Review: Beauty in Thorns

Beauty in Thorns by Kate Forsyth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions that started strong but ended a little weakly.

It's another book where the blurb tells the whole story, which is frustrating but understandable when there's no real beginning, middle, or end. It's a fictional account of real lives, which I suppose makes it a little harder to form into a concise narrative.

So what's it about?

Painters. Poets. Artists. The women they surround themselves with. And all the drama that weaves their lives together.

Ned Jones - kind-hearted, soft. In love with Georgie since they were children.
William 'Topsy' Morris - a gentle soul with a fierce temper, always the butt of the joke. Falls head over heels for Janey, a girl from the slums.
Gabriel Dante Rosetti - charismatic and fun, playful and romantic. Enamoured by his model, Lizzie.

This novel tells of their lives, their loves, their scandals. Other characters come and go, but the relationships between these six form the backbone of the novel.

Gabriel was the real draw for me, as well as Lizzie, to a degree. He's charming and eccentric, and he's clearly the most talented of them all. I love that his art was so effortless, although so many times I hated his behaviours. I couldn't get a read on him, but I really enjoyed reading about him. I found him to be a fascinating character. His romance with Lizzie was such a colourful part of this story and I was so invested in it without really knowing what exactly I was rooting for.

Topsy seemed like such a sweet fellow, but his violent rages made me less inclined to support him. Whereas Ned seemed the kindest of them all so I took to him immediately. He and Georgie just seemed so perfect.

It's hard to properly rate this one, I think, because it's based on real people and real events, but I didn't like the way so much of it played out. I could never get a proper read on these people and what was driving them, but how can I criticise the author for that?! I think she's done a brilliant job in making me feel compassion for so many of these characters when they had such sordid behaviours.

The research into the subject material is clearly extensive, so if you want to learn more about these characters from history, this novel is a great way to do so. I really enjoyed looking them all up and finding the paintings mentioned, and seeing the real work of these artists. They were certainly a talented bunch.

As far as the story itself goes, though, I mostly enjoyed it but by the last third I found it a little slow and tedious. I felt the ending was drawn out rather long and the whole Sleeping Beauty theme seemed a little stretched to me. I thought the entire last section was a little pointless, despite it focusing on arguably the greatest series of work of Ned's life. I just didn't really care about his life, by that stage.

The character study is really interesting, but the scandals all feel a little watered down which left the story feeling a bit weak. It was drawn out a little too long, and I wanted more Gabriel. However the author has done a magnificent job in bringing it all together, so if you're interested in the historically accurate lives of these people, I highly recommend it.

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