This book covers all of my favorite topics: the artistic process, social injustices, scandals and secrets, and the nature of living things.The book went on for exactly the right amount of time and ended satisfactorily.
It is set in the 1800s South Carolina after the civil war, pitting scientific observation against religious observances and pondering the nature of belief. The protagonist is an illustrator who is trying to survive off her one talent in the years following her father’s death. Her constant anxiety keeps her honest, which makes her a reliable narrator as she comes to understand the madness of both the world she inhabits and her unhinged employer. Reading this felt like being in a farmhouse with the windows open in the middle of July, hot and humid with a breeze coming through the window, right before a mosquito bites.
