Book Review: Beneath the Flesh

Title: Beneath the Flesh 

Author: Claire Ladds

Publisher: Claire Ladds

Quote: "The voices carried on, Mr. Cavannagh trying to fend off his wife's nasty, cruel sniping, but with little success."

Here's the solid "fact" in this piece of fiction: Miriam, Mrs. Cavannagh, is a horrorcow. Long ago her ancestors made some money renting out rooms in their big, cold house, somewhere in an unspecified place where the characters seem British and the weather is cold enough for Canada. Now--which feels like the 1940s, but then characters whip out mobile phones--Mr. Cavannagh drinks, and Mrs. Cavannagh walks in her sleep. They have no paying lodgers left. They have an orphan Mr. Cavannagh invited to live with them in a burst of drunken bonhomie, and Mrs. Cavannagh trained to work in the shop that is now the Cavannaghs' source of income. It's an unusually cold winter, when snow hangs on all winter long, and the house is always cold> Mrs. Cavannagh tries to ignore "Final Reminders" and limits everyone's food. 

If asked, Mrs. Cavannagh could say that they've treated Ella as if she were their own daughter. This is likely to be true. Mr. Cavannagh would probaby be just as weak, and Mrs. Cavannagh just as spiteful, if they'd had a child of their own. Ella is now twenty-three years old but "kids had more pocket money" than she's allowed to keep out of her duly documented wages for work int he shop. She's working for room and board. The room is cold, with a loose window that lets in the snow. The food is cold, scant, and nasty. Mrs. Cavannagh hits her husband and beats Ella when she's not feeling good about herself. And does she feel bad about herself merely because she's likely to lose her ancestral home, or has she done worse things?

One morning Mr. Cavannagh disappears. Did he go out into the falling snow to smoke his pipe, or did Mrs. Cavannagh kill him at last? He's talked of taking Ella and leaving his wife, but he's too drunk, and she's too badly intimidated, to have much chance of surviving on their own, and both of them know it.

In any case, Ella's luck is about to turn. A rent-paying lodger turns up, a young woman who says she works in the film industry. She's older, and has changed her name and hair color since Ella last saw her, but she's an old foster sister from the abusive home where Ella lived before she met the Cavannaghs. Is she really just an A.A. with an entry-level job that pays well...or is she an undercover police officer? 

And why did a knife with blood on it turn up in Mrs. Cavannagh's hand as she woke up one morning? What about the other things going missing?  And what's in the private freezer, locked with a padlock to which Mrs. Cavannagh is sure she holds the only key? Would Mrs. Cavannagh really have killed her husband, chopped him into pieces, and stowed him in the freezer?

If you're looking for a gothic tale full of cold, hunger, and hostility to help you appreciate warmth, food, and family, Beneath the Flesh is for you. The bitter chill never leaves the fictional atmosphere; the end of the book reminds us that hardships do not make people nice. Ella and her foster sister are not idealistic introverts like Sara Crewe. The foster sister even takes the name Maya, reminding us of the Hindu philosophy of karma as an endless cycle of revenge spanning beyond generations and spawning fresh abuses. This is the darksome land, wild wolf-cliffs and windy wilderness, where extroverts seem doomed to spend their lives. 

Be kind to orphans, Gentle Readers.