AUGUST 2019 - AudioFile
This fictional but plausible memoir features a lesbian mulatto servant who is accused of killing her master and mistress in 1825 London. Sara Collins narrates her own novel in a voice filled with resignation; her voice sounds upper-class English with Caribbean intonations. Frannie's terrible suffering is clear—she was once a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation who was forced participant in grisly pseudoscientific experiments and then was given to another degenerate scientist. Collins makes us care about Frannie. Narrator Roy McMillan's role is to read official documents and newspaper accounts. This story is slow at times and overcrowded with similes, but the narrative will move the listener, as will the hopeless, desolate voice of Frannie. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Irish Times
Original and evocative . . . vivid characters, lush settings, a captivating heroine and an intelligent, unsentimental analysis of her tragic history.
The Observer
"A bold and timely reinvention of the classic gothic novel . . . which, with its tentative exploration of passion and transgression of boundaries, is reminiscent of the best of Sarah Waters"
The Times (London)
An impressive debut, dazzlingly original.
Red Magazine
"With echoes of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Sara Waters's The Paying Guests, this is an accomplished debut novel that perfectly captures the atmosphere of Georgian London and gives voice to a singular and unforgettable heroine."
Elizabeth Day
A book of heart, soul and guts…beautifully written, lushly evocative, and righteously furious. Frannie might be a 19th century character, but she is also a heroine for our times.
The Guardian Best Fiction of 2019
"A fantastically assured piece of historical gothic."
Laura Carlin
A seductive and entrancing read, with captivating historical detail…The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an extremely powerful book that resonates long after the final page has been turned.
Kit de Waal
"One of those page-turners that require a good long weekend to savour it. It's brilliantly written, very funny in parts, sexy, clever and a book that will keep you guessing until the end."
Jael Richardson
A story that twists and turns until the very last page. I did not want it to end...and when it did, I was both surprised and satisfied. The perfect combination.
Costa Judges
This book is the full package – we all loved it.
Natasha Pulley
An absolute gem that points at you and asks whether it might be a sign of horrifying privilege, to enjoy a genre devoted to the grotesque.
Sunday Times (London)
"Bold and powerful."
Emma Donoghue
By turns lush, gritty, wry, gothic and compulsive, The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a dazzlingly page turner. With as much psychological savvy as righteous wrath, Sara Collins twists together the slave narrative, bildungsroman, love story and crime novel to make something new.
Bernadine Evaristo
"Sara Collins takes the gothic genre by the scruff of the neck...a triumph of powerful characterisation melded with suspenseful plotting while also breaking new ground in subverting a familiar genre."
Christine Mangan
From the sweltering heat of the West Indies to the rain-slicked cobbles of London, Collins transports her readers to the nineteenth century with an enthralling historical thriller. Frannie Langton is an unforgettable heroine, one who boldly reclaims her narrative within the context of a history that seeks to silence her. The Confessions of Frannie Langton is gorgeous—Gothic writing at its very best.
Jessie Greengrass
Frannie’s voice is compelling: tender and furious and wholly deserving of attention.
“11 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This S Refinery29
A formidable debut.
Margaret Atwood via @MargaretAtwood
Deep-diving, elegant + tough.
Entertainment Weekly
A blistering historical thriller.
Wall Street Journal
Impressive. . . . Retrieving the truth—all sorts of truth—is the transfixing work of this rich and extravagantly well-written novel.
Washington Post
A startling, compelling historical debut novel. . . should be on top of your vacation reading pile.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A highly accomplished debut. . . . Large, lavish and gutsy, a skilled and intoxicating mash-up of slave narrative, gothic romance, whodunit and legal thriller. Collins—who lives in London and is of Jamaican descent—pays careful attention to historical detail while at the same time ensuring her reader stays immersed in her emotional drama and invested in her full-bodied characters.
Criminal Element
It’s truly remarkable that The Confessions of Frannie Langton is Sara Collins’ first novel. The plotting is so assured, the characters so layered, the prose so searing. . . . the historical setting hums with life. . . . Collins has gifted us with a powerful new heroine while shining a brilliant spotlight on a swathe of history that is too often relegated to footnotes.
O: The Oprah Magazine
Collins’s propulsive spine-tingler uses the conventions of historical fiction but infuses the genre with edgy beauty. . . . In her deft hands, defiant Frannie summons courage and cunning to tell a story of colonialism, racism, and the yearning to connect.
The Guardian
[An] impressive debut. . . . a bold and timely reinvention of the classic gothic novel. . . . reminiscent of the best of Sarah Waters. . . . Collins has created a truly memorable heroine and written a compelling gothic novel for our times.
New York Times
"A well-crafted, searing depiction of race, class and oppression.
Bernardine Evaristo
Sara Collins takes the gothic genre by the scruff of the neck and boldly positions a black Jamaican woman as the protagonist in London 200 years ago. It’s a triumph of powerful characterization melded with suspenseful plotting while also breaking new ground in subverting a familiar genre.
Lyndsay Faye
Destined to become a benchmark for historical fiction, The Confessions of Frannie Langton is at once fiercely raw and remorselessly beautiful.... A book to be devoured, marveled at, applauded—and yes, studied, for its ability to turn grim history into a wildly romantic expedition into the darkest corners of the human heart.
The Globe and Mail
An absorbing, utterly searing read . . . . As immersive as The Confessions of Frannie Langton is, its real power is in how it will make you want to engage with your own reality differently.
Stef Penney
Sara Collins has created a tough, fiery, vividly alive character. Beautifully written, in crisp and careful prose; but more than that, it comes across as a story that’s been waiting to be written for a very long time…[Collins] has picked up the tradition of gothic fiction and made it brand new.
Washington Post
A startling, compelling historical debut novel. . . should be on top of your vacation reading pile.”
Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Sp Refinery29
“A formidable debut.”
Guardian
“A startling, compelling historical debut novel. . . should be on top of your vacation reading pile.”
O: The Oprah Magazine
Collins’s propulsive spine-tingler uses the conventions of historical fiction but infuses the genre with edgy beauty. . . . In her deft hands, defiant Frannie summons courage and cunning to tell a story of colonialism, racism, and the yearning to connect.
AUGUST 2019 - AudioFile
This fictional but plausible memoir features a lesbian mulatto servant who is accused of killing her master and mistress in 1825 London. Sara Collins narrates her own novel in a voice filled with resignation; her voice sounds upper-class English with Caribbean intonations. Frannie's terrible suffering is clear—she was once a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation who was forced participant in grisly pseudoscientific experiments and then was given to another degenerate scientist. Collins makes us care about Frannie. Narrator Roy McMillan's role is to read official documents and newspaper accounts. This story is slow at times and overcrowded with similes, but the narrative will move the listener, as will the hopeless, desolate voice of Frannie. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
