Blog Tour – The Undying of Obedience Wellrest

Hello hello, and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today is my stop on the blog tour for the young adult Gothic novel, The Undying of Obedience Wellrest, and I’m really excited to be sharing my review. A big thank you to Chicken House for sending this spectacular book my way and for including me in this blog tour.

Synopsis
To the horror of young gravedigger, Ned, body-snatchers have been visiting his churchyard in the dead of night. Until now, he’d been daydreaming about another visitor – daughter of the manor, Obedience Wellrest.

But 16-year-old Obedience has troubles of her own: her loving but overbearing father, and his wish to see her married to a rich man of science, Phineas Mordaunt.

But when Mordaunt starts to poke his nose into her family history – in particular, the ruinous research of late Uncle Herbert – Obedience enters into a dangerous game of Death, and Ned might be the only person who can save her …

Review
Rating: 5 stars
I adored this book. It was lush with a modern Gothic feel, largely set in turns in a graveyard and a crumbling manor house. The descriptions of ivy sneaking in, of freshly dug graves, and of the realities of grave robbers made this one of the most atmospheric books I’ve read in a long while.

Both Bede and Ned are wonderful characters, completely different and yet achingly similar. Ned has the purest of hearts, wanting only to please his grandfather, and lonely in a way that maybe even he couldn’t put into words, with his fly Moshca his only reliable company. He hopes to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps as sexton of the graveyard he has grown up next to, but with grave robbers in action, the vicar and soon the village are growing distrustful of the family pair.

Bede, meanwhile, is desperate only to continue educating herself via all the books and journals she can get her hands on. She thrives on scientific research, and with the appearance of Phineas Modaunt, she fears the end of her science studies and independent living, should her father force her to marry as he wishes.

The book is told from both of their perspectives, alternating between giving us insights to Ned’s troubles and Bede’s crumbling world. Both are beautiful, both are painful, and both offer a strength that they might not be aware they hold.

Throughout the book, both characters grow individually, and find themselves drawn together too. Ned is openly smitten with Bede, and Bede, while more reserved, relies on Ned for problems she couldn’t solve alone. Ned’s grandfather comes to play an important role in both their lives unexpectedly, and I had a soft spot for the old man by the time the book was done.

It was an utterly spectacular book, full of emotional moments and the importance of trust, looking at what a delicate thing it can be, both in being built and broken. It looks at science and it looks at love. It talks of the realities of scientific development, and how women had to fight for even minimal consideration not so very long ago. So much can be taken from this story, and it is a wonderful read for those of any age.

Thanks so much for stopping by for this review today. I really hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on this incredibly special book; it’s certainly not one I’ll forget in a long while, and I highly recommend it! A thank you again too to Chicken House for sending this book my way.