Colleen Mondor Reviews House of Roots and Ruin by Erin A. Craig
House of Roots and Ruin, Erin A. Craig (Delacorte Press 978-0-593-48254-4, $19.99, 544pp, hc) July 2023.
Erin A. Craig follows up House of Salt and Sorrows, her reimagining of the fairy tale ‘‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’’, with a new novel focused on the youngest of the sisters introduced in that title. House of Roots and Ruins is all about Verity Thaumas, who has lived with her older sister Camille in their island estate while her other surviving sisters pursue their lives across the land of Arcannia. (Both books provide plenty of backstory on the sisters who did not survive.) Verity is chafing at what she perceives as a limited life, and when an invitation arrives from the Duchess of Bloem to paint a portrait of her son, she jumps at the chance. Then Camille drops a bombshell: Verity has been seeing dead people her entire life and is kept on the island for her own protection. Unwilling to believe what her sister is saying, Verity runs away and takes up a position as portraitist for the Bloem family. What follows is a straight-up Gothic, with a mansion swathed in secrets, creepy dark corridors, odd screams in the night, a domineering lord fascinated with the secrets of botany, and a calculating lady who refuses to acknowledge any sign of discord around her.
In the midst of this house of mystery, there is also Alexander Laurent, the Bloem heir, who is both handsome and dashing, although still suffering from occasional bouts of pain from the childhood accident that led him to use a wheelchair. That Verity and Alexander fall for each other is not a surprise, but the romance often takes a backseat to all the strangeness within the Bloem household. Verity is being watched, she catches glimpses of a maid no one else knows (is she a ghost?), and her employers are increasingly odd. She also hasn’t heard from any of her sisters even though she sends them many letters. Then, two young men arrive in the house, and Verity discovers just how big the Bloem secrets have become.
Following in the steps of a long line of gothic heroines before her, Verity learns she can trust no one but herself and that everyone might be out to get her. Craig hits all the appropriate tropes, with mentions of the Thaumas curse, plenty of brooding types, and no shortage of hints as to nefarious and alarming plots. When Verity finds a secret room, the narrative takes a sharp dark turn and the plot jumps into high gear as the rush to figure out just who is doing what and why leads her in all sorts of disturbing directions. Yes, there are more ghosts; yes, there are long forgotten but newly discovered graves; and yes, there is a ton of danger for Verity. Readers of House of Salt and Sorrows will very much like this next chapter in the Thaumas saga, while new readers with a love for eerie tales will jump right into this big story that brings a host of thrills and chills.
This review and more like it in the October 2023 issue of Locus.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.
©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.
