The Animals At Lockwood Manor

· HarperCollins
3.0
1 review
Ebook
352
Pages
Eligible
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About this ebook

A debut novel for fans of Sarah Perry and Kate Morton: when a young woman is tasked with safeguarding a natural history collection as it is spirited out of London during World War II, she discovers her new manor home is a place of secrets and terror instead of protection.

In August 1939, thirty-year-old Hetty Cartwright arrives at Lockwood Manor to oversee a natural history museum collection whose contents have been taken out of London for safekeeping. She is unprepared for the scale of protecting her charges from party guests, wild animals, the elements, the tyrannical Major Lockwood, and Luftwaffe bombs. Most of all, she is unprepared for the beautiful and haunted Lucy Lockwood.

For Lucy, who has spent much of her life cloistered at Lockwood, suffering from bad nerves, the arrival of the museum brings with it new freedoms. But it also resurfaces memories of her late mother and nightmares in which Lucy roams Lockwood, hunting for something she has lost.

When the animals appear to move of their own accord and exhibits go missing, Hetty and Lucy begin to wonder what exactly it is that they might need protection from. And as the disasters mount, it is not only Hetty’s future employment that is in danger but her own sanity. There’s something, or someone, in the house. Someone stalking her through its darkened corridors . . .
 

Ratings and reviews

3.0
1 review
Brittany Kay
May 13, 2020
The Animals at Lockwood Manor is an interesting story, but I couldn’t really get into it. The two primary characters were a little lackluster. I hoped they would find some strength and overcome their circumstances, but never really found their power. There were some darker elements, but more gothic than twisted. The ghostly elements never really hit home for me either. The most interesting part of the book was how the museums worked with private estates during the war. I had known about these homes turning into hospitals and convalescent homes, but had not heard much about them being used to house museum wares, and how those deals went down, so that was interesting to read about. It felt a little like Jane Eyre to me. And if you see that as a plus, then you should give this book a try, but if like me, the Bronte’s aren’t among your favorites, I don’t think I’d recommend it.
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About the author

JANE HEALEY studied writing in the MFA program at CUNY Brooklyn College and is the author of the novel The Animals at Lockwood Manor, winner of the HWA Debut Crown Award. Her short fiction has been short-listed for the Bristol Short Story Prize, the Costa Short Story Award, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She lives in Edinburgh.

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