Bluebeard's Castle cover art

Bluebeard's Castle

A Novel

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Bluebeard's Castle

By: Anna Biller
Narrated by: Samantha Hydeson
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About this listen

Bluebeard gets a feminist Gothic makeover in this subversive take on the famous French fairy tale—from the acclaimed director of The Love Witch, and for fans of Jane Eyre

When the successful British mystery writer Judith Moore meets Gavin, a handsome and charming baron, at a birthday party on the Cornish coast, his love transforms her from a bitter, lonely young woman into a romance heroine overnight. After a whirlwind honeymoon in Paris, he whisks her away to a secluded Gothic castle. But soon she finds herself trapped in a nightmare, as her husband’s mysterious nature and his alternation between charm and violence become increasingly frightening.

As Judith battles both internal and external demons, including sexual ambivalence, psychological self-torture, gaslighting, family neglect, alcoholism, and domestic abuse, she becomes increasingly addicted to her wild beast of a husband. Why do women stay in abusive relationships? The answer can be found in the tortured mind of the protagonist, whose richly layered fantasy life parallels that of the female Gothic romance reader. Filled with dark humor and evocative imagery, Bluebeard’s Castle is a subversive take on modern romance and Gothic erotica.

©2023 Anna Biller (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. “Bluebeard” by Sylvia Plath is reproduced with kind permission of Faber & Faber and HarperCollins.
Gothic Psychological

Critic Reviews

“Impressively original, inherently fascinating and vividly brought to life with the narrative storytelling skills of Samantha Hydeson.”Midwest Book Review

"Bluebeard's Castle [is] … a stylised retelling of the old fable that mixes self-reference and gaudy excess. Its heroine, Judith, a gothic-romance novelist, shacks up in a crumbling castle with a brooding husband; the sex, death and pricy cognac are of a wildly enjoyable piece."—Cal Revely-Calder, Best Fiction Books of the Year, Telegraph

"Both a fantasy and a nightmare ... [Biller] casts a chilling light on the kinds of real-world fairy tales we are all still so often encouraged to believe."—Elizabeth Dearnley, Times Literary Supplement

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Weak story and characters

The book started interestingly enough but in the end just went in circles and fails to achieve what it sets out to do. Characters were very one dimensional and don't go though much growth. I guess it would have been better as a movie.

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