Format: ebook
Published: March 26th, 2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Historical/Contemporary
Goodreads
Rating: 3/5 Stars
I find it fascinating sometimes which books get marketed as horror and which don’t. Having read a lot of horror, The Lost Girls of Foxfield Hall could fall under Gothic, yet it’s marketed and presented as something completely different. It’s got strong horror elements, even with a dash of the weird, though it did feel like the Foxfield Hall of the title was underutilized as a setting.
The novel is two from two different POVs across two different timelines; in September, 1939, we meet Ellie Fairfax, dealing with her fiancé leaving to join the fight against the Nazis, and her father withdrawing into his secretive work. In 2019, we meet Megan, who takes a job at Foxfield, now a hotel, to restore their maze. But these two collide pretty quickly, when Megan is drawn to the centre of the maze by strange lights, and is transported back to 1939. Both women witness The Green Lady, Foxfield’s resident ghost, and Megan realises she might just have the chance to change history and prevent Ellie from going missing at the upcoming Harvest Festival.
Initially, I quite liked these two characters, both dealing with absences in their lives and grappling with mysteries beyond their comprehension. The cast is soon fleshed out in both timelines, with the arrival of Ellie’s father’s secretary, and a possible romance blooming between Megan and one of the hotel’s trustees. But there is a lot beneath the surface, as they’ll soon discover.
I do think the book dragged on a bit too long. It was slow in some parts, which was fine, but there was also a lot of repetition, with the book treading the same ground over and over. Multiple characters have multiple names, which, again, not always a problem, but when almost all of those names are used for the same three characters in the space of a few pages it got a little distracting. There are parts of this that felt a bit contrived in the worldbuilding aspect, too.
The time travel was interesting, but ended up feeling a little wishy washy. Foxfield Hall is supposed to be a hotel, but as mentioned above the setting – the huge house pictured on the cover, that serves as both a home and hotel in the novel – felt very underused. There’s quite a bit that felt almost shoehorned in at points.
I don’t think this is a bad book. The relationship between Megan and Ellie was handled well, and I like how the two clicked, but the romantic relationships – between Ellie and David, Megan and Nora – felt underdeveloped. I mentioned above that this could have easily been classed as horror, and I think if it had leaned more towards the Gothic it could have worked a lot better.
It’s an interesting premise, but could have done with either cutting down a lot of the repetition and streamlining some parts of the book, or really using Foxfield Hall as an additional character alongside the way the maze is used. Like I said, not a bad book, but could have done with more work.
Reading Challenge
Barbie Reading Challenge
Prompt: Butterflies – Baby you’re my butterfly on my daisy – A book that has butterflies or flowers on the cover
Progress: 10/17 Completed
Unwrapping Words 