European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman (2018)
Written by: Theodora Goss
Series: The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club #2
Genre: Fantasy/Gothic Horror
Pages: 720 (kindle)
Publisher: Saga Press
Why I Chose This: My 2019 Resolution Project is to tackle three super-sized sequels to books that I really enjoyed. European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman is the second of those three books.
The Premise: In the sequel to the critically acclaimed The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Mary Jekyll and the rest of the daughters of literature’s mad scientists embark on a madcap adventure across Europe to rescue another monstrous girl and stop the Alchemical Society’s nefarious plans once and for all.
Mary Jekyll’s life has been peaceful since she helped Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solve the Whitechapel Murders. Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, Justine Frankenstein, and Mary’s sister Diana Hyde have settled into the Jekyll household in London, and although they sometimes quarrel, the members of the Athena Club get along as well as any five young women with very different personalities. At least they can always rely on Mrs. Poole.
But when Mary receives a telegram that Lucinda Van Helsing has been kidnapped, the Athena Club must travel to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to rescue yet another young woman who has been subjected to horrific experimentation. Where is Lucinda, and what has Professor Van Helsing been doing to his daughter? Can Mary, Diana, Beatrice, and Justine reach her in time?
Racing against the clock to save Lucinda from certain doom, the Athena Club embarks on a madcap journey across Europe. From Paris to Vienna to Budapest, Mary and her friends must make new allies, face old enemies, and finally confront the fearsome, secretive Alchemical Society. It’s time for these monstrous gentlewomen to overcome the past and create their own destinies.
This discussion is spoiler-free
If you were to ask me, after reading The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, about the biggest strength of The Athena Club Series, my answer would be how the books are able to reinvent classic horror and mystery novels. Now that I’ve read the second book in the trilogy, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, I can honestly say that its biggest strength are the characters themselves.
From steady and practical Mary Jekyll to the passionate and unruly Diana Hyde, all the characters of The Athena Club have strong, distinct personalities and voices. One of the biggest joys of the series is getting to see them interact, and how their perspectives contrast with one another. And this is something that European Travel allows in spades. From Mary’s discoveries about her true origins, to Beatrice’s yearning to (and fearing) falling in love again, we get to see many of the characters struggle with their more “monstrous” natures and wonder what this will mean for their futures.
Unfortunately, ones of the weaknesses of European Travel for Monstrous Gentlewoman is the fact that with these many character journeys, combined with a plot to rescue Lucinda Van Helsing and plenty of references to Sherlock Holmes, Carmilla and Dracula among other classic books, there’s a lot going on here. In fact, I would argue too much. From the beginnings of the novel when are heroines are separated (meaning the book features dual story lines) to the end where everyone is reunited, there’s no denying that there are points where European Travel can really drag, making me constantly wonder if it really needed to be in excess of seven hundred pages.
In addition, European Travel draws from one of my favorite books of all time, and that isn’t always a good thing. The Athena Club books have always taken fresh, often feminist perspectives on classic works. With Dracula, sometimes this worked well for me, while other times I found myself a little too attached to the original characters to be comfortable with the directions that Goss chose for them.
In Conclusion: There’s no denying that I took some issues with European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, and as a result didn’t enjoy the second Athena Club book as much as I did the first. At the same time, I am glad that I chose to continue this series. The characters are so lovable, and the Victorian setting is so well realized, that I still found plenty to enjoy in this monstrously large novel. I plan on continuing this series once I can get my hands on the third book, The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl, set to be published in October.
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