The Taxidermist’s Daughter : A Review

10/10

Kate Mosse

I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that I bought this book based on two factors:

1) The cover is SO DAMN PRETTY
2) I’ve read Kate Mosse’s work before

But mostly #1, I probably would have bought this book even if I didn’t know the author. I instantly fell in love with the cover and bought the book instantly, then waited several months to finally crack it out and give it the full audience it deserved.

Kate Mosse is a beautiful storyteller and the gothic genre suits her down to the ground. She gives you just the right amount of detail to get you hooked but leaves you greedily reading on for more.
She’s the one-in-a-million kind of storyteller where she could write about absolutely anything and I’d just lap it up as a good yarn, it’s just our good fortune that she always has a good story to tell!

I’m giving absolutely nothing away on the storyline of this one because I absolute insist that you read it if you haven’t already, this book has a classic gothic atmosphere and expertly developed characters. I love the fact that the story is told from the perspective of different characters, to keep the mystery going for as long as possible.

It surprises me that this book is as long as it is, I could have so easily have worked my way through it in one sitting had my time allowed (does it ever?). I can’t see myself reading this book again to be honest, I don’t think it’s that sort of story so I’ll be donating my copy to either a deserving friend or a charity shop,

Finally, is there anything creepier than taxidermy? I’m pretty open minded about all art forms and do my best to appreciate them all but I can’t for the life of me find anything attractive or appealing about stuffing dead animals.
Aesthetically speaking, they’re creepy as balls (though it may be that I just haven’t seen a well executed piece) and feel like a mockery of the original creature- I don’t understand why anyone would think it would be ok to do that to an animal when we’d be so revolted at anyone doing that to a human. Assuming of course everyone would find that revolting?

I just did a google search on taxidermy animals… I’m going to have to go and wash those images out of my brain before I try to sleep tonight:

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140404115510-crappy-taxidermy-cat-horizontal-gallery.jpg

“And all the birds of the air

Fell a-sighing and a-sobbing

When they heard of the death

Of poor Cock Robin “

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