Seoul, present day. Antiques dealer Alys’s task is nearly complete. She has at last secured Elizabeth, the final anatomical Venus in a dangerously intertwined trio. Crafted in eighteenth-century London and modeled after real-life sex workers to entice male medical students to study female anatomy, these eerie wax figures, known as slashed beauties, carry unsavory lore. Legend has it that the figures are bewitched, and come to life at night to murder men who have wronged them. Now Alys embarks for England, where she knows what she must do: sever her cursed connection to the Venuses once and for all.

London, 1763. Abandoned and penniless in Covent Garden, wide-eyed Eleanor and another young woman, Emily, are taken under the wing of beautiful and beguiling Elizabeth, one of the city’s most highly desired courtesans. But as Eleanor is seduced deeper into a web of money, materialism, and men, it seems that Elizabeth may not be the savior she appears to be.

As past and present begin to intersect, it becomes clear that the women’s stories are linked in deeper, darker ways than it initially seems. And that the only method for Alys to end the witchcraft that binds her legacy is to gather all three models in one place and destroy them.

The problem is, Elizabeth is not ready to burn. Far from it. Centuries on, she is determined to rise again, and she will obliterate anything standing in her path. Including Alys herself.

Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby is dark and chilling, a story that uses two different times to tell a tale of witchcraft and oppression. From the very start, I found Alys intriguing, especially as you can tell that both tales are linked and Alys is full of secrets. As the stories alternate, I found Eleanor and her story compelling and heartbreaking. But it is once the story opens up the supernatural elements and mysteries that I was hooked. 

As the mysteries unfold around the wax figures and just how everything connects, each time period leading the reader to the gothic horror that faces Eleanore and Emily, the story only grows scarier as you realize Elizabeth’s power and drive. The story is dark but powerful as Alys must find a way to confront Elizabeth and stop her from her ambitions once and for all.

If you like dark and chilling tales of gothic horror along with compelling and intriguing female leads, this novel will keep you enthralled and the ending will be more emotional than you can anticipate as Alys confronts Elizabeth. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 strands of hair. 

Penguin RandomHouse

A Rushby website