Beheld (Nesbit) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
There is a contradiction underpinning the whole project of English imperialism, and Nesbit flags it perfectly. On the one hand, the English pilgrims regard themselves as epitomizing civility, manners and thus superiority. On the other hand, they deploy barbaric cruelty in order to defend that superiority.… [Beheld] is most successful where it allows itself to stray from historical fact and plot—to invent and to play with language, to give itself imaginative time and space. Nesbit is brilliant in those moments.
Samantha Harvey - New York Times Book Review


[C]ompelling… successfully evokes what happens in this society strained by inequality…. Nesbit so persuasively creates her two main female characters… that the sections focused on one man can seem extraneous…. Nesbit clearly describes… how she used the historical record to inspire her fictional account,… [and] it can be fun… to observe how a skilled novelist such as Nesbit in Beheld disrupts expectation [of historical figures] to render the messy lives of those too often calcified in myth.
USA Today


A richly complex and sorrowful work…. The prominence of female characters provides a refreshing filter through which to see a familiar history…. In this powerful work, Nesbit renders the past without muting its gravity.
Minneapolis Star Tribune


(Starred review) [D]eeply enjoyable…. Capturing the alternating voices of the haves and the have-nots, Nesbit’s lush prose adds texture to stories of the colony’s women, and her deep immersion in primary sources adds complexity to the historical record.
Publishers Weekly


[W]e hear much of all the common squabbles of people living in close proximity during very hard times, but most intriguingly an increasing foreshadowing of a murder to come.… Readers who enjoy historical fiction, told with fine literary style, will be delighted. —Vicki Gregory, Sch. of Information, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa
Library Journal


Restoring women’s voices, primarily through Alice and Eleanor, adds a new and welcome dimension to our history, made more vivid by solid research and clear, concise prose. In Nesbit’s hands, history once again comes alive.
Booklist


 Nesbit's novel has all the juicy sex, lies, and violence of a prestige Netflix drama and shines surprising light on the earliest years of America, massive warts and all. A dramatic look at the Pilgrims as seen through women's eyes.
Kirkus Reviews