What do readers think of The Quick by Lauren Owen? Write your own review.

What goes on behind the doors of The Aegolius Club? In this 19th century style novel the reader will find a straight-up gothic horror tale told from multiple points of view. If you enjoyed THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova, you will want to discover the secret hidden in the shadows of Victorian London.

I want to start by saying that it is very difficult to honestly review The Quick without giving away plot points that would ruin the experience. So...what can I say? Well written, atmospheric, one surprising ( in a good way) character for a Victorian Gothic, twisty plot that is decidedly creepy (also in a good way) with a satisfactory, if unsettling, ending (which I am betting will lead to a sequel)- all of these describe this intriguing novel. Some may find it too predictable, it is long - the ARC was 500 pages- and there is a large cast of characters that can be difficult to navigate but in the end it was worth my time. I would recommend it.

The Quick is a suspenseful, fast-paced Victorian Gothic novel. The story, which incorporates elements of fantasy and the macabre, is rich in period detail. I much appreciated the literary quality of the writing. This novel has a large cast of characters, my favorite of whom was a female tightrope walker! Shifting points of view and the use of different narrative voices throw the reader off-balance at times, but the momentum of the plot never falters. There is a fair amount of violence, but not too much gore. One of my favorite things about the book is that the plot encompasses three different love stories, all intriguingly unconventional.

The book got boring after the first 150 pages or so... nothing to write home about.

I am not a huge fan of this particular genre. That being said- I can enjoy and devour any story with engaging characters, vivid locations, and an intriguing plot. Sadly this story not only slogged through the 500 plus pages, it was bogged down by an over large cast of characters so sketchily presented it was difficult to keep track let alone care about them. There were multiple subplots so abruptly started and stopped as to be confusing and beg the question - "why are we being told this?" I made it through but it was rough and occasionally tedious. I was left feeling a book this long shouldn't have been so vague. The few plot twists that were interesting were never fully realized and as such unable to make up for the plodding pace of the narratives.

The book starts out strong, creating a spooky gothic atmosphere with a secret society and a strange disappearance. The author is great at setting a story, and she does know how to turn a phrase. Unfortunately, I found myself becoming bored by the middle of the book. The author weighs the book down with too much detail leading to a slow, laboriously paced story.

The first 100 pages of this book was a quite interesting love story between two young men living in early 1900s London. The protagonist grew up in a decrepit country estate with only his older sister for company. He goes to London with the intention of becoming a writer. He meets his lover as a roommate and soon they are inspiring each other and fumbling towards a relationship that is not acceptable in their time and place. Towards the ends of the first 100 pages the two men are planning to leave London for a trip through Italy and I was looking forward to seeing where this story led and how the romance developed.
However, after those first 100 pages, the book abruptly takes a left turn and -SPOILER---all of a sudden the book is about vampires. There is a non-vampire doctor who seeks to explore the rules of vampiredom, the older sister's quest to find her disappeared brother and a caste of lower class vampires versus upper class ones. I think part of the problem is that I have vampire fatigue from the large profile they have had in popular culture lately. But I also think that this book doesn't really bring anything new to the vampire canon. I had hints of Bram Stoker's Dracula and hints of Interview with a Vampire and nothing that felt really original.
I would mildly recommend this book for the first hundred pages, but the rest was just not interesting to me.

I actually enjoyed the last third of the book most of all. It takes that amount of time to incorporate all of the characters and how they interact with each other. Part of the problem is that sometimes 200 pages ensues in-between the names being mentioned. This book should really be read in one sitting- unfortunately it's too long for that. I like the author's writing style but I don't think she adequately ever explained who the "quick" actually were. Charlotte's relationships were the most endearing and believable. This book might be ok for book clubs if they can suspend their disbelief with the unknown.