The Disenchantment

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On the weaker side, I don’t think all of the characters or their motives were fully developed to me. The romance between the two main women was what I was most excited for but turned into the least interesting perspective overall. It also felt like a lot of really cool elements of sapphic love, a murder investigation, witches, and different power dynamics, but it just didn’t seem to all come together. Despite life and death being literally on the line, the stakes never fully sunk in.

A shimmering, sexy, thrilling tale of intrigue and desire, and the dark paths we walk to keep our secrets safe. Bell has written a shining debut' Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Dance Tree A shimmering, sexy, thrilling tale of intrigue and desire, and the dark paths we walk to keep our secrets safe. Bell has written a shining debut.” In summer 2024, Serpent’s Tail will publish Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa, translated by Jennifer Feeley, for which Cohen obtained world English-language rights from Li Kangqin at the New River Agency. Described as a "haunting exploration of betrayal and manipulation", the novel follows two rival teachers at a secondary school in Hong Kong, who are instructed to switch from teaching in Cantonese to Mandarin—or lose their jobs. Wai crumples under the pressure and dies by suicide, leaving her colleague Ling to face seismic political and cultural change alone and uncertain of her role in the other’s demise.

About The Disenchantment by Celia Bell

You feel the ever present pressure of societal expectations on the characters along with their strained actions to break free from them and Marie Catherine's recurring fairytales throughout the novel highlight the desperate desire for escapism. Mary Catherine was a beautifully written character with a fierce love and determination. And this was a debut!!!! I felt like the whole book needed a really good editor - someone with a big red pen - who could strike out the unnecessary and pull what was left together.

What do you think? Have you read The Disenchantment by Celia Bell? Is it on your TBR? Let’s talk in the comments below. RELATED: I finished this one on audio yesterday and it’s a great slice of queer, feminist historical fiction! Bell’s stunning debut explores the meaning of love and the risks people will take to keep hold of it. . . . [her] writing displays a mastery of language and artistry parallel to a seasoned professional of the craft, setting the reader loose in the wild, untamed chaos of France in the 1600s.” Look,” said the sculptor to the villagers. “I have made you a woman to give to the ogre. Send her to him and he will be satisfied, for she is made of cold stone and cannot be harmed by his appetites.”’

Marie Catherine and Victoire were characters I loved and believed in, and Bell captures their unique and sometimes warring motivations. However, Bell doesn’t only pay attention to upper-class perspectives in this novel, and the text is a much wider examination of Parisian society in this period. This novel felt like a mix of genres in the best way—part literary fiction, historical fiction, crime fiction, mystery, and Gothic. It kept me guessing until the very end and felt like a thoroughly original, gorgeous historical portrait.