The Infamous Gilberts: A Novel

by Angela Tomaski

The Remains of the Day meets The Royal Tenenbaums in this darkly funny debut novel about a wealthy, eccentric family in decline and the secrets held within the walls of their crumbling country manor.

Thornwalk, a once-stately English manor, is on the brink of transformation. Its keys are being handed over to a luxury hotelier who will undertake a complete renovation—but in doing so, what will they erase? Through the keen eyes of an enigmatic neighbor, the reader is taken on a guided tour into rooms filled with secrets and memories, each revealing the story of the five Gilbert siblings.

Spanning the eve of World War II to the early 2000s, this contemporary gothic novel weaves a rich tapestry of English country life. As the story unfolds, the reader is drawn into a world where the echoes of an Edwardian idyll clash with the harsh realities of war, neglect, and changing times. The Gilberts’ tale is one of great loves, lofty ambitions, and profound loss, and Angela Tomaski’s mordantly witty yet loving account is an immersive experience. Reminiscent of the haunting atmospheres in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Infamous Gilberts offers a fresh take on a classic genre, capturing the essence of a troubled but fascinating family.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Gothic, Literary Fiction, Adult, Audiobook

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 20, 2026

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+
Thornwalk, is a great manor house in England that housed a mother and her five eccentric children…
Hugo, Lydia, Annabel, Jeremy and Rosalind.
We are taken on a tour of a the manor by a family friend …Maximus, after the last of the living Gilbert children has passed, before a hotelier takes over.
Each short chapter provides more insight of the rooms of the house, the siblings relationships with each other and their outside relationships, and mental health struggles and just general struggles in life.
This is a darkly comic yet increasingly sad.
All the gothic feels.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boo to Scribner for dropping “gothic” “Jackson” and “du Maurier” in to the jacket copy for this one. I loathe copywriters who load up on keywords that really have nothing to do with the book they’re describing. I swear every book published this year has been called gothic.

Ignoring the jacket copy, I absolutely loved what’s between the covers. The book completely clashed with the endless sunshine we’re having at the moment. It’s depressing atmosphere, darkly amusing narration and downward spiral of its characters was the perfect most un-beach read that became a beach read.

I loved the unique way the story is told, as if you’re on a tour of the crumbling estate before all of its history gets erased in the form of a hotel conversion.

Deeply melancholic, it’s Downton Abbey if the estate fell to ruin.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an early peek.

[Erin]

ARC for review. To be published January 20, 2026.

DNF at 20%

I don’t know what ails me. This is maybe my fourth DNF book in about two weeks. Am I just in a mood or am I choosing poorly?

This family saga follows the used-to-be-wealthy Gilbert family, particularly the five children and appears to go up through to their deaths. I think.

Reading this just seemed like a chore to me and each time I left it I didn’t want to go back to it. So, finally, I didn’t. YMMV.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The conceit of this novel is that a neighbor who addresses the reader as “you” is giving you a tour of a once grand English estate now in severe decline, showing you to different rooms and different objects in them, and through that, telling the story of the extremely messed up family that once lived there.

Sadly this one was a big miss for me. I love crumbling mansions and dysfunctional family novels, but this one was just beyond. The structure of the book is super odd and screams “I’m so literary and quirky” but not in a good way. And the characters are well beyond quirky into mostly extremely unlikeable and unpleasant to read about. Not to mention that the book is utterly devoid of the humor the blurb promises. Depressing and confusing. But I’ll bump it up to 2.5 stars because it didn’t bore me, in fact there was something mesmerizing about it that kept me reading. But would not recommend.

[Haley Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't love it, didn't hate it. All the members of this family were either insane or evil, or both, with the middle child, Annabelle, who was thought to be "slow", being the sanest and most caring of the bunch. The narrative started out great with a tour of the crumbling house feeling inventive and different, but that got old, as did the back and forth in time periods.

[Daniel Myatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible read (listen) it is the hidden stories that the National Trust don't tell you about when they take over a country house.

Through the history of the objects left behind in the family home comes the Gilberts story, their highs, their lows, all the way through to their heartbreaking end.

Each object beloved by Maximus (our narrator) and sadly destined to be lost forever in the name of progress.

I would 100% recommend listening to this story!

[Ten Cats Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ p25

Pre-Read Notes:

I love stories about what people and families leave behind in a place they have inhabited. Also, that cover was irresistible!

"You are entering through the servants’ hall, as you see. The keys to the rest of the house have already been surrendered to the hotel people, but this one was given to me by Miss Annabel Gilbert herself, and it shall not be relinquished to anyone but her. Since she is dead, that is unlikely to happen." p9

Final Review

(thoughts & recs) Unfortunately, between the unstable POV and all the passive constructions, I am not getting along with the style here.

Thank you to the author Angela Tomaski, publishers Scribner, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of THE INFAMOUS GILBERTS. All views are mine.

[Desiree Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely liked the style. It did remind me of Remains of the Day in its subtlety and the things left unsaid.

None of the characters are very likable, except for maybe Jeremy and Annabel. Jeremy pretty much leaves and never comes back to his kooky family. Annabel is sentimental and sweet, but stymied by some unspecified disability or mental illness.

But we are one step removed, as we hear the tale of the narrator Max as he doles out the family history and secrets in a measured pace, while giving a tour of the home and grounds (to unspecified persons).

The book is a little too subtle, in that English way. Are the oldest brother and Max supposed to be in love? If it was 100 years ago, I would say no they are just good friends. But possibly this is a same-sex relationship. Regardless, the tale ends on a sweet but melancholic note.

-Desiree Reads
January 26, 2026

[Niamh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very kindly given an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley and Penguin Fig Tree.

We're not even one month into the whole year and I might have just found the worst book of it. I will very, very rarely write one-star reviews, but I read the vast majority of this book and considering what it put me through, I'm claiming it as part of my reading tracker this year. Did I like it? No. But let me explain why, so I don't throw a brick at someone. I really do feel like throwing a brick at someone.

Firstly, please ignore the copy on the jacket / Goodreads description of this book. 'Darkly funny' it is not. I struggled to find anything funny about it at all. If anything, it was rather depressing in how quickly it slunk into the stereotype of 'odd rich family with a house falling down around them'. It felt, oftentimes, that the writer was trying to be clever and literary. To have her narrator break the fourth wall (the fourth page?) and show us around this grand house while peppering their tour with a rambling, disjointed history of the family that once lived there. A narrative choice that may have perhaps been better used had the book being discussing generations of Gilberts who had lived there and the things they had seen - a 'Forrest Gump' style-exploration. Moreover, every time said narrator uttered the phrases 'we won't talk about that now' or 'that's coming later' or 'that's for another time', I wanted to commit a minor crime. I had no sense of how that information would come in useful later because I was being bombarded with exposition about these people and their lives.

Speaking of the people. As children, the Gilberts are difficult to distinguish. And even as they got older, I found myself mixing up which one was which and what they had done when they were younger. They are all, of course, deeply unlikeable, but that didn't particularly bother me. What bothered me was just how bland they all were. Each drawn with a heavy-handed brush that seemed to be particularly unpleasant to the women, all of whom at some point appeared to have a mental affliction, be cruel, get abused or assaulted by men, or have terrible things happen to them.

Had I not double-teamed this one with the audiobook, I'd have put it down so much sooner. The pacing is odd, simultaneously dragging its feet and lurching wildly from one moment to the next. I can't help but feel the idea was sound, but the execution was particularly flawed.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This melancholy novel follows the lives of the members of a once-wealthy English family and their home/estate (Thornwalk) from just before WWII to the 2000’s. The novel is narrated by Maximus, a friend of the family, starting after the last of the Gilbert children has died, and Thornwalk is about to become a hotel. Maximus tells the story of the Gilbert family by taking the reader into different rooms of the home to look at different things/items – each of which gives rise to a piece of the Gilbert family history and a chapter in the novel. I thought a tour of rooms and items in a dilapidated grand home was a very appealing structure for narrating the storyline of this kind of novel (but I recognize that others have not liked it).
The Gilbert family consists of a mother and five children/siblings, and the personality and life story of each Gilbert are nicely drawn. The Gilberts are a “typical” family, which means that novel contains a multitude of family issues, including jealousy, taking advantage of parents (for money), taking advantage of “misbehaving” teenage girls (awful), caring for siblings, mental health issues, abandonment, rejection, mismanagement of the family money – and the list goes on! Put all this in a very large house that has fallen into utter disrepair, but in which (and before its sale), many important small and large items remain to be shown and explained to the reader.
This is not a happy family. Romances are thwarted or fail, the family members are unable to cope with changes in the world, poor mental health is rampant, and family members work against each other as much as they support each other. Some reviews point to humor, but, for me, there was very little. I did think it was a wonderful portrayal of both a family and a house in decline, with plenty of intrigue – perfect gothic material.
I highly recommend the audio for this one. The narrator (a contemporary of the Gilbert siblings and hence and old man) made the story come alive for me.

[Janereads10 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars

This started slow for me. Pairing it with the audiobook helped the story pick up.

What stood out: The family and the tragedy of what they became over time. The book is told through a narrator's POV as he walks through the old Thornwalk mansion. The setting felt like its own character - I could see it in its glory days and watch how it lost its shine. As the narrator moved through each room, he shared anecdotes of what happened there, connecting to the overall plot.

The story of the Gilberts - the mother and her children - had its funny moments. Like how they convinced one of the sisters to break up with her tutor, or the mother always running to her sister-in-law for help. But it got tragic. The siblings drifted apart, a promising relationship failed. Some siblings got greedy over the family fortune and I wasn't sure how I felt about them. What kept me reading though was finding out who the narrator was.

Audio note: Michael Bertenshaw's narration made it feel like touring a Gothic mansion with a guide sharing stories of the Gilberts.

You'll love this if: You're drawn to novels about families and their complex relationships, or mansion settings that become characters in the story.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the advance copy.

[Shantel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so engrossed in this. I loved the writing style and how the narrator retold the stories as you walked throughout the home and grounds, so unique and well done. All the characters were so complex, each with their own identities and not falling into stereotypes. Such a good read! 5 ⭐️

[lucy is reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Justice for Annabel, she did nothing wrong

[Reading Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. I just finished reading this book and I'm writing my review with tears running down my face. I'm devoted to this story and all of the characters. This is truly an unforgettable book. I love how the story is written, it's so unique. I can't tell you how much comfort the author gives my anxiety ridden soul by explaining in detail all of the rooms in the house and why things are the way they are. I live for this kind of detail and I love to know all the secrets and stories behind everything. I love every character so much with all of their madness and everything. I would take a bullet for Anabel. Hugo reminds me so much of my father in so many ways. I know I will comfort read this book many times and find something amazing about the writing every time. I don't have any other books to compare this one too because it is so unique. This book is very atmospheric, the characters are so deep without you even realizing. .. the author is a genius.

[Megan Deemer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book…. Is like Saltburn meets Winnie the Pooh- only 10x the mental illness and incredibly dull.
If there was one thing this book proved it was that syphilitic insanity was real and passed on from mother to child (or children in this case).
Meet the Gilbert’s, the most mentally insane and boring family there was… the end.
#netgalley #ARC

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely interesting. Couldn’t put it down.

[Priscilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb for this book begins: "The Remains of the Day meets The Royal Tenenbaums." This debut work of fiction feels definitely more like the former than the latter, with its enigmatic and wistful narrator, Maximus, sharing the history of the Gilbert family and their estate, Thornwalk. It does have a certain dark humor, but by the end I felt a bit gutted (be warned: there's mental illness, intellectual disability, domestic violence, depression, and PTSD).

The story's structure is clever. Maximus--Max--appears as a tour guide, addressing readers directly and beconing us to follow him on a tour of the Thornwalk, the Gilbert family's grand country estate being turned into a luxury hotel. He introduces us to each of the five Gilbert children: Lydia, Hugo, Annabel, Jeremy, and Rosalind, as well as Mrs. Gilbert and various family relations and staff by walking us through the house and around the estate and showing us meaningful objects and locations. The chapters have amusing titles like "A Tuft of Wool," "Where the Clock Was," "The Pine Cone Under Annabel's Bed," and so on. While this is whimsical on the surface, the stories surrounding the objects and places and their meaning to the characters involved often conveys something much darker. If this sounds like a gimmick, it's not. Tomaski has Max move deftly through the house and the surrounding area, telling us what happened to each of the family members over the course of seventy years or so. All of the Gilberts are well-drawn, and we meet each of them time and again through the objects and places indicated by Max, so each one has a chance to come front and center for a short time before taking a back seat to another character. Somehow this structure creates a more complete picture of the characters and their relationship to each other than is Tomaski has opted for a more traditional multi POV structure, giving each character a turn. Tomaski is definitely a writier to watch, if this debut is any indication.

Netgalley provided a copy of this book for review.

[Holly Fairall · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 As soon as I heard about the tone of voice of this novel, I was sold: the setting is Thornwalk Manor, an old house that is about to be turned into a boutique hotel. We are invited inside by a neighbor and family friend of the former residents, Maximus, who proceeds to take us around to each part of the house, telling us about the family who lived there through the empty rooms, leftover objects, and stains. What unfolds is both funny and surprisingly tragic; we see these five children and the lives they end up living, none of which quite measures up to the potential they had through a variety of factors both outside their control and stemming from their own decisions. I was very touched and completely swept up in their stories; I am very curious to see what else this author writes in future.

[Erica (Cheekymama2) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had potential but fell short. The book was told in third person. The book begins with Max the neighbor, guiding the reader through the rooms of the Thornwalk House and the hidden stories they contain. Each room and its contents serve as the beginning of a story into the past lives of the five Gilbert siblings.

Unfortunately the story does not flow. I didn't feel like I really got to know any of the characters well. I wish the story had been told by each character instead of someone from the outside.

Thank you NetGalley for an early read of this novel.

[Chrissie Whitley · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Review to follow.

[Trishita (TrishReviews_ByTheBook) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even before the book was in my hands, I was already a little obsessed with its aesthetics. It was described as eccentric, that word by itself is the most irresistible invitation to me. Gathering some of my favourite literary tropes, The Infamous Gilberts unfolds as a family saga centred around sibling drama. The family mansion stands as one of the characters, secrets coiling through its rooms and among its residents, resentments simmer, rivalries sharpen, scandals of all kinds lurk in the background.

The novel gives us a guide, a narrator who opens the mansion’s doors and beckons us inside, pointing out the hidden spots and long-buried messes, admitting us into the intimate orbit of the family, the gullible, dense mother and her five children (with a cameo by a villainous aunt). We meet them first as wild, unguarded children, all petulant in their own way, racing through the years they fracture into lost, flailing adults, moving inexorably toward their ultimate ends. Time goes on, fast for some, slower for others, innocence curdles too soon, the girls are dealt the harshest hands, who does that surprise?
At its heart, this is a story about the fierce love and the inescapable bond between siblings amid the slow disintegration of their way of life. The war comes and goes, the world shifts and their place in it finds itself on shaky ground. Tomaski writes with a light touch, the novel is so immersive, its chapters so engrossing, that I hardly noticed how deeply I’d been drawn in, almost blindsided by the weight it carries. This is a novel that does not easily let go. 3.5 stars!

[Jamad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Angela Tomaski’s The Infamous Gilberts is an ambitious debut, apparently written over more than twenty years while she was working as a waitress, a cleaner, a teacher and a care home activities co-ordinator. That long gestation perhaps explains both its density and its determination to be noticed.

The novel centres on the once-grand Gilbert family and their decaying country house, circling around scandal, memory and the slow unravelling of reputation. We are guided through the house and its history by Maximus Maximus, an extraordinarily intrusive narrator who addresses the reader directly in the second person. He shepherds us from room to room, from past to present, insisting on what we see and how we see it, as family secrets are gradually exposed.

The conceit is clear from the outset:

“You are entering through the servants’ hall, as you see. The keys to the rest of the house have already been surrendered to the hotel people, but this one was given to me by Miss Annabel Gilbert herself, and it shall not be relinquished to anyone but her. Since she is dead, that is unlikely to happen.”

Maximus Maximus does not so much narrate as command. “Let us go outside again,” he says. “Go back up to Annabel’s room and look once more beneath the bed.” He orders us around like an overbearing tour guide determined that we admire every architectural flourish. It is a bold stylistic choice, but over the course of the novel it becomes wearing. Being constantly instructed where to look and what to notice feels less immersive than exhausting.

There are moments when Tomaski’s prose is sharp and atmospheric, and the central idea — of a house as mausoleum, archive and accusation — has real promise. But the cleverness of the structure, and the relentless second-person address, kept me at arm’s length. I admired the effort more than I enjoyed the experience.

An okay read, with flashes of originality, but one that tries so hard to orchestrate the reader’s response that it became tiresome.

[Ygraine]

v elegant, sensitive, quaint little book & a good companion while sick, which i am AGAIN.

[Chloe]

Officially DNF-ing this because one of my reading goals this year is to just put down books I'm not enjoying to make more space for books I will enjoy. Sad about this one as I really thought I would love it - comped to The Royal Tenenbaums, one of my fav movies, a story about a dysfunctional family, one of my favourite things....but I just really don't vibe with the narration and how the story is told.

[Ella (The Story Collector) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome to the crumbling Gothic mansion of Thornwalk, home of the Gilbert family. Have a look around and learn its history, before it is torn down and converted into a luxury hotel. Guided by Maximus, loyal neighbour and guardian of the Gilberts’ legacy, witness the final remnants of the lives of the five Gilbert children and their mother.

This book is beautifully written. Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle (but, in my opinion, better) The Infamous Gilberts follows the lives of the Gilbert family as they struggle with their relationships, mental health and finances. There are moments of lightness and humour, but the overarching vibe is one of tragedy and desperation as things spiral out of control for each of them in turn.

I particularly enjoyed the narrative style, with the neighbour taking the reader on a tour of Thornwalk and asking them to imagine things as they once were. This was a truly beautiful way of telling the story, and allows the reader to see how far the Gilberts have fallen to reach the state of the place in the present.

The characters are deeply flawed and not necessarily particularly likeable, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them and that they were ultimately products of their upbringing and some extreme mental health problems. My favourites were of course Annabel, who had so much personality and understanding of what was going no around her but never expressed any of it to anyone, and Jeremy who was perhaps the only well-adjusted one of the bunch.

The only problematic aspect for me was Maximus and why he was so loyal and attached to Hugo because, by my understanding, they only met after Hugo had become irrational and abusive. But I suppose the unsaid elements of their relationship are part of the whole thing.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Nation Hahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a charming read, in the end. The storytelling device is both charming and confusing at times, but as you grow used to the narrative structure, it becomes compelling.

[Acton.and.Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent. Hands down, a five-star read.

Smart, funny, sad. The vignettes were emotionally deep, but fast-paced. I laughed out loud. I wanted to cry. The ups and downs were real.

I appreciate stories that allow me to love and hate the characters in equal measure. It’s a feat to tackle sibling drama through five unique narratives. Each was interesting and memorable - as were their mother, aunt, significant others, servants, and friends. This book had a full cast and no role was wasted.

In addition to the characters, the setting was also exceptional. Thornwalk was brought to life - across almost seventy years of story. When considered in retrospect, the grandeur was palpable. In the now, the descriptions of faded wallpapers and dust motes were heartbreaking.

Lovely. This book will make you think about legacy and aging, and about the differences between being lonely and being alone.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book does feel like some wacky, dark Royal Tenenbaums-esque story as the blurb teases. Five siblings’ stories are told, but really it’s the story of their lives within the walls of Thornwalk, their crumbling, once revered home. The third person narrator walks us through the rooms and the memories, literally ushering us through a tour of the home, how it came to have its stains and quirks and hidden treasures, and along the way we learn the stories of Hugo, Jeremy, Rosalind, Annabel, and Lydia. Truthfully, I think I would’ve enjoyed this story more had it not been told by a third person narrator and instead we got to be in the heads of each character and immersed in their stories a little more deeply. It took me a bit to get into it but the story finds its groove about halfway through. I do think this book would make for a good movie or show adaptation to bring it all to life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Gigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because of a New York Times book review that compared it to a West Anderson film, and I was like “say less.” However, this isn’t a West Anderson film at all, for the exception of the beautiful setting and characters that can be described as zany. However, Anderson characters are often zany with a little bit of hope, the Gilberts are zany with a lot of despair and denial.
Many of the stories were compelling but hard to read. Mrs. Gilbert’s inability to live in reality, prepare her children for adulthood, or protect the from their awful Aunt Beatrice, was beyond frustrating, although when she eventually gets what’s coming to her, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Besides Annabel and Jeremy, all of the Gilberts are horrible, selfish, and cause so much pain to others, I hated them by the end. Besides all this, I did enjoy reading about their horrible lives and downfall, and the narration was stylishly interesting and well done. There is a line about 75% through the story talking about Annabel‘s writing that I felt was a little meta for how one might enjoy the book:
“Feel free to read the entire manuscript, but if you didn’t find the above extract interesting, then perhaps the book is not for you.”