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I devoured The Gifts, eager to find out the fate of its wonderfully drawn characters. A wonderful, atmospheric book that immersed me in the dirty streets of nineteenth century London and swept me away to the hills of Shropshire. A real gem." ―Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City and Miss Aldridge Regrets Brimming with historical detail and beautifully written, the soulful prose soars. It's an insightful mysterious read celebrating female friendship and solidarity." — Daily Express (UK) I’m writing this early in the morning whilst my brain is fresh as I’m suffering a book hangover of gargantuan proportions and don’t want my review to be all “I LOVED IT! I LOVED IT! JUST BUY IT EVERYONE!” The Gifts is a stunning book. It’s both beautifully written and illustrated, but with a stark, uncompromising uncovering of inhumanity, zealous greed and ambition, so that it lingers in the reader’s mind long after it’s finished. Just brilliant. And I remain forever indebted to the women who fought for rights for women. These women are true heroes!
Unsettling, captivating and beautifully written, with vividly descriptive landscape from Orkney to London, The Gifts is an enthralling tale of ambition and the lines of knowledge for science sake and obsession being crossed, of women finding an inner strength, being resourceful and tenacious and not willing to conform. I loved it, and although my proof copy just had placeholder text, I’m sure that the finished copy with its chapter illustrations will be a thing of beauty indeed. Impressive… A celebration of female solidarity, it's brimful of historical detail and beautifully written." ― Sunday Express Magazine (UK) I fell in love with ‘The Gifts’ from the opening in the Shropshire woods through to its dramatic conclusion. I found Liz Hyder’s writing beautiful and loved the imagery of these mysterious transformations. In a Nutshell: A historical fantasy written in literary fiction style. Won’t work for every reader due to the slow pacing and the writing approach, but I liked the plot. Triggers galore!I enjoyed seeing the scenes from five different points of view, four of which were women. The third person narration ensures that the proceeding is somewhat easy. However, five perspectives automatically means plenty of characters and, as the story progresses, plenty of interconnections as well. It takes some time to remember who is who. Moreover, the switch in character perspectives sometimes happens too often. Though this isn’t too confusing because of the third person, it takes some time to get attuned to.
October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders’.Alice: Edward’s wife and hobby painter, Alice knows Edward is up to something, but can’t get him to reveal more. Etta: A young woman of mixed parentage, Etta is dealing with the grief of her pet dog’s passing when two huge wings suddenly rip themselves from her shoulders. The ‘fallen angel’ starts to appear on the lips of those who love to gossip and spread rumours across London and when a surgeon stumbles upon this seemingly ethereal corpse, he is determined to use her as leverage to make not only a name for himself but fame and vast fortunes too yet as he delves deeper into working out the machinations of such a being, he will find himself in the vice-like grip of obsession which will see him search out and locate other women who appear to have been sent from the heavens to help him in his quest in which will test the very limits of human understanding when it comes to that which we could never comprehend. The Gifts is a fabulous book. It would indeed make the perfect gift for any lover of literary fiction who enjoys vivid settings, strong women, perfect plotting and a touch of magical realism She had left the mine feeling “so angry and upset about it, the brutality of it, the rawness. It is awful. It’s real, extraordinary exploitation, and it’s a fact that kids are still working in mines now around the world. It’s not gone away.”
Readers who like the early-Victorian-era setting and feisty female characters will enjoy this book." — Booklist
The story explores science, religion, obsession, feminism, the patriarchy, nature and so much more. I found it so powerful and extraordinary - I hadn’t read anything like it before. Set in 1840 England and narrated from five different points of view The Gifts is a slow-burn gothic tale of a doctor's obsession with the women with wings. I loved that book fell into many categories such as historical fiction, fantasy, magical realism and a touch of mystery. They are intriguing, passionate, relatable characters despite the unusual aspects of their lives. But to say too much more would spoil the story! Liz Hyder won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for the brilliantly original Bearmouth and The Gifts is just as impressive — an imaginative extraordinary flight of fancy firmly grounded in the grim realities of Victorian England." ― Daily Mirror (UK)
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