I have just read one of the most talked about books of the year: The Doll Factory by Elizabeth
Macneal.
This is an incredible Victorian thriller set in the build up to the Great Exhibition.
And I think there's something about obsession as a theme that is so intoxicating to read
about.
It's really scary, but it also sucks you in and leaves you feeling kind of obsessive about
the book as well.
So I have put together a list of four more books about obsession to read after you've
finished The Doll Factory.
So in The Doll Factory there are two main storylines, there's two main main characters.
So first we have Iris, who is rescued from her job that she absolutely hates working
at a doll factory, when she meets the Pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost.
And she agrees to be his model in exchange for professional art lessons from him.
So their story is one of love and ambition and art, and it's quite reminiscent of The
Clockmaker's Daughter in that it's about this group of artists, and there are all these
discussions of new emerging technologies and the effect that they're going to have on art.
So that's one whole really lovely storyline in itself.
But then, the story gets a lot darker, and to explore the darker side, I'm going to have
to introduce you to the other main character.
So Silas is a taxidermist who is building a collection of weird and beautiful curiosities
for the Great Exhibition.
And when he meets Iris, they have a very very brief encounter on the street, that she doesn't
even remember.
For him, that changes everything.
He becomes completely obsessed with her.
And Elizabeth Macneal paints his obsession with her so wonderfully, it is so so dark
and creepy to read.
So he becomes really really fixated on her physically, so he's obsessed with her warped
collarbone, and he imagines in great detail taking out parts of her body to preserve them.
So it's like he sees her as an item that should be part of his collection.
It's super chilling stuff, and when their storylines finally collide, it gets super
dark.
And this book has such a strong ending.
So as you can tell, the two strands of that story are actually really different, but they
blend together just so well.
There is a reason why everyone and their mother is talking about this book this year, and
will continue to all year.
And so to tell you about it, I thought I would come back in time to the right time period,
I am here at the Dennis Severs house.
Now if you haven't been here before, this is one of the most incredible unique places
I have ever visited.
So it's a house, where each room is set in a different time period.
So in each room, it looks like the family who lived here have just left, like just a
second ago, and the minute you walk out of the room, they're going to come back in.
I've honestly never felt more like I've actually gone back in time than walking around this
house.
And Dennis Severs is the man who collected all of these items.
This was his house, he actually lived here, he slept in the master bedroom.
I found that absolutely fascinating when I was just walking around just now.
I think possibly my favourite room in this house is the kitchen, because it really does
smell like something has just been baked.
So the room that I've come to here is in the Victorian period, which is rather appropriate
for The Doll Factory.
Now the next book I'm going to talk about is An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and
Sara Pekkanen.
Now this one is your classic twisty turny thriller.
It's about a make up artist called Jessica, who is struggling for money, and so she signs
up to take this ethics and morality study that's being conducted by this very mysterious
figure Dr Shields.
But very quickly the questions get really personal, and start digging deeper and deeper
and making Jessica confess some of her darkest secrets.
And the study soon starts to take over her life.
It's not just questions anymore, it's telling Jessica where she should go, and what she
should wear, and who she should talk to.
But by the time Jessica wants out of the study, it's too late, because she's already confessed
her deepest darkest secrets.
And by the time you realise the deadly obsession that is driving Dr Shields to run this study,
you will get genuinely scared.
It's one of those books that leaves you wondering what could you possibly do in that situation.
Next up I've got a very unusual one.
So this is Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi, and she always writes very unusual books.
This one is set in the 1930s, and it's about a writer, Mr St John Fox, who is notorious
for killing off women in his stories.
Then there is Mary Foxe, and that one is Foxe with an e.
She's his muse, and he is completely infatuated with her - but he made her up.
So in the first scene, Mary Foxe comes to see him to confront him about the fact that
he is a serial killer of women through his books.
And then they start this game, that consists of each of them writing stories, and that's
what the rest of the book is made up of.
So in each story, we meet these two characters, but in different identities.
Sometimes with different names, living out different situations.
And it's constantly this game with yourself to try and figure out which of them is writing
the story.
And all of the stories explore the main themes of this book, which is violence against women,
and the male obsession with women that can lead to that kind of violence.
And I'm kind of obsessed with Helen Oyeyemi so that's pretty fitting for this video.
Now the next book I'm going to talk about was recently made into a Netflix show, and
that is You by Caroline Kepnes.
I loved the show, but the book is so much darker, and so much more disturbing, and I
absolutely love it.
So You is all told from the perspective of the stalker, named Joe.
And it's all told in the second person, to 'You', who is this girl Beck who he is stalking.
And his thoughts are super obsessive, and misogynist, and possessive, and so it's really
really creepy being inside his head.
Especially because he's also quite funny and charming.
So the author very cleverly gets you to empathise with him, and quite like him, even while you're
being completely repulsed by him, and hate being inside his head, and accidentally agreeing
with things he says.
Another thing that's really interesting in this book is that Beck is very deliberately
unlikeable.
She has a lot of flaws, and therefore we can see the contrast between who she really is
as a person, just a human with flaws, versus how Joe sees her.
He has just fixated on her, and put her on this pedestal, and she's never going to be
able to live up to that.
So by the time she disappoints him, his obsession is going to get deadly.
And finally, a classic, and possibly the ultimate tale of obsession.
This is Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
So this is, in part, a story about the completely obsessive love between Heathcliff and Catherine,
and they are both pretty terrible people, whose obsession for each other makes them
do all sorts of terrible things to the other people in their lives, and to each other.
But even moreso, it's about Heathcliff's obsession with getting revenge, on the families that
he believes ruined his life by keeping him apart from Catherine.
So the main targets of his revenge are Catherine's daughter Cathy, Catherine's nephew Hareton,
and Heathcliff's own son Linton.
It's a very uncomfortable read, Heathcliff beats women, children and puppies, so he's
not exactly the romantic hero that you might have in your mind when you go and pick up
one of the most famous love stories of all time.
But it's also, and probably the reason that it's lasted so well, is that it's such an
immersive read.
You read this book and you're instantly picturing yourself on the Yorkshire moors, screaming
your lover's name through the wind.
So what are your favourite books about obsession? I think that's such a great theme for a book,
they make such compelling reads, and The Doll Factory is one of my favourite books of this
year.
So leave us a comment below if you've got any favourite books about obsession of your
own, or you can always come over and chat to us on Instagram, @bookbreakuk, we have
all of our fun behind the scenes footage over there.
And of course do give this video a thumbs up, and hit that subscribe button below for
new videos every Thursday.
Coming up next week we've got a video all about Greek myth retellings, and I've got
some really fab books to talk to you about there. See you next time.