It's Time For Spooky Season: A Review of Begotten by Kate Cherrell

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

Hello, Dear Reader, you will never guess this, but I miss Spooky Season. I’m so ready for the crisp fall leaves, foggy mornings, and curling up under a fluffy blanket with some Gothic lit. I don’t care that it’s nearly summer time, I want autumn. I want perpetual autumn! Which is why I’m bringing you some glorious Gothic lit today.

Wake me when it's fall.

I have a very special review today as it’s brought to you by Roundfire Books and Collective Ink. They aren’t paying me for my review, they just sent me the book for free. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you so much for sending me a copy of today’s read, it means a lot to me when someone out there wants to send me books. Thank you, thank you!

And what book was I so kindly sent? Please give a warm welcome to Begotten by Kate Cherrell!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’re read any other review on this site then you’ll know that I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. Synopsis time now!

Our story tonight follows Alice Crofton. She’s travelled from London to the fictional countryside village of Duncain after the news of her father’s death. Alice hasn’t been home since she married a few years ago. But as she’s the eldest child and her father’s heir, she’s forced to return to Duncain to settle his estate.

Her childhood home is anything but warm and welcoming. The manor home is cold, damp, and crumbling, her little sister Elsie is distant and locked in her room more often than not, the housekeeper, Mrs. Curry, acts as if she owns the home, and Alice’s mother is wrapped up with grief before turning to spiritualism. More specifically, her mother becomes involved with some charlatan mediums. These mediums, are they out for the family’s money? The house? Something else? Alice isn’t sure but she wants them gone.

Speaking of Alice, she is isolated out in the country. The nearest town is miles away. She hasn’t heard from her husband the entire time she’s been in Duncain. And everyone in the house is seemingly against her. Soon Alice finds herself fearing for her life. She can’t trust anyone, she can’t even trust herself. The world she thought she knew may not be real. Everything she’s experienced may not have actually happen; both in the house, in Duncian, and even in London. But is that true? Is everything Alice experiencing in her head? Is her life in London real? Or is everyone around her gaslighting the crap out of her? Find out in Begotten.

If I had to describe Begotten in one word, it would be atmospheric. If a piece of Gothic lit doesn’t make me feel like I’m in the world of the novel then it’s not a good piece of Gothic literature in my opinion. Kate Cherrell soars in her descriptions and details. I felt the claustrophobia Alice experiences during her stay in Duncain. I could feel the dirt and grime of the manor beneath my palms. The cold of the old home was seeping into my bones. I felt like I was being gaslighted by the supporting characters at the end. I have to applaud Kate Cherrell for the atmosphere she created.

Begotten made me want a gothic manor real bad.

Sadly the atmosphere is one of the few things I enjoyed about this read. Begotten is a slow burn, but it’s not one that works. Nothing really happens for nearly 100 pages, and the book is only 222 pages long, by the way. As a big portion of this book relies on Alice being gaslit by those around her, that needs to occur early on. It needs to be happening from the get-go. But it doesn’t. Nothing in the first one hundred pages of this book makes me believe Alice is being gaslit. Alice’s family and Mrs. Curry are rude, cold, and distant towards her, but they’re just being mean, they aren’t doing anything that would truly make Alice question her sanity.

I’m really not a fan of the pacing of Begotten, nor am I fan of the book’s psychological aspect. A lot of the issues this book has all connect. Had more happened in the beginning, the pacing would have been better. Had the psychological aspect been played up properly, more events could have occurred. My interest could have, and should have, been piqued a lot sooner than it was.

I do have to say, I liked the ending. Sort of. My interest was piqued by the last fifty pages. Everything was dialed up to eleven. I did slightly question if Alice was making things up. But, and this is a big but, at the start of the book, one of the undertakers mentions Alice had moved away a few years before the events of the story. This was mentioned in the first chapter of Begotten as kind of a throwaway line. It's inclusion doesn't help the story. Why would I as a reader truly believe Alice was an unreliable narrator with mental illness if a character, who had no stake in the story, fully state Alice did indeed marry and move out of the manor right at the beginning? So yeah, I kinda liked the ending because everything was turned up to eleven and the villains were properly gaslighting Alice, but it doesn't work because I as a reader know the truth. Alice is a reliable narrator even though the book wants her to be unreliable.

Sure, the atmosphere is great. The vibes are immaculate in the most disgusting way. But they can’t save the book. The faults I found in this read derail the story. I wish it wasn’t like this, but sadly it is. This piece of Gothic literature failed me.

le sigh

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you once again to Collective Ink and Roundfire Books for kindly sending me this read. I do greatly appreciate every time you send me books. Thank you, thank you!

As for you, Book Nerds, thank you for joining me today. I will see you all again next week with another new review. Though if you can’t wait that long then you can always check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. It stars me and two of my dearest friends and we talk about basically everything. We have episodes on Scooby-Doo, Disney, bad 90s wrestling, cryptids, weird moments and people of history; we talk about it all! You can find the show on Spotify and YouTube.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!