Bernie McGillBesprekingen

I struggled with the rating for this book. For most of it, I was utterly caught up, reading it in one night, and staying up too late to finish. I felt let down by the ending. I think it starts falling apart at the point, less than halfway through the book, where Maddie tells Anna what she wasn't asked and didn't say at the trial (p.99). This would have been a natural seque into the Big Secret, revealed on pp.217-218; for that matter, it seems a bit odd that Anna doesn't inquire into the significance of the remark, unless she can't get a word in edgewise. Now that I'm finished, there are things that bother me that didn't when I was caught up in the story.

There are two main narrators. One is Maddie McGlade, once a servant to to Ormond family beginning in the 1890s, culminating as nanny for Anna, the granddaughter of the other narrator, Harriet Ormond. In September 1968, Maddie is 90-years-old, and again living in Ormond's house, now converted into a nursing home. During Anna's visits, she is recounting stories revolving around Harriet that she thinks Anna should know. Maddie wanted to tell it earlier, but Anna said she wasn't ready. One wonders if afterwards, Anna is glad to have learned the story or not.

Harriet Ormond's story in contained in her prison diary -- she spends a year in prison after her 4-year-old daughter, Charlotte, dies in the course of one of her mother's severe punishments. It's a bit muddled as to what actually happened -- the author gives two slightly different descriptions -- and where on earth did she find such enormously long stockings! Was her husband 9-feet tall? Harriet has eight children, a ninth, Anna's mother Florence, is born in prison. Harriet's unwilling attachment to her children, whom she may love but doesn't like, apparently causes her disastrous attempts to be a hands-on mother. Everyone would have been better off if Harriet had left her children to be raised by nannies, governesses, and tutors, or her unmarried sister Julia, and spent more time on her favorite pursuits.

This skims on the edge of one of my least favorite genres: "I have something important to tell you, that could be explained in a chapter at most, but first I'm going to tell you my entire life's story." At least it wasn't almost 700 pages long, like the book that made me realize how much I hate this story-telling format. The writing is good enough to make the digressions worthwhile and the period details enriched the story for me. I thought the Big Secret was a bit contrived, though I understand the point that the author was trying to make. The glass of water might have made a difference, but maybe not. The story ends in a flurry of platitudes, which I found disappointing. Somehow, Harriet's life doesn't seem like much of an argument for embracing one's darkness, any more than Darth Vader's. In the end, I can find her pitiable, but not sympathetic, nor do I think she didn't deserve what she got, but the complicated and vexing questions of responsibility and free will may haunt us forever.

This book is really something special and reading it has proved total addiction as the author plays expertly with my emotions often leading me down the path of utter shock. What at first glance might seem a pleasant tale about the inhabitants of Rathlin island welcoming Mr Marconi and is magical wireless telegraphy soon turns into an altogether sinister affair.

Nuala Byrne living alone on the island (having been deserted by her family when they moved to Newfoundland) is content to wed Ned McQuaid, the Tailor even though he is 30 years her senior. She is however attracted to the fact that he is a man of some means and living in a well built house. When Gabriele Donati arrives on Rathlin to help oversee and utilise this new technology Nuala finds herself strangely attracted to him and now has time to reflect that maybe her marriage to the Tailor was a mistake. To say much more about the plot would spoil the hidden surprises, and the decisions that Nuala Byrne is about to make will alter her life and have a lasting impact on many of the inhabitants.

After a truly exceptional opening prologue the first part of the book shows an island slowing acknowledging and accepting the genius that is Marconi. This idyll is soon to be shattered by an evil act and the unravelling of the mind of a pretty young girl. Bernie McGill has the ability to retain a strong hold on the reader and there is no doubt that she is in total control, at times offering false security only to have this eroded by the evil that men do. There is some wonderful prose...."I was to lie quietly in the dark on my wedding night, it advised, and await my husband's arrival. I was to desist from moving around too much until the act of consummation was complete."...."It'll double as a christening robe when the time comes, she said winking at me. That's if the Tailor has any juice left in him."....."The tremble that grows and passes between us is like the first test notes of the fiddle, the song warming in the singer's throat, the drumming on the skin of the bodhran, till we find a rhythm that suits us both"......"He looks like a painted wooden puppet whose strings have all been cut. He looks like all the movement have left him."

Many thanks to good people of netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written. Highly recommended.

Harriet is married into a well-established Anglo-Irish family and lives on an estate called Oranmore in the north. Originally with Scottish heritage Harriet enjoys the freedom of riding to hounds and her obsession is her butterfly collection. Brought up in a rigid and controlled household, Harriet believes that children must be punished so that they learn how to behave, however one day Harriet's punishment of her only daughter, Charlotte, goes wrong and Charlotte dies. Harriet is convicted and sentenced to jail where she writes her diary. Maddie is a junior housemaid at Oranmore and she sees the events as they unfold but Maddie has her own problems. Finally at the end of her life Maddie returns to Oranmore, now a retirement home, and she writes letters to her grand-daughter Anna - a link between both families.

This book is based on true events but the characters are fictionalised and therefore although there is some licence, the story reads well. I started off finding this book incredibly hard to get into, Harriet is not a likeable character and Maddie is nondescript, but as time went on the book started to make more sense. Agains the backdrop of the death of Charlotte, a vivd picture is drawn of life in pre-partition Ireland. The politics are played lightly but are obvious and the differences in the background and life of Harriet and Maddie are highlighted but not made the focus. In fact by the end of the book I was really enjoying the tale and felt a degree of sympathy for both characters - victims of their background and upbringing in a changing society.

The story of two women, one--the mistress, the other--the servant, and the choices they make and how it affects both their histories.
The diary entry of the one in prison reflects a non-emotional woman who finds some resolution to the death of her child by writing about it.
The contrasting story line of the servant appears to love the child more than the mother, yet holds a mystery of her own.

The plot is slow. Definitely providing a thorough search of feelings and reactions.
Gave me a creepy feeling as I learned more about the mother. Hated to read, but had to.
I put the book down for awhile before starting again. Glad I finished it...although slow going for too long.

If you can plow, enjoy hard slogging, and aren't bored by a flat one-note tone when you read a book, then this one's for you. I know, it's all my fault, but I just didn't care about either of the novel's two voices -- master or servant -- the main characters who inhabit the novel but undergo no particular character development.

There's the genre's requisite Big Secret, which is the whole point of the story. No surprise here. Getting to its revelation was too tedious for me to give the book more than a skim and a scan after the first 50pp. Far too much telling and too little showing in this one. I'm no great fan of Gothic psycho-dramas, and this book reminded me why not.

A good historical novel set in Ireland of the mid 1800s and late 1960s narrated by two fascinating ladies...one the mistress of a grand estate and the other her servant. Since the author is Irish she might assume her readers are familiar with Irish history. I could have used a bit more explanation of some of the events talked about in the novel. Based on a true story.

The Butterfly Cabinet is a haunting story of families and the relationships therein. It is told in alternating chapters through the voices of two women--one the mistress of the castle, the other a servant in the castle. Secrets that were kept for years are shared in these pages. The reader is captivated with the telling of these tales. This is not a quick read for there are many things that are shared within the ideas that are set forth. This story is well worth reading.½

The Butterfly Cabinet is the debut novel from female Irish author, Bernie McGill. It's the weaving together of two stories. The first is the story of Harriet, lady of the house at Oranmore, which Harriet describes as follows:

"To me, it has always looked, and still looks, like a house playing at being a castle."

Harriet is the mother of many children however her hobby is collecting butterflies, which she studies, pins and preserves in her cabinet - after which the novel takes its name.

Maddie was a former nanny at Oranmore, and the reader meets her when she is ready to let go of a secret she's been holding onto for decades. She is talking with Anna, the last child she looked after - now married and expecting a child of her own.

McGill take us back to Dublin in the late 1890s to share Harriet's personal thoughts after the death of her daughter and what happens when she is found responsible. Chapters from Maddie's perspective take place in 1968.

This novel felt quite similar to Gillespie and I by Jane Harris, but unfortunately wasn't as good. I felt that the 'secret' or the climax that the novel was building towards wasn't as satisfying at the end as I was hoping it could have been.

In terms of character development, I was most interested in Harriet's character. She was not a natural mother, she had unusual thoughts on parenting, and this got her into trouble and ultimately a prison sentence. (This isn't a spoiler by the way, it's in the blurb).

Ultimately, the plot was there and it had potential to be so much more, but I was a little disappointed.

Told in two voices, this novel explores life in a wealthy and secretive Northern Irish family. The two voices are those of Harriet Ormond, mistress of Ormond Castle, and Maddie, one of her young servants. Harriet's portion of the book is a diary, written while its author was incarcerated for the murder of her daughter, Charlotte. Maddie's portion is told decades later, in old age, as she narrates her story to Harriet's great-niece Anna, who visits Maddie in the nursing home. Through the interwoven stories we learn what role each woman played in Charlotte's death. The picture that emerges of Harriet is one of a cold and misguided woman, more at home in nature, with the butterflies she collects, than she is at home with her family.

This is certainly an atmospheric noel, and the cold and draughty castle serves as a fine backdrop for this rather Gothic tale. McGill makes the reader feel the dankness of the prison and the shadowy alcoves of the castle. I did not much care for the format of Maddie's narrative. She tells her story to someone who is not really a character, and I found that Harriet's portion flowed much more smoothly. The ending offered some exciting twists and turns, but I still would like to be rid of the unseen Anna.

Bleh! I picked up in anticipation of a Gothic read. I loved the cover, turns out it was the best part of the book. The story is told in alternating chapters by Harriet, the lady of the house and Maddie the maid. By the time we meet Harriet, she is in prison for the murder of her daughter Charlotte. Harriet is real piece of work. She is kind of an Andrea Yates type character, too many kids, too soon, and she loses her mind. She was abused as a child, as told in a very nasty flashback with a corset and as a result she is quite the disciplinarian with her own children, right to the point of what we could call abuse today. One of her methods of discipline involved locking her daughter Charlotte in a wardrobe cabinet and it went awry and resulted in death hence her getting locked up in prison. The death probably could have been prevented if her milk toast husband ever stood up to her and defended the kids but he was a hands off with the parenting kind of dad. The servants and aunt did what they could but no one had the guts to tell Harriet to her face that she was an evil bitch. Maddie carries her own guilt about the death of Charlotte and that is the mystery part of the story revealed in the last pages. This was the weak part of the story in my opinion because at the rate Harriet was going, she was going to kill one of the kids sooner or later no matter what Maddie did or didn't do. This is a very depressing story based on a true event that happened near the author's home. I know a lot of people enjoyed this book, I'm just not one of them.

The Butterfly Cabinet tells the eerie tale of two different women and one horrible event that ties them together forever. Maddie McGlade is a former nanny that is just now sharing her secrets from the past and telling her story to an old family friend. Alongside Maddie's memories is the prison journal of her former employer Harriet, who was sent to prison for the murder of her four year old daughter. Both stories intertwine to create a mesmerizing tale that is both dark and haunting.

Wow! The author of this book created atmosphere in spades that allowed me to be pulled deep into the novel. The Butterfly Cabinet is one of those books that you go into from the beginning knowing that the ending can't be good, that bad things may happen, but yet you still want to read it. And the author creates such a rich atmosphere that I felt like I was part of the book...like I was in the prison walls with Harriet and in the old castle with Maddie. I loved the way that the two stories that the women shared (one in memories and the other through her journal) complemented each other and allowed for what really happened to four year old Charlotte to come out at the end. This book wasn't a page turner in the normal sense, but instead I was content to just take my time and allow the author to draw me along with the story that she was telling. It ended up being a solid read for me that had me thinking about it days after it ended. The characters really stuck with me long after I closed the pages of this book. This is an author that I want to read more of and I would definitely recommend!

Bottom Line: A haunting tale that drew me into its' pages!

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book for review from the publisher as part of a blog tour for Free Press Blog Tours.

I like Gothic; I like Victorian; I liked this novel.

Inspired by real events at Cromore House in the 1800's, where 3-year-old Mary Helen Montagu died, this tale is told through multiple POV's, the most prevalent being that of Maddie McGlade, now 92 years old and in a Northern Ireland nursing home, and the jail journals of Harriet Ormond, a casually cruel mother of a child that died while being punished for what Harriet perceived as bad behavior.

This will not be for everyone, but as the tale unfolds, it's sad and eerie all at once. I wondered why no one intervened - why no one stepped up to the plate to defend this little girl and her siblings. It's an all-too-real occurrence even now.

The writing itself is wonderful; some may find it a bit slow, but I think the pace was spot on, especially given the type of tale it is.

QUOTE (from a galley; may be different in final copy):

I felt sorry for the Mistress and I cried for her. I cried for her loss of Charlotte and her loss of the boys and her loss of the Master, and for the days she spent in prison and for the misery of her sad lonely life.

Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

What a haunting tale. This sad story is told in two voices; that of a nanny who used to work in the household and through the diaries of the mother of a child who died at the hands of her punishment. Harriet, the mother, is a woman who really never should have never had children and is married to man who is half a child himself. A product of their times, their status and their religion Harriet has a baby just about every year. She is shocked both that she enjoys what goes into creating the children and at their behavior. She wants them to be perfect. After a string of boys she has Charlotte who is completely contrary and does not behave as they boys have done.

The tale alternates between nanny Maddie's explanation in current times and the prison diaries that Harriet wrote after being convicted of causing Charlotte's death. Nanny Maddie is a soft and cuddly character and Harriet is cold and unforgiving. And yet Ms. McGill allows through her writing - even though I really didn't want it to happen - for a certain sympathy to arise for Harriet. I truly wanted to hate her but I couldn't. She had miserable parents and a husband who did nothing to help. He was afraid of her. She left me very conflicted. She was basically a serial child abuser! The writing is exceptional, the characters are fascinating. It's a book I will keep to read again. They are few and far between for me with all of the books that I read.

The Butterfly Cabinet is not a happy story but I find myself thinking about it even now - a week after I finished reading it. The characters stay with you. The ending is a perfect weaving together of past and present.

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