A Treason of Thorns

A Treason of Thorns is a beautiful, lyrical and suspenseful “Big House” novel with a difference. Burleigh House, like all the great houses of Victorian novels, is as much of a lead character as the people who live within its walls, but in this novel the house itself is alive with a special magic that looks after the countryside around it and the people who live on and tend to the land. However, when the caretaker of the house is put under house arrest for treason, his daughter, Violet, is banished and only allowed to return after her father has died. When she comes back to Burleigh she finds the house has fallen into disrepair and has begun to tear itself apart and poison the landscape it once made flourish.

I was really drawn to the single-minded, ruthless and fiercely loyal Violet, and I felt that the secondary characters and relationships pale in comparison to the relationship between Violet and Burleigh. They share a magical bond where one can’t seem to thrive without the other. The plot of the novel is familiar, in that there is one brave person who is determined to save something she loves, in this case her home. However, the reader’s preconceptions of this common plot is changed by how Violet interacts with the house as a living thing, and Laura Weymouth’s careful world building, rooted in Victorian ideals of the home and duty of care of the ruling classes, makes this a unique and enchanting novel worth staying up too late for.

Laura King