Title: The Opal Dragonfly
Author: Julian Leatherdale
Genre: Historical Fiction
Opens: Isobel slept badly.
Blurb: "Miss Isobel Clara Macleod, youngest of the seven children of Major Sir Angus Hutton Macleod, Surveyor-General of the colony of New South Wales, had the singular misfortune to know that at seven o’clock that morning her father was going to die."
In September, 1851 Sydney is a city of secrets and gossip. Seventeen-year-old Isobel Macleod is determined to save her father because she loves him. But when she dares to trespass in a forbidden male world, she will be plunged into social disgrace. A wave of ill fortune threatens to swallow up her family and their stately home, Rosemount Hall, ‘the finest house in the colony’ on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour. But is Isobel to blame for her family’s fate or does the cause lie further in the past? A daughter sacrifices her reputation, two men bid for the love of a woman, freedom is found in the heart of a dust storm, a father’s legacy reveals past crimes. Inspired by Elizabeth Bay House and the other grand villas of Sydney’s Woolloomooloo Hill, The Opal Dragonfly tells the bittersweet story of an ambitious family’s fall from grace and a brave young woman’s struggle to find her true self.
My Thoughts: I generally try to avoid books that are over 400 pages, so for me to gleefully jump on a book that has almost 600 pages is a big indication as to how much I was looking forwards to reading this latest book by Julian Leatherdale. I had very high expectations let me tell you as his first book PALACE OF TEARS was my joint book of the year in 2015. Julian Leatherdale did not let me down!!!
THE OPAL DRAGONFLY starts off very innocently, Isobel decides to save her father from certain death and rushes off at dawn dressed up as a boy to stop a duel. This is not the last headstrong idea that Isobel has, in fact she has tragedy upon tragedy heaped upon her young shoulders. As the story unfolds she often jumps first and asks questions later. Her story is quite dark and tragic, but is never, ever, depressing. Quite the opposite, I was glued to the story as secrets, rejection, deceit, jealousy, madness, betrayal and death after death after death swirled around her. The tragedies started after her mother was given a dragonfly shaped brooch made of opals. Isobel was given the brooch by her mother just before she died and she was told to keep it hidden and not give it to her sister Grace who coveted it. Isobel was also told to throw the brooch into the sea if ill-luck befell the family. Something she was reluctant to do – even once the nightmares started and fortunes changed she hung onto that damn (or was it damned?) brooch.
Sydney in the 1850s came alive on the pages – fiction interlaced with fact gave credence to the story’s setting. While the main characters are fictional they are based on real people and the activities such as exploration, cruelty to Aboriginal peoples and the poorer members of the community is not glossed over. Isobel’s story, gothic in tone, is slowly built up against the backdrop of an evolving city and society, culminating in an edge-of-the-chair horrifying event that left me stunned, before a complete change of pace and reflection ends the story. Not one of the support characters was superfluous to the story – some are there for good, some are there to muddy the waters or ensure harm is done – the reader just has to figure out the truth. An extremely hard thing to do when everyone at some stage lies or hides the truth. Even our young heroine.
Julian Leatherdale, you have now got yourself a new fangirl – or should I say a fan nanna!!! Can’t wait until your next book.
For more about the author – Click Here
A – Excellent Stuff – a real page turner and hard to put down. I carved out extra reading time just so I could finish it. This book got carted into the bathroom with me, read over meals, read at work, and/or kept me up late at night. If this author has more work, I will certainly read it
With thanks to Allen and Unwin and the author for my copy to read and review. Allen & Unwin recommended retail price is $29.99
[…] Thoughts: Separate review here […]