The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart Review

The very first novel I ever reviewed on this blog was Leanna Renee Hieber’s Darker Still, book one in her YA fantasy Magic Most Foul series. Three years later, I’ve finally gotten around to reading its sequel. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you know that I love Leanna and everything she writes. Darker Still was actually one of my favorites, but I kept being distracted by all of her new releases instead of continuing the series. Recently, though, Leanna’s been dropping hints that a few of the Magic Most Foul characters will be appearing in her upcoming new book The Spectral City. Not wanting to be out of the loop, I decided that it was high time I got caught up. 

The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart picks up right where the first book left off. Young Miss Natalie has just freed the dashing Lord Denbury from the magical portrait in which his soul was imprisoned, but now the two of them must dodge the dark forces that will surely seek revenge. They try to flee West, but discover that these forces of evil have a broader reach and bigger goals than they realized. A mysterious group known as the Society has been recruiting scientists and psychics for some nefarious purpose. When the young couple returns to New York to investigate further, they find that hunting demons and communing with ghosts is almost as difficult as navigating the complexities of Victorian courtship!

One of the main themes of this book is how the different characters deal with loss. In Darker Still, we saw how the trauma of losing her mother manifested in Natalie’s selective mutism. Though she has now regained her voice, Natalie still carries her grief with her. When she realizes how close her father is becoming to her mentor, Mrs. Northe, Natalie’s grief threatens to turn into uglier emotions like anger, spite, and jealousy. Luckily, Natalie is self-aware enough to recognize that these feelings are counter-productive, and she learns to process her grief in healthier ways rather than taking it out on a woman she’s grown to care for. Some of the other characters are not so fortunate. There’s a bit of a moral to this book, which is; Grief can make you vulnerable to being manipulated into doing bad things. The central antagonist in the story is a young scientist who is drawn to the Society’s promises of reanimating the dead after experiencing the loss of his beloved. Natalie and Denbury must intervene when they see another young man in danger of being led down the same path. There is much danger in allowing grief to overpower your sense of right and wrong.

Despite this melancholy message, there’s a lot of fun and whimsy in Twisted Tragedy, as well. And much of this is brought about through the introduction of my very favorite character, Nathaniel Veil! I was already familiar with the illustrious Mr. Veil through his brief appearances in Leanna’s later Eterna Files series, but there was something magical about seeing him for the first time through Natalie’s eyes. Nathaniel Veil is a melodramatic stage actor who presides over a band of black-clad misfits that he calls Her Majesty’s Association of Melancholy Bastards. Veil and his followers revel in darkness, exploring sadness, danger, and evil through campy theatrics—never taking themselves too seriously. I really love the idea of these Victorian proto-goths, and I’m thrilled to consider myself a member of HMAMB (I found a membership card in my copy of the book that Leanna must have given me long ago!). I can’t wait to see more of Nathaniel Veil in the next book, The Double Life of Incorporate Things.

If you want to read The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart for yourself, you can find it at your local retailer, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process by clicking this Bookshop.org affiliate link. Once you’ve read it, let me know what you think!