Hi everyone. I'm rincey and this is
rincey reads. Today i'm going to be
talking about the confessions of Franny
Langton by Sara Collins. This is a book
that came out last year. I was sent an
advanced copy of it but did not read it
until this week. So here I am to talk
about it. So this is a historical fiction
book that has like a little bit of a
mystery element to it. I've seen some
people / marketing materials talk
about this as a historical thriller but
I wouldn't categorize this in the
thriller genre at all. There is a mystery
happening here, or there's-- a part of this
is a mystery but that isn't really what
it is. So let me give you an actual
synopsis so you can kind of know what it
is. So you are following this character
named Frannie Langton. She is a Jamaican
woman. This takes place in the early
1800s. She was a slave in Jamaica and her
owner ends up eventually taking her over
to England where slavery isn't a thing
anymore but obviously black people still
aren't treated very well. But she ends up
becoming like a maid to someone in
England. And the story starts off with
Frannie Langton being accused of murdering
her boss and his wife. And she is
basically like writing her confessions
of her life to do her best to explain
what exactly happened in this murder
because she herself isn't really sure. So
this is a really interesting book and
the reason why I wanted to review it is
because I had like a very interesting
experience reading this. This is
definitely a very like gothic-y type of
novel. I've seen people compare this to
Sarah Waters, and I definitely think it
has similar vibes to it in the sense
that it's kind of like a slow-moving
historical fiction book. And I don't mean
slow moving in a derogatory way. But
kind of that pacing where you start
things off really slowly and then just
sort of like as the book goes on like
the pressure slowly builds over time to
the, like, what I think is like the climax
of the story and where things get really
intense really fast. I actually listen to
this on audiobook and I definitely
recommend that if you are someone who
listens to audiobooks. And this was available
on Hoopla. So if you have access to
hoopla I definitely recommend that. But
the way that this book is structured is
in two basically like parts or ideas. One
of them is following this confession
that Frannie Langton is writing and so
it's told in like the first person. And
the audiobook has it so there is a
Jamaican woman who is reading that part
of the story. And then the other part of
the story are like transcripts from
the trial or just documents from the
trial. And those parts are told from
male audiobook narrators perspective. So
I thought that provided something kind
of interesting and different in this
audio book experience. But the fact that
it's told from that first-person
perspective, I feel like lent it very
well to being an audiobook. The way that
Sara Collins writes is really, really
beautiful and definitely something that
like grabbed my attention in the
beginning. Like I said this is kind of a
slow moving story. And so when I-- I tried
to read this book before but I could
tell like the writing style just wasn't
really clicking with my brain. But then
listening to it, I think, really helped me
get into the groove of the story and the
groove of the writing and stuff like
that. But I think that if you're someone
who reads a lot of like gothic fiction
or reads a lot of like classics and
things like that, you'll not really have
a problem like with that like I did. One
of the things that's mentioned really
early on in the book that Frannie Langton
is writing is she says like she doesn't
want to write a slave narrative but she
kind of ends up doing that anyways. But
it's a very different sort of narrative
than like the quote/unquote typical
slave narrative that a lot of people
or at least that I am familiar with. And I
think that's partially because like none
of this takes place in the United States.
And so I think a lot of times when
people think of slave narratives, they
think of either stories that take place
in Africa and/or the United States and
this takes place in Jamaica and England.
And it's not really a typical slave
narrative but it does have a lot of
similar ideas that are woven into it just
by the fact that it's taking place in
this time period and you're following a
black woman. But Frannie Langton lives
a very, I don't want to say unusual
life but she leads a life that has a lot
of layers and a lot of sort of turn
and peaks and valleys to it. I think that
if you read the book like Washington
Black, that one is sort of a more
lighthearted, I suppose you could say,
although there are a lot of parts in
that book that aren't really
light-hearted. But I feel like that book
explores kind of some similar things
just because there are parts of this
book that talk about the science and
experiments that a lot of people did in
regards to black people in a really
like terrible way. I don't want to go
into that too much because I feel like
that's sort of woven into a lot of this
plot. But Frannie Linton is owned by and
becomes like the maid of two scientists.
And they are scientists who have a lot
of interest in eugenics basically and
like what race does or doesn't have to
do with like a person's skill level or
intelligence, etc, etc. And Frannie
Langton's life is basically like
intertwined with all of that. Like I said,
earlier Sara Collins's writing is
really beautiful and I think that she
really like paints a picture. There are a
lot of scenes in here that are really
descriptive but that also means there
are a lot of scenes in here that are
really graphic, both in a violent
standpoint and also in a sexual
standpoint. So just FYI if that's a thing
that bothers you. And I think for me
there were like two things that were
kind of propelling me through this book.
Part of it was like finally figuring out
what exactly happened on this fateful
night and how this all came to be. But
also like Frannie Langton herself gets
into really precarious and really
unexpected situations, I will just say,
and I was just like I have to know
what's gonna happen to her. I feel like
to me like the mystery felt almost
secondary to just like her general life
story and just knowing-- wanting to know
what exactly was going on with this
character in general. So yeah, I feel like
this book was pitched pretty heavily on
the mystery aspect of it but I feel like
the mystery is really secondary. And so
if you're going into this wanting a
really strong mystery, I don't
necessarily know if you're gonna like
love it. Although if you love like
historical mysteries and like, again, that
sort of gothic fiction feeling to it
like Sarah Waters, then I think you'll
really enjoy it. But if you're going into
this wanting a really strong mystery
I think you'll be a little bit
disappointed. This I feel like is kind of
akin to long bright river where the
mystery aspect of it is really secondary.
And so I can see a lot of people being
disappointed in both of these books
because of that. But I think that the
writing and the character development
and the stuff that you would consider
more quote-unquote literary are really
what hold these books up. So yeah, I think
I gave-- I would give this like a three
and a half almost, four stars. I
definitely, definitely again recommend
the audiobook if you are an audiobook
person, and especially if you were maybe
having a little bit of a harder time
getting into this book. I have seen like
people say that they like DNF'd this
book and they couldn't really get into
it and I completely understand why. But I
feel like the audiobook really did a
good job of grabbing me and so
definitely check that out if you want to
give this book a read. So those are my
quick thoughts on the confessions of
Frannie Langton. Let me know down the
comments below if you read this book. Or
if you have any questions about the book
let me know down in the comments below
as well and I will try my best to answer
those. But I would love to see sort of
like what other people thought of this
book. I know a lot of people, or I know
people who basically fall on like both
sides of the spectrum of enjoying this
book and not enjoying this book and I
can definitely understand both sides of
the argument. But I feel like by the end
of the book it basically won me over. And
it was, you know, compelling enough to
keep me going. And in an age and time
when I seem to be DNF-ing things
really hardcore, I have to give it props
for that. So yeah, let me know down in the
comments below your thoughts on it. So
yeah, that's all I have for now and
thanks for watching.
