the same way that the denizens of a locked-room mystery are.
The story - and ultimately it feels a story of time and place as much as the story of sisters Beata and Ulrika - has a tesseract quality to it, and as I read I found myself stopping and thinking about particular sentences without feeling disrupted from the experience of reading.
The plot owes much to Gothic predecessors: Hawthorne, du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Wharton all come to mind. Noyes sustains feelings of apprehension and uncertainty at the same time that she shows the reader a community that is oddly inveigling.
Avoiding spoilers is hard when a book is this well-made; there is a powerful reveal that may catch some readers off guard, but I found the small brutal pinches of family and community history were far more integral to the overall impact.
This book is unusual, sharp as a scalpel, and at times a little coy: altogether it is one of the most immersive novels I’ve read in ages. I haven’t read anything since Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites that made me feel quite so envious of the author’s skill, and I look forward to what she will do next.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.4 s Kat319 14

Witches, past, isolated population, a priest and Sweden. Sounds fun!
Unfortunately I found this book hard to follow and very slow. The story is confusing, because we are given only glimpses into the life of two sisters. It´s watching polaroid snapshots from somebody's life, you see a person as a child, as a teenager, as a young woman, grown woman , her wedding, her first child and then her own burial, but everything that had happened in between we must guess. In this book it´s similar. Various scenes without clear connection, lots of omission, unspoken and unshown things that have happened and we readers are expected to know is too much for me.

4 s1 comment Yamini445 25

The horrors of witch trials still haunt Berggrund Island where the two sisters lived all their life. Each peculiar in her own way grows to fight against the constraints of the societies in the 1800s. When a handsome stranger arrives in town, scales dip to one side, uncovering all the mysteries that lay buried forever (including their mother's death). Depicting the stories in an inter-weaving pattern of women, society, greed, lust and power, the tale transports into Nordic times.

This isn't one of that slow-paced literary fiction where you move through each instance living it in depth, but a swift tide that submerges you in water and brings you back on top gasping for air- which I loved! The plot of the story is one of its strong suits which I think could have been utilized better with a strategic approach to highlight a few characters. Each character was developed well and had a good background to cover their story, but none of them were prominent enough to stand out.

Having said that, I do feel the contradictions of society are portrayed well in the story and if a similar uniformity was shown in the relationship between the 2 sisters, it would have been amazing.3 s Niffler for words74

“Ghosts come in fog, the villagers have always said.”

The Blue Maiden was a very different book, between reality and visions. Walking on a tight rope, it interrogates us on our humanity, our bestiality, our relationship with Nature and the World. After a heavy and long prologue, the use of present tense doesn’t dynamise the story. On the contrary, it suspends the action, freezing it in place in a blurry incertitude. It adds tension.
We can’t say what is true, what is from the sisters’ imagination, if they invent it, if Bea has visions or if we are trapped in a magical –or cursed– world. That’s the beauty of this book, we glide in that uncertainty, wave in the melancholy created by the flawless writing, making us sure that bad things are coming, ready to knock at the door.
Who is the crazy one here? Who acts good? Who misbehaves? We never know as religion and naturalism contront in turn, then wave with each other.
None of the characters are black, or white, they are all subtle shades of grey, and the author leaves to us the task to taste, think, judge, and choose. The magnificent descriptions of Nature are a counterpart to the Human’s craziness, and also contribute to freeze the story. In this regards (and –of course– because the sisterhood links), it reminded me a bit of The Virgin Suicides, where beauty announces the darkness to come. It’s a beautiful reflexion about Humans, Nature, and Bestiality, about what it means and feels to grow up, to become an adult and find yourself.
If you look for an escape through Fantasy and a magical world, this probably isn’t the right book. On the other hand, if you want to live an experience (I don’t have a better world), to feel that island, to get lost and wander in a fog full of discoveries, then plough into this short read. I loved that strange but fascinating immersion.
Rate 4.5/5

Thank you NetGalley, Anna Noyes and Atlantic Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
netgalley3 s Amy173

My thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with an ARC of Anna Noyes’s debut novel The Blue Maiden.

Synopsis: Two sisters who look nothing a but are eerily bonded grow up with their widower father on the Scandinavian island of Berggrund. Off the coast of Berggrund lies another island called The Blue Maiden that has attained local mythology about witches and creepy women in the woods. The girls’ mother, long dead, has some tenuous connection to this island, as does their father, who apparently once abandoned the family dog there.

To be honest, I had a great deal of difficulty discerning the projects of this narrative. In a nutshell, the younger sister Bea (Beats) winds up married to a sexy older guy who returns to claim family property. At first, her father thinks this man will marry older sister Ulrika, but Bea’s physical similarity to their mother winds up attracting him. Early in the marriage, he calls her by her mother’s name, and it eventually comes out that he had a love affair with her. Worse still, Ulrika is his daughter by their mother, and he brings Ulrika to their home and the two begin an incestuous relationship. When Bea, after many miscarriages, has a baby, Ulrika essentially mothers the infant, including nursing it. Then at some point, the husband’s brother, Elias, enters the scen and he has a thing for both sisters too. Then I got lost.Bea is eventually alone with her son and has some sort of epiphany at the Blue Maiden, it seems.

What I suspect was intended as an atmospheric, eerie Midsommar-style narrative unfortunately obscures the point of the novel. I just kept thinking, “OK, so…..?” A frustrating lack of pay off combined with characters that annoy cause this to rate 2.5 stars from me. There are glimmers here of potential, but they, everything and everyone in Berggrund is lost in a mist. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review3 s Bebo Saucier50 8

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was really not what I was expecting. The first few pages had me excited, and the description (which promised gothic vibes, witch hunts, children of the devil, critiquing the patriarchy, and discovering island secrets) caught my attention quickly.

Alas, I couldn't find most of that in this book. I just feel lied to I guess. The writing was pretty, but I left equal parts confused and bored. Disappointing.

Publication date: May 14, 2024fiction netgalley-arc2 s Tyler544 4

Bruno Schulz, Shirley Jackson, and Terrence Malick trapped on a haunted Swedish island. Scary and sexy and sad, life itself!2024 books-by-people-i-know nordic-types2 s1 comment Krystelle Fitzpatrick665 36

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Please note this is 3 1/2 stars.

This book had absolutely gorgeous prose, and I have to say that I did find myself so caught up in it that I forgot for a while what it was supposed to be about. There's a certain windswept isolation to the words in this book, and I thought it was just fabulous. There's so much that's tied into these sorts of locations, and I will say that I thought that facet of this book was captured perfectly. I found myself feeling I was in the location, which is always a beautiful thing when reading a book.

With that said, I did find that the narrative side of this book got a little lost. The title didn't quite deliver on the promises that it gave, and I thought that it could have been a lot better from that standpoint. There was the potential to make this a sweeping folk horror piece of work, and I will admit that I was a bit let down by that side of it.

The characters were interesting, although perhaps not as fleshed out as they could have been. I enjoyed the literary style of this immensely, but just didn't quite get where it was going beyond the more 'slice of life' side of things from a dark island.1 Meagan72 1 follower

The Blue Maiden

Two sisters are portrayed as wild all throughout their childhood with no real guidance at all. Their mother died during childbirth of her second daughter and the father is a pastor that doesn’t know how to handle being a single parent. It is set in an oppressive time period where women are to bear children and stay in their place. There is an air of religious oppression, as well.

This story has a dark and gloomy feel to it. It’s almost I can feel the pain the character is internalizing but it left me confused. There is a plot twist in it that surprised me and caught my attention.

The narration was done by Alyssa Bresnahan. The narration was perfect. I’m giving the novel three stars because of the confusion and the questions due to the gaps in the story. I wanted to read this book because of the cover.

Special thanks to #NetGalley and #RBMedia for this #ARC to review.netgalley1 Ken Fredette1,041 55

We start out in 1675, when on Berggrund Island, Sweden, 32 women were killed as witches and burned once their bodies dried out. We then go to 1825 and follow two sisters, Bea and Ulrika, who were the daughters of the local priest, and their mother died in Bea's childbirth. It goes on from there, to when they are young and then when they become marriageable. Including all the things that girls do when they are young. What the Blue Maiden is, is an Island called Blockula that in 1675 that the women were told to have brought children too which was made into a wives tail. We follow Bea as she becomes marriageable to August, and how when her father died her sister Ulrika came and took care of her when she finally got pregnant with her son, Auggie. It goes through many scenario's telling what happens to the two girls and how their live change. 1 Geonn CannonAuthor 106 books190

A promising start that never lives up to the opening chapter (or the summary, for that matter). You're promised a witch hunt, you're shown witch trials, and then the rest of the book is basically just two little girls growing up in a town that happens to believe in witches. "Are the girls practicing witchcraft...?" The book doesn't seem particularly interested in exploring that question at all. 1 Michelle Quinn93 3

Anna Noyes' The Blue Maiden is so atmospheric - you are right there on this oppressive island with Beata and Ulrich. But many times I wanted more in terms of story and characterization. I'm still very glad I read it and I will definitely seek out Noyes' next books. Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the ARC.1 Angie36

Vivid imagery that reminds me of the witch movie, one thing I really look for in books is stylistic prose and it was a big hit in this one for me. The way the author whose name i’m now gonna have to learn crafted a dark archaic world immersed me a lot.1 Kelly ?86 14

Thank you for the arc provided kindly by Netgalley. This story was so atmospheric, full of nostalgia and pain. The sisterly bond was tender and very well written. It is a perfect read for the fall season.1 Jan Mage53

Fascinating story of an isolated, tightly structured people and their intense need to identify and punish those they consider witches. Did accusations and confessions come from young people only because they were convinced of what they saw, or was it all real? I fell deeply into the gripping tale of two sisters who experience the bullying and the unnerving potentially true (or not) coming accusation that they were somehow “marked” by the Devil, who is awaiting them in a horrifying place, the family and all who know them shudder in fear and intense dread. I read this novel in a remarkably short time as each trouble kept me in the world Noyes created.1 Ifa InziatiAuthor 3 books56

Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the digital advance copy. Reviews are my own.

I wish they put up the cover soon because it's GORGEOUS.

At first I expected an atmospheric, sweep-out-of-my-feet setting-centered tale that would transport my body into another place and time. It did, wonderfully. The details are immaculate, I could breathe the same salty, mossy air of Berggrund island as the characters. Even if the color palette is kind of bleak (or especially when?), I took delight on the colored garments, food, plants, and scenery of the rural Sweden setting. The way those details are delivered is also smooth and charming in its Gothic-creepy way. Perfect for a unique Halloween read choice.

The story opens with a 1600s witch trial that accused women to be allied with the Devil. After that it jumps to 1800s, carrying the same patriarchy theme except it's in more modern setting when the Blue Maiden has become a mere myth. I had a slow, hard time in the beginning since the plot has little development. It kicked off halfway through, and although this is not the first book that has such structure (inciting incident in the middle) I would prefer it for short stories instead of a full novel. I felt I have invested since the beginning, hoping to find the answer of 'what The Blue Maiden has to do with Ulrika and Bea's story' but then nothing really happened. In short stories, the length is shorter so I can put two-and-two together faster.

Speaking of short stories, the subtlety and deep POV are dominating and masterfully done. But again, I think it would work best on short stories. I craved exposition, clear links between this event with that event, what the true nature of the character is or how much time actually passed. I hope it's a 'it's me not you' case but the characterization felt thin. Maybe because it took too long to the heart of the story? I could truly grasp who Bea and Ulrika are after Augustus came back to the island.

But the twist after twist after twist? Chef's kiss.

I d little things woven into the story, things that people may not find important but here are surely embedded with love, and how subtlety shows the mastery of the craft. I wish the plot would take off sooner and more engaging from the start. 3.5 stars rounded down for Blå Jungfrun.1 Cassie222

After the death of their mother Beata "Bae" and her older sister are two spirits left to be cultivated by the physical and philosophical nature of their small island home. Their father, the local pastor, frequently locked away in his ruminations is determined to keep the memories of their mother locked up as tightly as her abandoned bedroom. A door is such a flimsy barrier for willful girls. The sisters scramble to latch onto the bits and pieces of history that's left in her wake. Bae constantly thirsts for stories if her mother, of their local lore, of the things that we only learn from the world around us. Guided by Ulrika's tales and a precious heirloom, the sisters try to navigate the social system they've been cast to. As the seasons change so do the sisters, drifting down their own paths, as they map out their own mark on this land. Some things that bloom are familiar to the seemingly timeless patterns the off cast community has maintained. But some truths of nature, of those hidden secrets revealed, are bound to create their own unique impressions.

This novel of tribute to the consistencies and contradictions that exist concurrently in nature, personality, stories, and across time. There is a slow pace to the narrative that echoes the gradual shifts in the land itself. Crops, businesses, natures, faces, some have been found on the island since the opening generation. Some have cycled out and returned. Some are planted. There isn't an element to this story that isn't touched by this pattern and the rhythm of the land even if isn't directly correlated.

The pastor, pious and dedicated to his profession and faith, is a proponent of doctors and science. Yet he insists in the importance of very traditional roles for his daughters. Being the elder sister and oldest women, Ulrika is left with a household on her shoulders. She is the one set to spinning tales and holding moral for her sister and father instead of flourishing in her own adventures --or so it seems. He is a man who aims to lead by example, but sometimes is reluctant in this. where as other characters in this profession are usually seen as cold, callous, and stringent for the most part he seems pliant and a victim of his own frailities. Though he is not without his tempers and own shadows.

To its credit, this novel has a writing style that is concise and yet seems incredibly lyrical. There is a very tactile nature to the sentences building a sturdy image and atmosphere. The delivery of the narrative by Alyssa Bresnahan is one that is not quiet haunting but sticky and luring, perfect for a novel that tries to center itself around generational stories that pass core morals from one age to another. It also has a complex web of character traits that can pull the reader one way and the other when they're regarding how they feel about any of our players.

In spite of this, "The Blue Maiden" feels rather average. While it doesn't feel the intent, there are no incredibly unique. Its narrative pieces are haphazardly strewn about. It is more of a quick study, a cartoon or abstract, instead of a photo-realistic rendering.

Starting out as an exploration of local myth, of child faith, belief in adventure and the ability of sheer will to create, it fizzles with the early adulthood of the sisters to begin a more domestic drama. There is an element of mental health that's role is never clearly defined. I had anticipated it might be this confusion, this envisioning, that would bring the characters back to the original tale. Perhaps cause this story to lean to magical realism and be a metaphor that ties together the tone of the first half to the conclusion. The abrupt shift to an ending, while there is some cylindrical resonance, leaves this feeling incomplete.

What was most frustrating was the shift in attitude between the sisters. While there is a traumatic event that shakes Bae's identity, this later takes form in deep seeded resentments that there were no inclinations of as a child. While it would have caused reveals too soon, I also felt myself craving more of Ulrika's story and that of their local naturalist and acquaintance of their mother, Bruna. It was such a sudden melancholy that seemed out of place with the willful child whose inner spark now changed with the wind.

"The Blue Maiden" is in its whole a beautiful work in its parts, but not a masterpiece. It does feel a novel that should be savored, and if a reader is there to absorb the feel of time and the way a place molds itself into us they will find something to enjoy. I just wish it left me knowing it was a tale that would long linger. 2024 Doreen1,086 45

2.5 Stars

This fragmentary novel is not my cup of tea.

The book, set on Sweden’s Berggrund Island, focuses on two sisters, Ulrika and Beata, who live with their widowed father, Pastor Silas. The girls are fascinated with the island’s lore and dark history which includes the killing of 27 of the 32 women living on the island; in 1675, 150 years earlier, these women were accused of witchcraft and consorting with Satan on the neighbouring mist-shrouded island known as Blue Maiden. The sisters also want to learn about their mother, but Silas refuses to speak of her. Ulrika, the eldest, does the majority of the work around the house which includes looking after her sister who starts experiencing unsettling visions when she enters adolescence. The return of August Holmberg to Berggrund changes the lives of the sisters and leads to the revelation of dark family secrets.

Ulrika and Beata are social outcasts. On their father’s side they are descended from a woman who was identified as a witch but allowed to live because she was pregnant. It seems as if that stigma has followed them over the generations. Their mother was an outsider, not from the island, so “they share an aura of otherness” for this reason as well. They both yearn for love and attention which is not given to them by their emotionally remote father who is neglectful and ineffectual as a parent.

It is the theme of sisterhood that stands out for me. Ulrika and Beata give each other the love otherwise missing from their lives, but there are jealousies and tensions as one would expect between siblings. Ulrika sometimes wants to be alone, taking long walks and leaving Bea behind. Bea, once punished along with her sister, feels she has been treated unjustly and lashes out by opening jars and dumping out their contents leaving Ulrika to cry, “’That pantry gets us through winter . . . Do you ever think how much work you make for me?’” Bea responds with, “’What else would you do?’” When Ulrika gets attention, Bea thinks should be hers, Bea says, “’Can’t I have one scrap? . . . Just one, to myself?’” She is convinced “Only when Ulrika dies will Bea live individuated and capable.” But she also realizes “Ulrika is her family, the primacy of that earliest bond forever fated to win out.”

The novel’s writing style is a challenge. The narrative jumps from one scene to another seemingly without connection so there is a disjointed feel to the book. Some scenes are noteworthy for their vagueness so it’s difficult to determine what is happening. Clarity is not prioritized because much is left unsaid, but I would have d some exposition linking events or explaining their significance. The sense of confusion is not cleared with the ending which is ambiguous and unsatisfying; the book almost feels abandoned rather than concluded.

At the end I found myself wondering what it all means. What message was I supposed to take away? What is the significance of so many characters, both male and female, having visions? Are visions what come “from paying too close attention to the world”? Beata lives in fear of a witch coming to get her but the ending seems to suggest she discovers that she is one, so is the message that all women are witches or at least perceived to be to some extent? Are we to understand that women Beata are suffering from generational trauma because of what happened to the women on the island earlier? The book is described as “A Nordic Gothic laced with the horrors of life in a patriarchy both hostile to and reliant on its women” and a Kirkus Review describes the book as being “a twisting narrative of the horrors of patriarchal subordination.” I’m not convinced but admit to being at a loss to explain the purpose of the book.

This book may appeal to others – and there is some appeal in its poetic diction – but it doesn’t work for me.

Note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DCYakabuski).netgalley Melissa Crytzer Fry357 410

Wow! This book is steeped in incredible atmosphere … I was transported to a tiny island off the coast of Finland, 1825, and felt, smelled, and tasted every inch of it.

In silty stretches of loam, purple orchids shiver, their blossoms tongues.

Blue dust covers every surface. Her mouth is packed with wool and gnats sip at her eyes.

… the farmhouse seems possessed by Ulrika, daises shivering in their vase when she props her elbows on the table, chairs creaking, ceilings lowering, grease from her lips printed on the rim of each glass.

The author did an incredible job of keeping the reader off-kilter, making us wonder how reliable – and how emotionally stable – our narrator, Beata, really was. The sentence structure, the observations – I’m not sure I can even explain the genius of the way this is written.

Will you be confused by parts of it? Probably. But I think that’s part of the experience … feeling Beata’s confusion as she wrestles with an unknown past, an absent mother, and a father so mired in religion, he is fanatical (and to me, he felt precipitously close to repeating the same warped beliefs about women that led to the murder of half the island's females years earlier, based on accusations of witchcraft).

I was going to give this a 4 for the somewhat abrupt ending, and the open-endedness of it, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot, marveling at it, and decided the ending was, again, nothing short of brilliant. The story begs the question: where do we draw the line between fable and fate, story and life, the real and the imagined, and possibly between sanity and madness?

For readers who to dig deep, there is much to unearth in this novel, thematically and even emotionally. It is a story of motherless daughters and an island so filled with life and female inequity… For readers who a straightforward story with a standard three-acts and obvious plot, this one may not be for you. However, I wouldn’t let that stop you from reading. It’s only 240 pages and certainly worth a try. You might surprise yourself and be swept away by the mystery of this book.

I had two sets of cousins who developed a seemingly ‘unnatural’ closeness with their siblings (resembling Beata and Ulrika’s bond): one pair whose mother was essentially stolen from them in an ugly divorce that my grandparents supported (making the mother, my aunt, unfairly a villain) and the other whose father was in the marriage but mostly absent emotionally. In both cases, the siblings really relied on one another and became tight support networks, so this story rang very, very true to me from an emotional perspective.

I want someone else to read it so I can discuss it. I have questions! I want to pull out my shovel and excavate all the hidden meanings and nuance of this incredible literary book!

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for an incredibly immersive reading experience.10 s6 comments Amanda (Smitten For Fiction)554 22

The cover for The Blue Maiden inspired me to request an arc from Netgalley. Mushrooms, leaves, a feather, a beetle, and bones...intriguing. How are these connected?

For author bio and content warnings visit the blog post for this book:https://smittenforfiction.ca/2024/05/...


“This debut novel churns with the smell of sea-damp wool, day-old bread, and elderflower-scented smoke . . . Noyes’ rich descriptions create a setting that, in all its consuming bleakness, is perfect for a story about the burdens of generational and gendered trauma . . . A twisting narrative of the horrors of patriarchal subordination that will appeal to fans of classic gothic novels.”—Kirkus Reviews
Title: The Blue Maiden

Author: Anna Noyes

Publication Date: May 14, 2024

Publisher: Grove Press

Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Debut

Pages: 240

Setting: Sweden


› The Blue Maiden takes place on Berggrund Island, an isolated island in Northern Europe. This Nordic Gothic is Anna Noyes's debut novel. Inspired by her own great-great-grandfather's story, Boyes began writing with a different protagonist in mind, however, after working on it for a couple of years Boyes realized it should be told from the perspective of the protagonist's mother Beata and her sister Ulrika. In an interview, Noyes talked about how she wanted to write something witchy and living on Fishers Island inspired the setting for The Blue Maiden.

› The Blue Maiden begins in 1675 when thirty-two women on Berggrund Island were accused of being witches by the priest. Children get wrapped up in the drama and claim the women tried to take them to Blockula, the small sister island to Berggrund also known as The Blue Maiden. All thirty-two women were killed.

"That morning, thirty-two women had awoken on the island. Now, there are five."

› The story flashes forward to 1825 when the great-great-grandson of one of those five surviving women, Pastor Silas, lives on Berggrund with his two daughters, Beata and Ulrika. The sisters are imaginative and don't get along with each other. Their mother died giving birth to Beata and I got the feeling Ulrika holds resentment towards Bea for that.

› They want to know more about their dead mother, but Silas doesn't to talk about her. As young women, they are trying to find their place in the world. Ulrika is responsible and has taken on the many jobs keeping the house. Beata longs for attention. One day, they find their mother's red book filled with herbal remedies. This only leads to more questions.

› A man returns to Berggrund seeking a wife. It was assumed Ulrika would marry him as she is older, but he proposes to Beata. They marry and things seem great, but it all unravels revealing a family secret that changes the sister's lives forever.

› Beata is the smaller sister, The Blue Maiden island. And the island, she is strange and mysterious with mismatched eyes. Bea has an incredible imagination and at times I didn't know if things were happening or if I was in a dream.

› For the first half of the book I struggled to understand the point of the story. The blurb calls The Blue Maiden "chilling" and mentions the devil and witchcraft. The small sister island is called the home of witches and satan. I was expecting more witchcraft and evil. That being said, the writing is beautiful and magical featuring interesting characters.

› Final Thoughts
• The Blue Maiden is a challenging, unusual, emotional and haunting slow-paced story about secrets, complex relationships, and the struggles of women in a patriarchal society. It reminded me of Study For Obedience by Sarah Bernstein.
 Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
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