Misery Hates Company
In Boston in 1894, feisty twenty-one-year-old Marigold Manners’ parents have just died from influenza. She learns that due to her father’s debts, she will inherit little. After studying at Wellesley College and a life of comfort, Marigold is on her own and must depend on relatives for support. Many welcome her, but Aunt Sophronia Hatchet, who lives on barren Great Misery Island off the coast of Salem, entices her there with an offer to reveal family secrets. Marigold moves to the island where she meets her eccentric cousins, as well as their sinister father and his ghost-like mother, Alva. Marigold’s potential beau, Cab Cox, follows her to the island and courts her, even as she asserts her independence.
Finding living conditions on the island disorganized and filthy, Marigold cleans up the homestead and brings culture to her seemingly rustic relatives. She scours the kitchen, starts a vegetable garden, and introduces her cousins to posh society folks on the mainland. In the weeks it takes Marigold to reform the household, she encounters unsettling tales that may, or may not, be omens—talk of fire, poison, curses, illegitimacy, incest, drownings, hidden treasures, and guns. But despite her efforts as an amateur detective, she cannot learn the family secrets until a series of disasters reveals a web of deceit going back several generations.
Hobbs succeeds at creating an intricate plot, rising suspense, a bleak setting, and brisk dialog. She fills every chapter with gothic horror and unrelenting gloom, so readers may find the atmosphere overwrought and unrelenting. Although characters such as Cab Cox seem too good to be true, and others such as Alva Hatchet too devilish to be true, Hobbs portrays Marigold as a multifaceted “New Woman” with both spunk and self-doubts. I hope Marigold makes an appearance in future books.
