The day the earth shifts, a body emerges from the belly of the ice-crusted sea. Bone white fingers waving as if alive.

Is the start of this novel set in the late 1600s by Caroline Lea - this gothic story is a mix of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and Charles Perrault’s Bluebeard along with a hint of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre but this mix comes with a major major twist.

It’s in this twist where all the build-up, when it unravels, shows how the gossip of bystanders has consequences. The irony being that these consequences are only felt by the few – as the gossipers carry on completely unaware that their gossip, along with Rósa’s paranoia, changes several lives.

Rósa, a young Icelandic woman lives in a poor village, where food is scarce and (to make matters worse) her mother is ill. But Jón Eiríksson, a rich merchant from another town, becomes the village’s salvation when Rosa agrees to marry him (but there’s a mystery about the death of his first wife).

Rósa leaves her mother and village behind to start a new life with Jón. She also leaves behind the man she truly loves. Nervous and weary of Jón, Rósa is unhappy in her marriage, and it doesn't help that her paranoia of Jón is fuelled further by Jón’s controlling nature and Pétur. Pétur is Jón’s loyal worker with a notorious reputation, who like Jón, restricts Rósa to mix with the locals and keep her out of some areas of Jón’s house – like he’s hiding something.

Spoiler

Rósa learns the hard way that nothing is as it seems, the story beautifully illustrates the consequences of gossip, paranoia and forbidden love.

This is a hauntingly gorgeous read.