After yet another accidental 4 or 5 week hiatus, I'm back with more recs! This week, I'm reccing historical fiction, namely adult fiction (young adult will come later, as may new adult). Some of these books may crossover with other genres (one of my favourite genres has to be historical mysteries), but they're all historical.
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Content Warnings: child deaths, child prostitution, death, violence
Synopsis: 1845. New York City forms its first police force. The great potato famine hits Ireland. These two seemingly disparate events will change New York City. Forever.
Timothy Wilde tends bar near the Exchange, fantasizing about the day he has enough money to win the girl of his dreams. But when his dreams literally incinerate in a fire devastating downtown Manhattan, he finds himself disfigured, unemployed, and homeless. His older brother obtains Timothy a job in the newly minted NYPD, but he is highly skeptical of this new "police force." And he is less than thrilled that his new beat is the notoriously down-and-out Sixth Ward - at the border of Five Points, the world's most notorious slum.
One night while making his rounds, Wilde literally runs into a little slip of a girl - a girl not more than ten years old - dashing through the dark in her nightshirt... covered head to toe in blood.
Timothy knows he should take the girl to the House of Refuge, yet he can't bring himself to abandon her. Instead, he takes her home, where she spins wild stories, claiming that dozens of bodies are buried in the forest north of 23rd Street. Timothy isn't sure whether to believe her or not, but, as the truth unfolds, the reluctant copper star finds himself engaged in a battle for justice that nearly costs him his brother, his romantic obsession, and his own life.
Comments: Do you like angsty familial relationships? Then this is a book for you. Quite honestly, the Wilde brothers are one of my favourite families, and also one of the families that causes me the most pain. And the historical setting is amazing too.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Content Warnings: racism, death
Synopsis: Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.
So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.
Comments: 1970s counts as historical, right? But anyway, this is one of my favourite books ever by one of my favourite authors. I initially rated it only 4 stars, but then I realised I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks after so upped the rating. I would also rec Celeste Ng's second book about as much.
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Content Warnings: murder, mentions of rape
Synopsis: Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.
Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.
Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?
Comments: Burial Rites is another one of those ones I read and was left thinking about for weeks. It's gorgeously written and properly evocative.
The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Synopsis: Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Instead, she wants to soar, and her sights are set on securing passage aboard the smuggler airship Midnight Robber. Her ticket: earning Captain Ann-Marie’s trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.
But Creeper keeps another secret close to heart--Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities concerning Creeper and Ann-Marie…
Comments: OK, this is a bit of a cheat because it's more like an alternative steampunk history, but it's so good I had to rec it. It's a really really good novella too (and basically a guide on how to write a good novella).
Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg
Content Warnings: death, violence, some gore
Synopsis: Jack Sheppard - a transgender carpenter's apprentice - has fled his master's house to become a notorious prison break artist, and Bess Munshi has escaped the draining of the fenlands to become a revolutionary mastermind. Together, they find themselves at the center of a web of corruption leading back to the dreaded Thief-Catcher General...
... Or so we are told in a mysterious manuscript unearthed by one Professor R. Voth. Voth traces the origins and authenticity of the manuscript as Jack and Bess trace the connections between the bowels of Newgate Prison and the dissection chambers of the Royal College, in a bawdy collision of a novel about gender, love, and liberation.
Comments: If you want to read a historical book with a trans main character (written by a trans author), where there's a happy ending, then this one's for you.
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