The perfect combination of beauty and macabre is brought to you in The Doll Factory. The story centres around Iris, who wants to escape the confines of her dull job in a Doll Shop, her twin sister who is very clingy, jealous and bitter, and society's expectations of her and women as a whole. Iris wants to paint, and she is offered a job as a model for a painter in exchange for a wage and painting lessons.

However Silas, the creepiest taxidermist on the planet, is obsessed with her and he stops at nothing to entrap her. Literally. Be warned, there is a also a heavy dose of animal abuse in this book.

I enjoyed this book. I was disgusted and mystified in equal measure. The writing is remarkable at dragging you feet first into Victorian London with all the sights, colours, smells and textures. Some of them you really didn't want to experience!

Only downside is it ended far too abrubtly for me. I could have done with another 20 pages to feel at peace with it all.

Worth a read if you like your historical fiction gritty and gothic.