The Other Side of Mrs. Wood

by Lucy Barker

For fans of The Lost Apothecary or the Mermaid and Mrs Hancock , a deliciously atmospheric historical novel about the rivalry between two female mediums during Victorian London’s obsession with Spiritualism. Mrs. Violet Wood is London’s premier medium, a woman of supreme ambition whose and unique abilities have earned her the admiration and trust of London’s elite. Mrs. Wood is indeed a clever and gifted seer--her skill is unmatched in predicting exactly what her wealthy patrons want to hear from the beyond. But times are changing. First, a nosey newspaperman has begun working to expose false mediums across London. Many of Mrs. Wood’s friends—and, yes, some of her foes—have fallen to his merciless accusations. Worse yet, though Mrs. Wood’s monthly séance tables are still packed, she’s noticed that it’s been harder to snare coveted new patrons. There are rumors from America of mediums materializing full spirits. . . . How long will her audiences be content with quivering tables and candle theatrics? Then, at one of Mrs Wood’s routine gatherings, she hears that most horrifying of sounds—a yawn. When a sweet girl with an uncanny talent for the craft turns up at her door, Mrs. Wood decides that a protégé will be just the thing to spice up her brand. But is Emmie Finch indeed the naïve ingenue she appears? Or has Mrs. Wood’s own downfall come knocking at last?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Paranormal, Audiobook, Victorian

416 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2023

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spiritualism saturates Victorian literary culture, and not just through its most famous converts, such as Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the background for the obsession with ghost stories, and life after death - and this then is the backdrop to ‘The Other Side of Mrs Wood’.

It’s February 1873, - and a smart villa in Notting Hill, London, is the place where spiritualist medium Mrs Wood holds séances, in order to contact the dead for the benefit of her patrons who have lost a loved one. And as far as her patrons are concerned, she delivers what she promises, gives them the proof they are so desperate for, meaning she is held in the highest esteem by the great and the good in London’s wealthiest parlours.

When a young girl begins to stand outside Mrs Wood’s home, her curiosity gets the better of her and she demands to know why the girl is hanging around. It seems the girl, Emmie Finch wants to be a pupil of the great Mrs Wood, to learn how to be a respected medium of Mrs Wood’s calibre.

Mrs Wood spots a way of spicing up her séances and agrees with the girl’s pleading and takes her on as a pupil, but is that all that Emmie Finch is after or is there something more behind that sweet and innocent face?

Victorian London with its penchant for séances is brought deliciously to life, and the characters were strong and believable - this was a time when women normally relied on marrying well in order to be supported, but here we have mediums who went against convention and achieved financial independence. This together with a strong and atmospheric storyline, made altogether more interesting as it looks at the rivalry between mediums, made for a fascinating read.

*Thank you to Netgalley and 4th Estate and William Collins for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *

[Teres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy Barker’s debut novel deftly portrays Victorian-era London and its keen fascination with spiritualism, as even the most influential in society regularly consult with their personal mediums.

Celebrated spiritualist Violet Wood conducts lavish, albeit predictable, Grand Séances in her home as well as private sittings with some of her more wealthy patrons.

While Mrs. Wood lives in constant fear that journalist Mangus Clore, editor of the Spiritual Times, could soon expose her as a fraud, she doesn’t actually view herself as one.

Violet earnestly believes that she is using her, ahem, “skills” to bring comfort to other people with messages they long to hear from dearly departed loved ones who visit from beyond the grave — after all, “illusion is everything.”

Enter sixteen-year-old ingenue Emmeline Finch with an uncanny ability to conjure spirits, who begs to become Mrs. Woods’ protégé.

It isn’t long before her wily young apprentice begins to, gasp, steal the spotlight.

The dynamic duo then vie for the starring role on the Victorian séance scene. What ensues is great fun as both of these women have more than a few parlor tricks up their sleeves!

Blow out the candles. The séance is about to begin... 

[Wendy Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Competitive mediums in Victorian London! With shades of All About Eve and The Prestige. I enjoyed this, and how it ended, but I think another pass would have made this stronger. There are nods to female competition and ageism, but I wanted to feel the shock of betrayal, loneliness, and the desperate need to make your living in a patriarchal society. And even though we know they are not true conduits to the other world but conniving, ambitious mediums, a little eeriness wouldn't have hurt, either.

I would definitely read another one of this author's books, though, particularly since this was a debut. While I wanted deeper characterization and themes explored, and perhaps a touch more emphatic plotting as well, much of it was very well-written. I often tire of the inclusion of letters or articles in books, even though they are common in period literature from this time, but they were skillfully done here--motivation revealed with polite but barbed words, cloaked in flattery and social graces. It also feels appropriately steeped in Victorian manners, though the claims of "witty" and "atmospheric" aren't really the words I'd use to describe this.

Audio Notes: Tracy-Ann Oberman does a nice job with the narration, particularly with a variety of arch society voices and gradually building up tension during seances and other charged moments. My only quibble was her voice for Emmie Finch--it was so simpering and uncertain, it seemed unbelievable that the sharp Mrs. Woods wouldn't have caught on to her schemes sooner.

If you want the no-shit, deeply researched and deeply felt version of this type of story, Sarah Waters' Affinity and The Little Stranger will creep you the fuck out and move you unbearably all at once.

[K.J. Charles]

Victorian mediums, a subject I love, but it's told very slowly and we don't seem to be confronting the staggering dishonesty and cruelty of the mediums at all. DNF at 40% because I needed more teeth.

[Daria Tyuneva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the premise – a Medium in Victorian London – definitely something a little different! However, the novel unfortunately just didn’t do it for me. It was so flat and dull in places I am quite surprised I have finished it. I was waiting for something to unfold but it was a rather pedestrian competition between two mediums. I enjoyed the parts about seances and “behind-the-scenes” but I would have loved more detail about the nuances of what’s gone into them rather than just hints here and there. The part that left me most wanting is the whole conflict between Miss Finch and Mrs Wood – it just felt a bit bland and very anticlimactic. There was too much “nothingness” in the book where it felt like it was just padding the word count. It felt like it could have been a great story but just fell a little short.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before starting this book, I already had a strong penchant for novels centred around Victorian spiritualism and this is one of the best I’ve read! The book follows the ups and downs in Spiritualists’ lives. The author succeeds in setting the scene through a thorough knowledge of the practises at the time. The period in which this story is set is a time of campaigning for female suffrage and this is touched on too. I really loved this book! Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

[Kayleigh | Welsh Book Fairy · Rating 3 out of 5]

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Other Side of Mrs Wood
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Lucy Barker
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Historical Fiction
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 22nd June 2023
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 28th May 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 3.25/5

I really loved the premise of this novel; two female rival spiritualist mediums fight it out for the best patronage in Victorian London. However, I think my trouble with enjoying this book stems from the characterization of the main character and the pacing of the story.

It wasn’t until the halfway mark for me that I was able to become fully immersed in this story. The first half seemed really slow and I was procrastinating picking the book up again until it hit around the 60% mark when the stakes were peaking and the secrets were beginning to stack and I was fully transported to the wonderful setting the author had carefully curated.

Seriously, I have to say that the setting and the research into this time period of fanciful ghost stories was absolutely spot on.

I sincerely wish I liked Mrs Wood more, I really did want to invest myself in her wins and losses but to be honest, I hated the way she treated those around her. Whether this was intentional by the author or not, I’m not sure. However, she was constantly putting down Miss Newman’s suffragette work and putting her own needs above others. I can’t say much more without spoilers, I simply regret not being able to see The Nice Side of Mrs Wood.

—Kayleigh🤍
@ Welsh Book Fairy🧚‍♀️✨

♡Booksta
♡Twitter

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and fluent but won't answer most of your (or mine, anyway) questions about the Victorian passion for mediums. The hows and the whys of mediumship and the public's suspension of disbelief are only glanced at, while we spend a long time unraveling the rivalry between an older medium, who is by turns frustratingly credulous and annoyingly selfish, and her younger manipulative protege. The story is told entirely from the older woman’s perspective - would have been fun to get a glimpse into the inner workings of her scheming younger rival.

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is anybody there?

Mrs Wood has been London’s top medium for a long time – too long, perhaps, for a world that craves novelty more than anything else. Rumours are coming from across the Atlantic that American mediums are on the point of producing the first fully materialised spirit and London is wondering why they should have all the fun. Mrs Wood feels she must spice up her performances, and just at this moment Miss Finch arrives – a young girl who is desperate to become a medium and who seems to hero worship Mrs Wood. So Mrs Wood takes her on as a trainee, and Miss Finch quickly shows huge talent. But Mrs Wood soon realises that Miss Finch’s ambition is huge too – how long will she be willing to stand in Mrs Wood’s shadow?

I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about this one that made it such a dull read. The idea of competing mediums sounds like fun, the writing is fine and Mrs Wood is an appealing character. And yet somehow the book seems to just trundle along, never really getting out of second gear. I think there’s just not enough story in the story, if you take my meaning. At first the details about a medium’s life at that time are quite interesting, but every séance is the same – same tricks, same atmosphere, usually the same people. Mrs Wood’s musings about Miss Finch are repeated again and again too – it’s quite hard to believe that a woman as successful at fraud as Mrs Wood could also be quite so naive and trusting of someone she knows nothing about.

By the 40% mark I was pretty much done. I felt it was obvious where the story was going and the journey had lost all interest. I flicked forward and read the last 10% to see if I had misjudged it, and there would be something unexpected that would make it worthwhile, but I’m afraid the story played out exactly as I had anticipated almost from the beginning.

Perhaps it just needed a stronger editor to insist that it should have been a much shorter book. Or perhaps an injection of humour or tragedy would have livened the tone. Or perhaps it’s simply a mismatch between book and reader – I don’t know, but whatever the problem is, sadly it didn’t work for me.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, 4th Estate via NetGalley.

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[ClaireJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a must read for me, I love books based around seances. I had fun being swept into the Victorian world and the wonder people had around spiritualism. You meet the wonderful mystic that is Mrs Wood who you will be rooting for throughout the book. What a fantastic character she was! She is the go to for the richer ladies to visit to take part in seances. That is until a younger woman who Mrs Wood trains up goes into competition with her and betrays her by discovering some of her secrets.

Although the plot is surrounding mediumship, it is not scary or unsettling. It is all written in a way that at times is quite amusing with a slight tension in the air. At times I was wondering what was real or what was fake. It kept me guessing!

The tone of the book comes across quite witty, but it also delves into topics such as the lives of women at that time and how they had limited opportunities. The women’s suffrage and other feminist themes are put into the spotlight.

The Other Side of Mrs Wood is a highly compelling and charming novel that takes you into the world of Victorian mediums and the mischief they got up to.

[Rebecca]

I read the first 82 pages. This was capable hist fic but without the spark that would have kept me interested.

[June Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mrs Violet Wood, celebrated Medium, has London’s high society at her feet with her wonderful talent of being able to contact the spirits. When she is informed, by her ardent admirer, Mr Larson, that her finances are not what they were, and feeling that her clients are getting a little bored, Mrs Wood realises that it’s time to do something different. With her future in mind, Mrs Wood takes on a pupil, Miss Emmeline Finch, who has been appearing at various venues, much in the way a stalker might. Not taking this as in any way ominous, Mrs Wood thinks this is the way forward, despite those close to her asking if she is sure and does she know anything about “the girl”? It appears that Mrs Wood has made the right decision when Miss Finch becomes a much sought after addition to the Circle and it’s acolytes.


This is a story of Victorian life, and its obsession with the Spiritual world. It took quite a while to get going (around 30% I thought it was going to be a DNF), but I did get to the end. It was a slow, flat book with little action. The deviousness and cunning of Mrs Wood’s “day job”, was strangely at odds with her naivety when it came to taking a stalker in off the street to train her up.

Billed as ‘The irresistible historical comedy about two rival mediums in Victorian London’, I was looking forward to more than this, and the only comedy appeared to be provided by Eliza.

2.5* upped to 3*

Thank you NetGalley.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge historical fiction fan. I had very high hopes of this debut novel as I’d already heard great things and it did not disappoint!

Mrs Wood is a well respected Medium, so it would make sense that anyone new to the scene would want to seek her tutorship. And in comes Miss Finch, a girl noone has ever heard of, asking Mrs Wood to help her become just like Mrs Wood. But is Miss Finch the sweet, innocent young girl she portrays, or is there a more sinister reason for her request?

I absolutely loved this book. It is superbly written - if you didn’t know, you’d never guess it was a debut. It flows expertly. The characters are great - I especially loved Miss Newman (Mrs Wood’s sidekick & confidante). It is also brilliantly atmospheric of Victoria London. Highly recommended!

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs Wood is the most successful medium in Victorian London. Together with her assistant, Miss Newman, she hosts spectacular séances that have made her the talk of the town and brought the rich and famous to her door requesting private consultations. Of course, Mrs Wood can’t really communicate with spirits, but she doesn’t feel too guilty about what she’s doing – after all, a widow has to make a living somehow and this is the work she’s been raised to do. Recently, however, things have started going wrong. There are reports from America of mediums promising to materialise full spirits and although Mrs Wood disapproves of such things, she worries that her own more traditional shows are losing their spark. When she hears the unmistakable sound of a yawn during one of her séances, she knows she has to take action.

The answer to Mrs Wood’s problems arrives in the form of sixteen-year-old Emmie Finch, who wants nothing more than to become a medium. Impressed by the girl’s talent and enthusiasm, Mrs Wood agrees to take her on as an apprentice. Miss Finch is an instant hit with Mrs Wood’s friends and clients, but is she really the sweet, innocent young woman she appears to be or has Mrs Wood made a big mistake?

The Other Side of Mrs Wood is Lucy Barker’s debut novel and a very enjoyable one! It took me a few chapters to get into the story as the beginning was quite slow, but by the middle of the book I had been completely drawn in. At first I wasn’t sure whether I liked Mrs Wood, but I quickly warmed to her. It was nice to have an older, more mature heroine, who at nearly forty is starting to worry about greying hair and aching bones, has already been married and divorced before the story begins and is devoting herself to her career rather than looking for romance. The beautiful young Emmie Finch, on the other hand, is portrayed as the novel’s villain, but whether she really is trying to cause trouble or whether it’s all in Mrs Wood’s mind is something you’ll have to read the book to find out!

Apart from a subplot featuring Mrs Wood’s assistant Miss Newman, who is involved in the early women’s rights movement, this is not really a book that tackles a lot of deep issues and I enjoyed it primarily for its entertainment value. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a silly, frothy book in any way – it’s well written, evocative of the Victorian era, and I learned a huge amount about the 19th century fascination with spiritualism. It was interesting to read about the techniques used by mediums to produce dramatic effects, the etiquette of hosting a meeting of the Circle, and the preparations that go into holding a grand séance. What I found particularly intriguing was that although Mrs Wood, like her rival mediums, lives in fear of being caught out and exposed, she doesn’t actually view herself as a fraud or a con artist. She believes she is using her skills to bring comfort to other people and although she has no qualms over using trickery to ‘apport’ (transport using spiritual means) small objects and even herself, she feels that materialising full spirits is a step too far!

The Other Side of Mrs Wood was fun to read (except when I became infuriated by the actions of certain characters!) but I can’t agree with the publisher’s description of the book as an ‘irresistible historical comedy’. It was amusing in places but not particularly funny and definitely not what I would call a comedy. Misleading description aside, it’s an impressive first novel with a great twist at the end and I’m already looking forward to Lucy Barker’s next book.

[Maria Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All about Eve" meets Victorian London Spiritualism in this thoroughly enjoyable tale. Well written and researched with some great characters. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: lying, blood, grief, toxic friendship, alcoholism

3.5 stars

This started off really well. It was compelling and just plain fun and I could absolutely see it being turned into a Dickensian BBC series. And then somewhere along the way, I got bored. I'm not convinced it needed to be as long as it was, and I was hoping deep down that it would be less straight up historical fiction and more Sarah Waters-esque.

Don't get me wrong, I did really love the way the story played out in the end, especially getting to see behind the curtain of the seances (so to speak). But the pace plodded far more than I would have liked, and ultimately I liked it but I didn't love it.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using two Victoria era mediums and their rivalry as inspiration, Lucy Barker tells a compelling tale of two con artists, I mean spiritualists, whose relationship highlights the financial precariousness of single women at the time, and the growing fight for independence championed by suffragettes.

The elder of the two primary characters, Mrs. Violet Wood, is a respected medium, and has many clients among the nobility, but dreads the day when her seances will be seen as boring. Already, she's finding it harder to get new clients and patrons, and when some of her financial investments fail, she knows she needs to do something fast, and radical, to maintain her status as one of London's preeminent spiritualists, while maintaining a fashionable home and sustaining the livelihoods of herself and her staff.

When she sees a young promising woman, Violet takes on Miss Emmeline Finch as her protégé, and gradually trains her up, and begins introducing her to her clientele, all of whom are taken with the young woman's skills. And though Violet's partner and best friend Miss Sarah Newsome warns her against the young woman, Violet hears none of this, and only wants Emmy to succeed.

And then, not only is Mrs. Wood betrayed, but she's also blackmailed, and is shocked that despite her smarts, and all her experience as a businesswoman after years under her mother’s tutelage (her clever and hardhearted mother was also a medium but was proven a fraud years earlier), Mrs. Wood was taken in.

This was great. Lucy Barker provides us with enough clues to deduce there’s something off with the almost preternaturally competent student, and we see Mrs. Wood’s desperation blinding her to all the signs. She’s not naïve (her mother ensured that), but her frustration with her clients’ constant need for more and newer propels Violet to not think things through before taking on the ingenue, and pushing away everyone in her life who actually cares about her.

Emmeline is fascinating, a genuinely talented person, but I heard warning bells as soon as she appeared. Barker does draw a wonderful portrait of ambitious, driven people in the two women, though it’s clear that Mrs. Wood sees her work as a way to provide succour for her clients’ grief and pain, which illuminates the difference between the two mediums intentions.

I really enjoyed this book, and loved how Mrs. Wood made mistake after mistake due to her fears, but wasn’t too far gone to apologize and rebuild her life. Her journey is so well handled, and I look forward to reading more by this author.

[Rosh (on a medical break) · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: A historical fiction about the rivalry between two mediums. Interesting characters. Excellent look at the prevalent obsession with spiritualism and seances in 1870s England. Great atmosphere. Slow pacing. Somewhat predictable plot. Goes a bit downhill in the second half. Inspired by real events. A good debut that could have been better but still entertains.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Plot Preview:

1873. England. Mrs. Violet Wood, who is in her late thirties, is the most successful medium in London at present. Ambitious and diligent, she does her best to ensure that her patrons get the complete experience from her seances. She is aware of the fickleness of their nature, always wanting something newer and more exciting. Moreover, a newspaperman who specialises in spiritualist content is out to expose all fake mediums in order to retain the sanctity of spiritualism. This, combined with her increasing age and her dwindling savings, forces Mrs. Wood to take bigger risks. And one such risk is investing in the training of a poor but promising young girl named Emmeline Finch who appears to have a knack for spiritualism. Can training a new medium in such competitive times work for or against Mrs. Wood?
The story comes to us in the third-person perspective of Violet Wood.

Bookish Yays:
👻 Mrs. Violet Wood. She’s not likeable in every way but not unlikeable as well. I liked her complex personality, especially how she held herself against a different standard from the rest.

👻 The depiction of how our insecurities interfere with common sense. The characters constantly follow their impulse and think only of the short-term situation, which isn't always a great thing.

👻 The sketching of spiritualism and its components, not just the actual seances but also the behind-the-scenes info about what went into the seances. I like how the writing doesn’t make any immediate declarations, leaving it for us to discover whether each medium is genuine or not.

👻 The rest of the female characters: Mrs. Wood’s competent assistant Miss Sarah Newman, her snarky cook Emily, the various high-society patrons of the seances, and of course, the competitive young Miss Emmeline Finch. All comes in varied shades of human. I especially liked Sarah and Emily.

👻 The interludes containing letters and newspaper articles. A great way of letting us know the prevalent hot topic in Mrs. Wood’s world.

👻 The portrayal of historical Victorian London, highlighting not just the era’s fascination with spiritualism but also the lifestyle of the rich and the plight of the women. The plot includes quite a few good topics connected to women such as the compulsion towards marriage, the attitude against spinsters, women’s suffrage, and ageism.

👻 The undertone of humour, which is especially strong in the first half. The characters aren’t laughing, but we definitely feel like laughing at them.

👻 The author’s note. Very interesting! I like how she wrote an entire novel from the squabble between two actual mediums in Victorian England, even if the story is entirely different.


Bookish Okays:
🕯 The male characters are relatively drab and one-noted, which is often the case in women-oriented historical fiction. I wish the men had more depth to create a greater realism. Only Mr. Claw the slick newspaperman had some potential.

🕯 The predictability, not just in terms of how the rivalry proceeds but also in terms of how it will end, is somewhat disappointing. While I did enjoy the basic storyline, I wish it had gone a little beyond in making me feel invested.

🕯 The pacing is mostly slow, which was okay for me as the story felt more character-driven. However, the middle doesn’t just drag but also becomes repetitive.

🕯 The repeated references to Mrs. Wood’s age (along with the style of calling her ‘Mrs. Wood” for most of the story) makes it tough to remember that she is only thirty-nine. While the ageism is possibly true to the era, I wish it had been a little subtler. Similarly, the repeated use of the “Mrs. Wood” and “Miss Newman” and “Miss Finch” becomes somewhat tedious after a while, even if that was the social norm. Surely those who were close to each other used first names!


Bookish Nays:
☠ The last one-third or so goes overly dramatic. Until then, the book was still a good read for me, but the unrealistic self-sabotaging behaviour in several scenes affected my satisfaction.

☠ The epilogue. Unnecessary and disappointing.


🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 11 hrs 8 min, is narrated by Tracy-Ann Oberman. She does an excellent job, imbuing each character with such a perfect voice and accent that it felt as good as a multi-narrator book. It was very easy to keep all people and their behaviour straight in our heads thanks to her commendable voice performance. I’d definitely recommend the audio version. Though there are many characters, it is easy to keep track of the story, so it ought to work for audio newbies as well.


Overall, I did like most of this novel, even though the predictability and the lacklustre finale were disappointing. The look it offered at seances and spiritualism was its most interesting appeal. Given the nature of the characters and the drama inherent in the story, this would make a great TV series.

Recommended to historical fiction fans who enjoy reading morally complex characters and don’t mind slow or predictable plots.

3.5 stars, rounding down for the weak final section.


My thanks to HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing the DRC of “The Other Side of Mrs. Wood” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I follow the Goodreads rating policy:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Lifelong favourite!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I loved the book.
⭐⭐⭐ - I liked the book.
⭐⭐ - I found the book average.
⭐ - I hated the book.
The decimals indicate the degree of the in-between feelings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
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[Lara A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs Wood is a successful medium in Victorian London, but staying at the top isn't easy. When she hears the yawning sound all mediums dread, she decides it might be time for some fresh blood. Novelty however, can be a very double-edged sword.

This isn't a thriller, but I felt surprisingly tense reading it as I so cared for Mrs Wood, even as she wasn't exactly helping herself with some of her actions. I can't say there were any great twists to the story, but the world of Mrs Woods is an engaging one and this was a very satisfying read. Overall, a really promising debut and I shall be looking out for more from Ms Barker in the future.

Update: I've upped the rating of this book to five stars, because it's now January 2024 and I still can't stop thinking about this book.

[Krista Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this initially expecting a fun and whimsical rivalry, excited by the setting and promise for competition. Overall, many of the plot points either felt underbaked or entirely flat, disappointing the potential that the premise had set up. I found the “rivalry” to be practically nonexistent, with descriptions being dull and fluff without substance. Despite a slow start, I had thought that it would begin to pick up as the conflict was introduced, but it instead devolved into much of the same. It was an easy read, which I appreciated, so I wasn’t tempted to stop, but the filler included did hurry my speed reading along as I scoured for the intrigue that I had hoped would come. Perhaps my expectations for the plot had been misplaced, leading to a let down, as there are probably some who would enjoy a laid back read, but I personally would not read this again.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

***I received a free copy via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for a honest review. It is an paperback ARC copy***

This was a dreadfully painful experience. More of a 1/1.5 star but I rounded up, mostly due to the purple cover that originally caught my eye.

I do truly adore the cover but that is where the adoration ends. This was a stifling yawn of a novel.

Are we suppose to care about the drab Ms. Woods, or her boring, transparent pupil, Ms. Finch? Were we to pick sides and root for our favorite? If that was the expectation, then the book failed because I did not care, one lick about one or the other. Terrible women, the whole lot.

It was hard to picture "Ms Wood" as anything but a cranky OLD lady. I mean, 60+. A slightly easier task with "Ms Finch" since she was CONSTANTLY referred to as "the girl". Perhaps it was the continuous formal titles, or the lack of any true description that made it a difficult task to see any of the characters as less than decrepit old bats.

Nothing really happens during the span of 380+ pages. Lots of the same minor descriptives, abuse of the same sentences/words and nothing of depth. Surely the world had more words from that era that could have been used to add some flourish or something of interest. Instead, we get a high school level essay turned book. A repetitive droning brick that begs for a re-edit, or a possible re-write.

I was bored. Every day, on my lunch break for almost a week, I was bored by this. I clung to a false hope that something interesting would happen so that I could get invested but that never occured as I experienced deja vu each time. Ms. Wood complained about her old body, her cold house and her clients, as well as her new star student, while Emmie, unconvincingly, played a demure, hapless girl in need of mentoring, showing her true colors at every turn. Seances occured, with the same sad stories and bickering on an endless loop, before the story finally decided to move forward and end.

Ms. Wood "endured" Eliza? More like the readers had to endure Ms. Wood and her pointless story that had no real beginning nor ending.

What should have been an intriguing tale of "what is real?/who is the white hat?" never had the chance to exist under the monotone style of writing with such feeble characters.

This is one of those books that will get turned into a great tv show/movie that will have new eyes wondering how such a great series sprang forth from such lackluster source material.

Hopefully, the next owner of this donated book will love it more it deserves.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Career opportunities for a widow of limited means were not great in Victorian England and Mrs Wood has found herself achieving far more than her poor childhood might have led her to expect. Via an abusive husband, a controlling but talented mother, and a dedication to the maintenance of 'illusion', she has become one of the most celebrated mediums in London. All this at a time when mediums were kind of the rock stars of their day.

People wanted to believe they could connect to their dead relatives and friends and those who could help them to do so were very well rewarded. Mrs Wood appears to have it made.

And then, up pop a young girl who wants to learn from her.

Worried that her place at the top of the medium tree could be at risk, she decides that taking on an apprentice might help to keep her craft fresh. The girl - Miss Finch - isn't entirely as controllable as Mrs Wood had hoped.

Very little happens in this book that isn't well-signposted a long time in advance. It's not an unusual story in its plot, but setting it in the murky world of mediumship is interesting. We can assume that all of the women in this field are charlatans but some of them are better at hiding their fraud than others and all live in fear of being uncovered.

Can Mrs Wood fight back against the devices and schemes of her protege and protect her position in society?

The book picks up in the second half. The first half feels as if it contains way more seances than are really necessary to establish the plot. It's more plod than plot. But once Miss Finch reveals her true colours it gets a lot more interesting.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Call this a strong 3.5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the historical setting, but I think the author channels a bit too much of the Victorian age in her writing, resulting a story that feels like it's a bit too drawn out in the middle. The concise/straightforward storytelling I enjoy the most is definitely not on the same level as rich, purple-prosed Victorian storytelling.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

All About Eve but with mediums.

[Marguerite Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs Wood is one of Victorian society's most popular mediums, but her star is beginning to fade. When a beautiful young woman with a similar talent approaches her, wishing to become her pupil, Mrs Wood sees Emmie as just what she needs to boost her own reputation. Emmie however, is not what she seems and very quickly makes it clear that she's not going to be happy for long in Mrs Woods' shadow.

This is a story based on the real rivalry between mediums at a time when seances, apporting, levitation and materialisations were at their height (and coincidentally, this is something I'm reading about for my own research at the moment, in Medical Medlars, Mediums and Magicians). The vast majority of those who claimed to be able to get in touch with the spirits were proved to be frauds. From the first, it's pretty clear that Mrs Wood is one of them, but her desire to do good, to provide solace and not to harm, in her own mind, make her valid. She is aided and abetted by her long-time friend and companion Sarah, but Sarah is spending more and more time supporting the cause of women's suffrage - and to Mrs Wood's horror, Sarah is also being courted. What follows is a battle between Mrs Wood and Emmie for supremacy and power - and income.

This is a really entertaining, sad, pathetic and fun story. But it's much more than that. At the heart of it, it's about the very limited power women had in Victorian society, and what they had to do to survive. It's about women who make their own living without men, yet who have to pander to the men in power - journalists in this case, and the men who are in charge of the main spiritualist publications, who ultimately dictate who is 'in' and who is 'out'. Emmie is in, not least because she's young, pretty, and willing to exchange sexual favours for power. Mrs Wood is out because she's aging, because she's only willing to go so far in propping up a man's ego. And sadly, for much of the book, the three central female characters are fighting each other rather than fighting the men. Ironically, most of their clients are women too - though the women can only afford their private seances by turning to their husbands for money. Power again. Money is power. Women didn't have much of it. What is wrong with a medium faking it, if it means she can survive? The central question in the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It's given me a lot to think about. But don't get me wrong, it's political, yes, but not in a heavy-handed way. It's a great story with some fabulous characters. I'll be looking for more from this author.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A charming and unique take on the Spiritualism craze that focuses on an intense rivalry between a medium and her former protégé.

Despite being a lower stakes sort of plot than many focused on this topic, the book is nonetheless riveting, and though no one is being murdered or terrorized by malevolent spirits, the intriguing nature of the story keeps the anticipation high and the reader experience propulsive.

The writing too is a cut above most books of this sort (please, please ignore the comps to books like The Lost Apothecary. This is much better writing and far more unique in plot). I loved the immersive quality of Barker’s prose, and her ability to build atmosphere both in terms of the historical setting and the macabre ambiance of a seance proves excellent as well.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Diane Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun read! Set in 1800s London, The Other Side of Mrs. Wood dives into the world of séances, social climbing, and petty revenge—all wrapped in sharp wit and satire. I found myself laughing out loud more than once. The character development is fantastic, especially as rivalries heat up in the high-stakes world of spiritualism. A clever, entertaining story that doesn’t take itself too seriously but still delivers a satisfying plot. Perfect if you love historical fiction with a humorous twist.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25🌟

[Alli L · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book got good like 65% of the way in and then got bad again 85% of the way in so net 20% good

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time finishing this book. I found it drawn out and boring.