A Taste For Monsters

Reviewed by: Sheila Dube - Springvale Public Library, Springvale, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 20, 2016

Review

In this paranormal fiction mash-up, Kirby intertwines the harsh life realities of Evelyn, a disfigured match girl who hides from the world as a maid in a hospital with two unrelated true historical happenings. Set in 1888 London, Kirby's writing invokes the smell, rough attitude and precarious survival of the working class. Inside the protective hospital environment, Evelyn attends to Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, but is forced to explore the outside dark alleys during the horrific reign of Jack the Ripper in order to relieve nightmarish ghostly appearances. Historical facts about the plight of the match girls forced to work with the disfiguring phosphorous are explored, as well as, the difficulties that Merrick must have encountered during his last year of life. Evelyn and Merrick both experience the pain of loss and loneliness making them divining rods for the ghosts of Ripper's victims. Give this dark, spine-chilling read to budding Austenites, historical fiction readers and lovers of hauntings.

Overall Book Score: excellent