Ava Reid has already established herself as a notable writer of fantasy fiction. I enjoyed her feminist take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and her novel Lady Macbeth recounts the story from the perspective of the doomed Scottish queen. Reid’s latest endeavour, Innamorata, is a bold foray into creating a text in the mode of the Gothic.
Contrary to popular belief, the Gothic is an incredibly difficult genre of writing to master. While a respected tradition of Gothic writers, ranging from Ann Radcliffe to Isak Dinesen, have produced texts that are genuinely entertaining mixtures of horror and romance (the two major linchpins of the genre), plenty of charlatans (both in the Subcontinent as well as overseas) have attempted to create Gothic pieces, with results that are laughable at best and ghastly at worst. Ava Reid succeeds in creating a mixture of grotesque horror and surprisingly plausible romance.
The heroine, Agnes, hails from a period in a fantastical universe where necromancy, though formerly rampant, has been severely suppressed by the efforts of a conqueror named Berengar. Agnes belongs to one of seven major houses, all named after parts of the body — the House of Teeth, the House of Blood, the House of Eyes etc. One does not need to look very closely in order to perceive the parallels between Agnes’ grim world and that of Westeros in Game of Thrones. However, the psychosis and gore underlying Reid’s universe give even the hit show a run for its money!
