The Animals at Lockwood Manor

by Jane Healey

Book Overview

A debut novel for fans of Sarah Perry and Kate Morton: when a young woman is tasked with safeguarding a natural history collection as it is spirited out of London during World War II, she discovers her new manor home is a place of secrets and terror instead of protection.

In August 1939, thirty-year-old Hetty Cartwright arrives at Lockwood Manor to oversee a natural history museum collection, whose contents have been taken...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0358106400
• ISBN13: 9780358106401
• Release Date: March 2020
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A tense, suspenseful debut historical novel

The Animals at Lockwood Manor is a debut historical fiction novel. It takes place in England during the second world war. Hetty Cartwright is tasked with moving animal specimens from the Natural History Museum collection to a manor in the countryside to protect them from the German air raids. Shortly after moving to Lockwood Manor, Hetty realizes all is not quite right with the inhabitants of the manor. The novel is well-written, tense, and atmospheric. The author skillfully builds the suspense, culminating in the motive for hosting the zoological collection and the revelation of multiple secrets. There is also a romance intertwined with the plot and, although important, is not the main focus of the story. It was highly readable and difficult to put down.

The Animals of Lockwood cost me my sanity too.

The Animals of Lockwood Manor was an interesting read. I like the period pieces and this was a cool look in what it would be like during the war when important things like priceless museum pieces were evacuated out of London to protect them from the bombings. That was interesting enough but then there is the added mystery of pieces that move around and go missing in the spooky Lockwood manor. The story is told from the alternating viewpoints of Lucy and Hetty, one the daughter of Major, the owner of Lockwood, and the other, the director of the museum pieces stored at Lockwood. Lucy is already a bit crazy and soon Hetty joins her. I myself lost part of my sanity reading this book and being driven crazy by the missing animals and other mysterious happenings. It was still enjoyable though and I am glad that Lucy and Hetty at least got their semi happy endings.

Interesting

Ummm. This was interesting. I’m still kind of confused as to what the actual plot was, what the genre was and where exactly it went. There were a lot of side stories that were all kinda tossed together, with no real big plot. Wins: -the lesbian slow burn romance was cute. It was however very slow and over dramatic at times -I loved the classification of animals and how Hettie would name people by animals, that was interesting -Hettie was okay. She was super eccentric about the animals, which was kind of annoying, but Lucy was mentally disturbed and very interesting Opportunities -as mentioned, I don’t know what the actual plot was. -what the whole Mary thing? Why did she so openly despise Hettie for no reason? She was a super random character until she was needed. I didn’t like it -TOO MANY SIDE STORIES all in all, this book was okay. I don’t know what genre it falls under, it’s supposed to be like a World War 2 historical fiction, but WW2 plays such a small role, I don’t want to classify it as that, it’s not a romance, it’s kind of a mystery. Its confusing. I hate to just kinda rip on someone’s hard work and writing, but I liked this book until I really really didn’t like it and just wanted it to be over. I don’t know who this is geared towards. Read at your own risk I guess?