The Quick
Lauren Owen, 2014
Random House
544 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812993271
Summary
A novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London . . .
1892: James Norbury, a shy would-be poet newly down from Oxford, finds lodging with a charming young aristocrat. Through this new friendship, he is introduced to the drawing-rooms of high society and finds love in an unexpected quarter.
Then, suddenly, he vanishes without a trace. Alarmed, his sister, Charlotte, sets out from their crumbling country estate determined to find him. In the sinister, labyrinthine London that greets her, she uncovers a hidden, supernatural city populated by unforgettable characters: a female rope walker turned vigilante, a street urchin with a deadly secret, and the chilling “Doctor Knife.”
But the answer to her brother’s disappearance ultimately lies within the doors of the exclusive, secretive Aegolius Club, whose predatory members include the most ambitious, and most bloodthirsty, men in England.
In her first novel, Lauren Owen has created a fantastical world that is both beguiling and terrifying. The Quick will establish her as one of fiction’s most dazzling talents. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1985
• Rasied—Yorkshire, England, UK
• Education—Oxford University; University of East Anglia
• Awards—Curtis Brown Prize
• Currently—lives in Northern England
Lauren Owen grew up in the grounds of a boarding school in Yorkshire. Her first attempts at writing as a teenager were Harry Potter fan fiction. She is a graduate of St Hilda's, Oxford, holds an MA in Victorian Literature, and is completing a PhD on Gothic writing and fan culture. She is the recipient of the University of East Anglia creative-writing programme's prestigious Curtis Brown Prize. The Quick is her first novel. (From the UK publisher.)
Book Reviews
[R]eaders might think they’re about to embark on a highhanded version of the Gothic novel, full of metafictions and literary allusions. These do appear, along with some beautiful language, but by Page 100, when the first neck is about to be bitten, The Quick drops its cloak and becomes a good old-fashioned vampire novel.... To cover such well-worn narrative ground, a novelist has to either invent new possibilities or invent new storytelling devices. Owen has chosen the latter, and the novel proceeds by looping back over the previous episodes, each time from a different character’s perspective. This has the pleasant effect of plunging us into invention and then, slowly, into recognition.
Andrew Sean Greer - New York Times Book Review
[A] creepy debut...a thrilling tale.... This book will give you chills even on a hot day
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Forget Jack the Ripper—it’s the curiously pale aristocratic types you need to beware of in this supernatural Gothic nightmare.... Owen’s stylishly sinister world of betrayal and Lovecraftian monsters will have you sleeping with the lights on.
Oprah Magazine
The first quarter of this debut novel is a lovely, poetic tale.... The last half is entirely bonkers and totally unexpected. Read it with the lights on.
New Republic
The book’s energy, its wide reach and rich detail make it a confident example of the "unputdownable" novel.
Economist
(Starred review.) Owen sets her seductive book in 1892, in a late-Victorian London with a serious vampire problem..... [A]n old-fashioned, leisurely pace,...Owen's sentence-by-sentence prose is extraordinarily polished—a noteworthy feat for a 500-page debut—and she packs many surprises into her tale, making it a book for readers to lose themselves in.
Publishers Weekly
An intriguing blend of historical, gothic, and supernatural fiction.... [The Quick features] wonderful atmospheric writing.
Library Journal
An intricate, sinister epic....an impressive feat....Owen proves a master at anticipating readers’ thoughts about future happenings and then crumbling them into dust. Her world building is exceptional, and readers will simultaneously embrace and shrink from the atmosphere’s elegant ghastliness.
Booklist
An elegantly written gothic epic that begins with children isolated in a lonely manor house.... A book that seems to begin as a children's story ends in blood-soaked mayhem; the journey from one genre to another is satisfying and surprisingly fresh considering that it's set in a familiar version of gothic London among equally familiar monsters.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What genre (or genres) would you say The Quick falls into? How does it embrace or subvert the conventions of those genres?
2. What literary influences do you see in The Quick?
3. Emily Richter figures into many of the book’s most pivotal early scenes. How much do you think she knows or doesn’t know about James and Christopher’s relationship, and about Eustace’s change? Why do you think she tells James to “be careful”?
4. Discuss the figure of the owl throughout the book.
5. Characters agree to the Exchange for different reasons. Why reasons do you think Adeline’s fiancé, John had? Are there any reasons that would tempt you to join the Aegolius Club?
6. Why do you think Mrs. Price turns children? How does their group compare to other family units in the book?
7. Why do the Club members refer to the living as the “Quick”?
8. How does Mould change over the course of the book? Do you think he remains a man of science to the end? Why might Edmund have delayed so long in giving Mould what he wanted?
9. Charlotte’s quiet life is altered drastically by the book’s events. In what ways does it change for the better? When in the book do you think she is happiest?
10. Had you heard of a priest hole before reading The Quick? Why do you think Owen chose to begin and end the book there?
11. The ending of The Quick seems to beg for a sequel. What do you think happened to James? What directions could you imagine a sequel going in? Whose stories might it follow? When and where might it take place?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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