The Ghost and the Machine

by Benny Lawrence

It’s 1838, and Europe is obsessed with mechanical contraptions, and the Rajah is the height of entertainment as the ultimate chess-playing machine. Kit has toured with the Rajah since the age of ten and knows the secret behind the machine all too well . . . just as she knows that people would rather be fooled than have their illusions stripped away. An eccentric Countess summons the Rajah to her manor house in Vienna for a private engagement. There, Kit meets the inquisitive Eleanor, who tests Kit’s ability to tell the difference between truth and illusion . . . Or is it all just another game of chess?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Lesbian, Historical, LGBT, Dark

230 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2012

About the author

Benny Lawrence was not born, but created in a freak accident involving a Hadron supercollider, a plaid raincoat, an original edition of C.W. Ceram's Gods, Graves, and Scholars, and a nice hot cup of tea. She now roams the streets of Toronto by night, fighting the forces of evil by correcting their grammar until they scream and implode. In her spare time, she writes books. She sometimes wears hats, too.

She is also a lawyer. We don't talk about that.

Her superpowers are all crayon-related.

Reviews

[Corrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so this book happened and it’s one of the kind where you begin to read, realize it is going to be very intense, you take a deep breath, hold it, and only exhale when you’ve reached the last page. Holy smokes. Benny Lawrence really produced a brilliant book.

The Ghost and the Machine is dark and triggering (so read Heather Jones’ review because she explains it so well and she writes much better than I do, so there).

The book consumed me totally, I just had to keep reading. There are fantastic twists and turns I did not anticipate. I can’t say much about the book less I spoil something. Read the blurb, read Heather’s review and make up your mind. I think it's utterly fantastic. No need to worry if you can’t play chess, I can’t and I still enjoyed every bit of it. A sublime book that will put your emotions through the wringer.

f/f all players are women but be aware that this is NOT a romance

Themes: mental, physical and sexual abuse, agoraphobia, alcoholism, Stockholm syndrome, automaton, chess.

5 Stars

[Farah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Corrie's review for The Ghost and The Machine but a book centering on chess? Chess... Chess... But I remember loving Tracey Whitney when she kicked the chess prodigies' butts + this book made to Corrie's Best of 2O19 + how indebted I am to her for the awesome Moira Quirk, so here I am. Terima kasih, Corrie:]

The Ghost and The Machine is every single thing that I love about dark, twisted, mystery and suspenseful books. I purposefully waited 24 hours to write this poc to spare everyone from verbal diarrhea of fangirling. Even more so, I'm treading lightly here as this book should be experienced as blind as a bat?

Benny Lawrence has a poetic yet humorous writing style that engrossed me from the start. Not over the top, coupled with thorough characters' developments, and depth of story, . It's truly a book to get lost in...lost in the world of her characters, lost in this more than 64 squares chessboard because of the well developed/complex plot that filled with many interesting turns and revelations.

What is this book about? An Automaton Chess Player - A FAKE chess-playing machine and yes, The Best Lead in this whatever genre, Kit. Kit is the storyteller to her tale, yes there are more than a few gasps out disturbing scenes and I did cry for Kit but I did laugh out loud too many times because of her. Kit's characterization is simply excellent. She is endearing, full of life, brave, strong, intelligent, adventurous, funny and so daring. Overall, she is an amazing heroine and I love her from the start and enjoyed reading her tumultuous story.

Ms.Lawrence is a talented author with a unique ability to create engaging character-driven stories. So trust Corrie, you don't want to miss this. It is so different, so much better than what I expected, surprising me in such a good way. So am I saying YES to the dress err chess? Heck yes!

As most of my reads, this one is not for everyone. It deals with child abuse - mental, physical and sexual(implied) abduction and a deranged woman. But the hours spent, listening to Kit and some wonderful secondary characters, I don't have enough thumbs to express how awesome this book was.

Mindfcuk level - Skyrocket

Hilarious Quote
" The Duke wasn’t exactly a Chessmaster. He kept asking whether it was time to roll the dice '
- Eleanor -

Corrie's right, this is not a romance but all the characters in this book - the heroes, the unsung heroes, the villains are women and you don't have to be a chesshead to enjoy this.

Highly recommended!

[Heather Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I knew about this book going in was that it concerned a young woman and a mechanical chess-playing automaton in the early 19th century. I expected intrigues and hoaxes and--given that I bought it though a lesbian book distributor--some amount of queer identity. What I didn’t expect was a dark psychological thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat right up to the end. This is not a fluffy, feel-good comfort read. It’s a gripping adventure and mystery that left me both satisfied and emotionally wrung out.

All the content advisories: psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, alcoholism, agoraphobia, dissociation, and in case it needs mentioning, this is not a romance novel. (Which sometimes needs mentioning as readers default to expecting lesbian books to be romance.) The sexual abuse is not presented graphically on the page but everything else is.

What grabbed me from the start was the excellence of the writing. Not only is Lawrence’s prose brutally exquisite, but she has the knack of portraying complex psychological experiences without falling back on modern medical terminology that would be out of place in a historic setting. The first-person protagonist, Kit, lets us know from the start that she will be an unreliable narrator. This leaves plenty of space for uncertainty as the plot twists and turns in ways reminiscent of a Sarah Waters novel. The historic details are both sharp and unobtrusive. I highly recommend this book for those who are up to the tension and the depictions of abuse.

* * *

Note: This next discussion isn't part of my book review proper. I vary in whether I look at other reviews before reading a book, so it wasn't until after I'd read the book and written my review that I ran across a couple reviews that interpreted the portrayal of sexual abuse by a woman against a woman to be homophobic. It is certainly true that in a historic context, one of the tropes associated with female same-sex desire is the "predatory lesbian"--the implication that same-sex desire is inherently controling and abusive. Here's my take on that within the context of this story.

This is a story that focuses entirely on female characters, and those characters encompass a number of different personalities and actions. All of the interpersonal interactions in this story--both bad and good--are between women. So the fact that the abuse is from one woman to another doesn't (to me) single out the same-sex aspect as saying something essentialist about same-sex interactions. The story does not set up predatory same-sex desire in contrast to redemptive and positive different-sex desire. (There is no heroic male rescuer waiting in the wings.The background references to heterosexual relationships mostly involve prostitution.) And the one central redemptive and hopeful relationship within the story (being vague to avoid spoilers) is also between two women. Within the context of the story, it is only potentially romantic and is definitely not erotic (and I'd find it implausible it it were immediately erotic, given the character's history) but it's there.

Secondly, the abusive character is pathologically abusive on all axes. The story would be equally horrific if the sexual element were not in play. (And I want to emphasize that the actual details of the sexual abuse are not described, unlike the other aspects.) Her personality is clearly shown to be about control and not about desire, as such. She is not depicted as having same-sex desire lead to abuse, but rather as being an inherently abusive person for whom sexual abuse is only one part of her toolbox.

This is a powerful book and an angry book, but I don't in any way interpret it as a homophobic book.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. Wow. That was intense and heavy but also had some dark humor to it. I really enjoyed it though it definitely had my nerves acting up. I loved the writing. Lawrence has such a way with words and her writing is so addictive and atmospheric. This wasn’t an easy read but it was definitely worth it.

The main character Kit is very likable and my heart hurt for the things she went through. She’s strong and resilient and I just adored her character a lot. Also, there’s a lot of chess talk and playing and I enjoyed that. It could’ve easily slowed the plot down or had been boring but it wasn’t. It was fascinating and I’m not sure how Lawrence managed to pull that off. Overall, this was fantastic and I will be picking up more from this author soon.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chess? Yes ma'am and I devoured this book like the full meal it is. It's different and scratched an itch in the back of my brain I didn't know I had. There's many hard to read moments in this book, mental abuse, physical and implied sexual, but it's so integral to machinations of this book it all sucks you in. Rush, the evil mistress of the Rajah the chess playing automaton and Kit the young woman who played the game inside The Rajah have a poisoned relationship. They travel across Europe accepting Chess challenges and end up in Vienna at the Countess's estate. The game played here is for keeps and twists are plentiful. The side characters are magnificent and so integral to the plot, they are like grandma's gravy on mashed potatoes. So tasty and so slick. I'm glad I found this author; I'll be back for more.

[PREZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es turbio y adictivo!!

Si te gusta leer sobre lesbianas, relaciones tóxicas y… ajedrez, este es tu libro. Pero cuidado porque hay abusos y puede ser un trigger.

Es un tipo de historia que me recuerda a novelas de Sarah Waters. Se va a mi lista de favoritos de cabeza mientras cruzo los dedos para que la autora vuelva a escribir algo por la mismas líneas.

[Chris Alex Stoica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like the coolest book I have read in a long time. It’s exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat from the beginning, which sometimes is good and sometimes not so good. Sometimes it’s because of excitement and sometimes it’s because of horror. But it definitely is worth to keep reading.

The book is told from the Pov of the main character. And sometimes it’s chronological and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it reads like a book, sometimes it’s like a journal, sometimes it’s like a interrogation and Kit is trying to remember the facts. And sometimes she doesn’t care to explain or to give the right answer.

Kit’s caretaker is a very multifaceted character. One cannot help not to be impressed by her, at least in the beginning until some other facts of her personality are shown. Still a very three dimensional, really cool character. The “maid” character seems much simpler in the beginning, and I personally went between feeling sorry and feeling disgusted by her. But she too is a much more complex character, with a much deeper backstory.
Then there’s the hosts of the Rajah, which take time to figure out. And which make this book even cooler than the premise of it already was. There are mysteries and lies and weird, cool stuff all over. Just as there are good acts, and evil doers and exciting chess games in between.
There are turns and twists on almost every page. And there’s a right ending. So all in all, an exquisite book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a darkly funny, sexy tale with no explicit sex. It is a Gothick adventure (a mad inventor, an eccentric noblewoman, a decadent Old World castle filled with scary treasures, an abducted, imprisoned ingenue, a book-long game of chess in which the stakes are life and death) narrated by the prickly maiden-in-distress whose fate depends on whether she learns in time which opponents to trust. She's a magnetic storyteller--as a rule I prefer a third-person narrator, especially if the story has a dark emotional undertow, but "The Ghost"'s Kit (alternately poignant, scathing, hilarious, and scared) just pulls you in and won't let go. If the tale's Victorian trappings sound quaint or comic, think again: this is a story of playful seduction that is also an unflinchingly honest depiction of the psychology of abuse. Kit meets her match, which is a good thing, but she has to fight herself every step of the way towards freedom. This book's wonderful writer should be encouraged in every way possible.

[Hesch Aut · Rating 5 out of 5]

… and then I ran out of books by Benny Lawrence, because I couldn’t stop reading.

This was a painful read. I find it always painful to read about abuse and exploitation, especially when it is about cheap thrills in order to entertain, which is not the case here. Benny Lawrence doesn’t use dirty tricks. She lets us see – and understand. It hurts nevertheless. Or because.
But then there is the humour. And the humour makes things easier. And then there is a really smart plot with really clever and surprising (and oh so good) twists. And those very real characters, who are so loveable and so hateable, with those very witty dialogues. And as an Austrian I also enjoy that it is set in Austria.

„The ghost and the machine“ is darker than Lawrence‘ two other novels. But it’s just as quick to read. I wished I would have taken my time, though. I want more.

[Baxter Clare Trautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kit, a young woman in 19th century Europe is the invisible brain behind the mechanical chess playing "Rajah". Living a life of utter seclusion - literally in the Rajah's box - she is kept by her mistress, Rush, to make money outwitting the world's best players, as well as for Rush's own sadistic pleasures. At the home of an eccentric countess, Kit is discovered and forced to make moves that risk far more than a chess game. Lawrence's concept and relationships are intriguing, and her plot twists and turns like a king fleeing checkmate. Looking forward to more by this talented new author.

[Jessica Schember · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for homophobic propaganda, then this is the book for you!

I gave 2 star because Benny spent time writing this, and I love both of her other books. Dark and yet somehow hopeful seems to a her base for her books. With a dose of heavy sarcasm mixed in to keep things light. This book is definitely not a lesbian must read. This story brought me back to 60's dime store novels that depicted the lesbian as a villain, because that is exactly what it portrays. No decent lesbian found within the pages. Doesn't even suggest that the main character is gay, but she is raped, controlled, and abused by a lesbian. I am not even going to get into the lazy ending. I think perhaps Benny Lawrence forgot her base audience, and decided to write some homophobic propaganda. Well done Benny you definitely got me to second guess purchasing your books. I will read the reviews carefully from now on.

[Sarahursula · Rating 4 out of 5]

A soft 4 for how the crux was handled , everything was suddenly smoothened and evened out , like the before and after belonged to two different books , that just wouldn't be the natural turn of events , its as if the author took mercy on both the central character and readers and decided to force a happy ending which was jarring for the world that was built beforehand .
Nevertheless this story will be enjoyed by two different kinds of audience the ones who like psychological thrillers and the ones who like fluff and happy endings .

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars. This book really surprised me. I’m glad I was able to binge it in flight - it’s hard to put down. I’m only marking it down slightly because I don’t think I would read it again and I would have liked a bit more at the end. Some of the other reviewers have added content warnings which I would advise you to read before you pick this book up. I would recommend this book.

[Robincilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2 ⭐ Wow, i couldn't stop reading so i finished it in one sitting. There's something refreshing and addictive about the way it's written. It's dark and funny at the same time.I don't know why but i thought that it was some sort of a romance story, it is not at all. The only negative thing i have to say about it is the ending, i was not really convinced by it.

[Lorilfrancis · Rating 5 out of 5]

fabulous !

I love Benny Lawrence’s writing. It’s fun, funny, cleaver, dark, and surprisingly hopeful. She has such a unique voice not exactly like anyone else I’ve read. I highly recommend!!

[Klark · Rating 5 out of 5]

++++++++++
no romance but a still a fav