Book Review: The Woman in the Wallpaper by Lora Jones

A beautifully written story that merges Gothic fiction with Historical fiction.

Let me just start by saying that this book is a must read. It is phenomenally written and beautifully intricate.

The Woman in the Wallpaper by Lora Jones combines Gothic fiction and Historical fiction to create a compelling and riveting story. Set during the French Revolution, the story follows sisters Lara and Sofi through tragedy, heartbreak, and uncertainty. After tragedy strikes their family in Marseilles, they move to Paris with their mother to work at a wallpaper factory. They become friends with the factory owner’s son, Josef Oberst, whose own mother died under mysterious circumstances.

But something feels off about the factory and the grounds. Then there’s the wallpaper in the tower of the manor house where Josef and his father live. The wallpaper tells the story of Josef’s mother, but it’s the way in which Lara’s own life seems to mirror the wallpaper that is disturbing. While Lara attempts to untangle mysteries, Sofi becomes engaged in politics and the French revolution.

Isn’t this cover gorgeous? Source: https://www.lorajones.com/thewomaninthewallpaper

While the story is primarily told from the perspectives of Lara and Sofi, there is a third female protagonist whose story entwines with their own. Hortense is a spoiled, petulant aristocratic woman who begrudgingly marries Josef. Like Lara, she becomes disturbed by the story of Josef’s mother and the images in the wallpaper, fearing that she will meet the same fate as the late Madame Oberst.

Jones’ prose is exquisite, and she expertly weaves Gothic tropes with historical accuracy. Her language is so beautifully, and at times terrifyingly, descriptive that it felt as if I were in the story casting my own eyes over the wallpaper. There is so much in this book that it’s hard to imagine how it could only be just under 500 pages long. Perhaps my favourite part of the story was how well paced it was. I never felt a moment of dawdling prose. There was always something interesting happening, but there wasn’t too much happening either. Call me goldilocks, it was just right.

My only piece of advice to readers, pay attention to whose perspective you are reading. While Hortense is obstinately obvious, I found myself sometimes confused between Lara and Sofi given the closeness of their story’s. I must point out though, this is not a failing of Jones’ writing, rather a bad habit of my own to not read chapter headings. Once I forced myself to pay attention to these headings, I had no issue at all in differentiating Lara from Sofi, and vice versa.

This is definitely in my top five reads for the year. If you ask me to liken it to another book, I could not give you an answer. I love stories that bend genre and don’t fall into one category or another, and this story does just that.