Review: The Savage Instinct by M.M. DeLuca

Title: The Savage Instinct

Author: M.M. DeLuca

Published: May 2021, Inkshares (first published June 2015)

Format: ARC Paperback, 377 pages

Source: Publisher

Summary:
England, 1873. Clara Blackstone has just been released after one year in a private asylum for the insane. Clara has two goals: to reunite with her husband, Henry,
and to never—ever—return to the asylum. As she enters Durham, Clara finds her carriage surrounded by a mob gathered to witness the imprisonment of Mary Ann Cotton—England’s first female serial killer—accused of poisoning nearly twenty people, including her husbands and children.

Clara soon finds the oppressive confinement of her marriage no less terrifying than the white-tiled walls of Hoxton. And as she grows increasingly suspicious of Henry’s intentions, her fascination with Cotton grows. Soon, Cotton is not just a notorious figure from the headlines, but an unlikely confidante, mentor—and perhaps accomplice—in Clara’s struggle to protect her money, her freedom and her life.

In the lineage of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, The Savage Instinct is the chilling story of one woman’s struggle for her sanity, set against the backdrop of the arrest and trial of Mary Ann Cotton, England’s first female serial killer.

My thoughts:  There is just something about books that deal with asylums and serial killers that call to me…not quite sure what that says about me, but those are the types of books that I love and this one, set in Victorian England really captivated me right from the start. 

There are so many layers to this book and I found myself glued to the pages all the way through. Clara has recently been released from an asylum and sent back to her husband, but quickly realizes she is only leaving one prison for another. She ends up befriending an unlikely ally, prisoner Mary Anne Cotton, who is accused of poisoning three husbands and eleven children. They each give the other strength to deal with what they are each going through.

It was hard not to feel immediate sympathy for Clara. Her past was absolutely devastating to read and even the stories about the other patients in the asylums tore at my heartstrings. I just don’t understand how men believed they had that much power that they felt they could just lock up a woman in an asylum if they were having a problem with her. How as a society was this ok and allowed to happen?

I loved this story. It was a dark, haunting read and yet it gripped me right from the first page. I loved that it uses the real life serial killer of Mary Ann Cotton. I
definitely plan on doing a bit of research into her life…this is why I love reading historical fiction – for that drive to
learn more! I will saythis book was uncomfortable to read at times, especially when it comes to the issues of mental illness during this era, but it was needed and fit so well within the framework of the story.

If you love historical fiction, with a bit of a Gothic feel and a little mystery thrown in, I highly recommend picking this one up!