Book review: The Familiars, Stacey Halls

 Book review

The Familiars, Stacey Halls

 

My rating: 5/5

 

‘I was aware of a strange quality to the air outside. I realised it was excitement. The trees shivered with it and it bounced off the walls and flags of the yard like rain.’ (p366)

 

Where to begin with this novel? I know I’m so late to the party of this fabulous debut: Bookstagram has been raving about this for months, my own mother read it before me, and Stacey Halls has since gone on to publish a second novel, but I’ve finally read and that’s what matters. I read it, I experienced it, and I’m so so grateful I did.

Set in Lancashire in 1612, Stacey Halls, inspired by the Pendle witch trials and real names at the time (Fleetwood Shuttleworth was, indeed, the 17 year old mistress at Gawthorpe Hall) creates a captivating story centred around women, motherhood, betrayal, and natural scenery. For all of these reasons, this novel is a real page-turner.

‘Lancashire, 1612.

Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married and pregnant for the fourth time. But as mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband is anxious for an heir. Then she crosses paths with Alice Gray, a young midwife, who promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby.

When Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the north-west, Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. As the legendary Pendle witch trials approach and Fleetwood’s stomach continues to grow, time is running out and both their lives are at stake…’

 

Firstly, for the perspective of this novel, set in the 17^th century, to be written from a woman’s point of view, was so interesting, and frankly novel. Fleetwood’s voice is well fleshed out, her shock at the less fortunate lives of others fitting, and her kindness, and at times, frivolity, wonderful to read. The descriptions Halls has her use are beautiful, and I found myself often stopping to write down the phrases that captured me the most.

 

‘he came to my side and took my cold hand and held it, pink against grey.’ (p34)

‘My head felt light, as though I was an hourglass needing to be tipped upside down.’ (p90)

‘All these little things I knew, but they were like brushstrokes at the corners of a picture: I could not see the full thing.’ (p265)

 

See what I mean?

 

Beauty captured in tantalizing descriptions; I think that’s what garners The Familiars this 5/5 rating. The plot is interesting, the characters are well established, the setting is nuanced and well built, but the words, that’s what’s so captivating about the story. Fleetwood is an upper class female of the gentry, well educated, well positioned in society, and so it makes sense that these descriptions come through her narration, and it’s what helps to establish her character. As her position in life seems to be to entertain herself in her grand Hall, waiting to provide an heir for her husband, her ability to spend time observing her surroundings, to choose words carefully, is both fitting and interesting.

    Another part of this novel I found interesting is the way the pace shifts throughout the story. At the beginning, life at Gawthorpe is rather slow. The descriptions are lengthy and fluid, life is slow, so the pace of the novel is slow. Later on, however, as the assizes (county trials) draw closer, the urgency within Fleetwood to save her midwife, and her baby, increases, and thus, the pace of the novel quickens. Sentences shorten, and asyndetic sentences, packed full of description, replace the languid tone to the earlier parts of the novel.

 

‘I was being stabbed with knives. I was being washed with flames. Chains covered me, and kept me down, […] my limbs: full of water. My body: cut in half, slices from the scalp.’ (p385)

    I found myself racing through parts three and four of the novel, desperate to match the pace of the novel, desperate to find out what happens. Will Fleetwood and her baby survive? Will Alice be found guilty? What happens to that horrible oaf Roger? What on earth will she do about Judith? The reader has so many questions and is in such a hurry to find their answers. Reading The Familiars was like being given a treasure map, and not knowing where the gold is hidden. Only for the answers to have been on the back the entire time. Halls has delicately sewn little exposing seeds throughout the novel, some you pick up on, some you miss, but all are a joy to read. The ending is satisfying, and very Fleetwood. Since finishing, I have found myself missing Fleetwood’s voice inside my head. I miss hearing her words, her descriptions, her conviction. I think having such a strong female character, set in this time period, telling us first hand her story of womanhood, wifehood, friendship, motherhood, daughterhood, exploration, fascination, resilience, and hope, is a little piece of magic. Just don’t tell the King!

‘When I reached again for the darkness, it was not there.’ (p389)

 

So, if you haven’t already, read The Familiars. If you don’t, your loss.

     This historical novel has captured my heart, and shot to my highly recommended list, and a 5/5 rating. I will not stop singing its praises. I want to reread this every autumn. I want to read more about the witches at Pendle. I want to go to Pendle, and Lancaster castle, and Gawthorpe Hall. I want to don a heavy gown with layers of fabric and ride passionately from Padiham to Lancaster, with my dog at my side, and arrive in time for something far more trivial than saving my newest friend from execution.

 

Thank you Stacey Halls.

 

Ellen Victoria

 

Page numbers are to this edition: Stacey Halls, The Familiars (London: Zaffre, 2019)