Book Review: A Madness Unmade

Title: A Madness Unmade

Author: E. K. Larson-Burnett

Where to buy: Amazon (affiliate link)

Genre: Fantasy, Coming of Age

Would I recommend: Enthusiastically! The world-building is excellent, the characters compelling, and the story beautifully written.

Synopsis:

Laurel Rumbroom is the sole living resident of the Underhallow, where dead moths have been showing up at the gates in neatly wrapped packages.

Since the institution of the Revenant Accords, which prohibits ghosts from freely haunting the country, the Rumbrooms have acted as Guardians to the ghosts seeking refuge at their sanctuary. But when Laurel’s father suddenly passes, leaving her orphaned, the Underhallow falls in danger of losing its sanctions.

Bewildered by the mysterious deliveries of dead moths, starting to question her grip on reality, and gradually realizing the precarious position of her home and the questionable circumstances surrounding her father’s death, Laurel begs the help of the Underhallow ghosts animated by her powers, struggling to come into her own and unmake her madness.

With humor, whimsy, and elements of gothic mystery, A Madness Unmade is the first book in the Victorian-inspired Deathly Inheritance Duology, perfect for fans of Charlie N. Holmberg and S.L. Prater.

Laurel Rumbroom is the last of her line after her father’s untimely demise. She is also the sole living resident of the Underhallow, a sanctuary for ghosts not quite ready to fully shuffle off this mortal coil, and its last Guardian. The ghosts there tend to her needs and do their best to take care of her, and in return, she tries to take care of them. But deliveries of dead moths are telling her something isn’t quite right. With her questionable mind and unwillingness to leave the grounds of Underhallow, what can she do to unravel the mystery and preserve the Underhallow?

Erin Larson-Burnett has given us an eerily whimsical world, populated with ghosts who can be kind, pompous, shy, rude, and frightening. Lauren is an unreliable narrator, by turns clear as a bell and lost in the fog of her own mind. She’s struggling to take in the education Master Godwin tries to impress upon her, but she just can’t quite hang onto the knowledge. I wanted to reach into the pages and hug her.

The author covers a lot in this book: mental health, political machinations, intrigue, found family, coming into one’s own. It’s all beautifully done, and I am so glad there’s more to come in the second book of the duology! I can hardly wait to get my hands on the second one.