The Unseen by Katherine Webb

The Unseen by Katherine Webb is a captivating tale of love, deception, and illusion that takes place in the early 1900s in England. This piece of historical fiction is a real page turner that will surprise you and leave you wanting more at the end.

Book Description

“From Katherine Webb, the author of the acclaimed international bestseller The Legacy, comes a compelling tale of love, deception, and illusion.

A vicar with a passion for nature, the Reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with his naive wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year 1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings' lives are forever changed by two new arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows nearby.

Quickly finding a place for herself in the underbelly of local society, Cat secretly plots her escape. Meanwhile, Robin, a young man of considerable magnetic charm and beauty, soon becomes an object of fascination and desire. Sweltering in the oppressive summer heat, the peaceful rectory turns into a hotbed of dangerous ambition, forbidden love, and jealousy—a potent mixture of emotions that ultimately leads to murder.” – The Unseen

My Thoughts

The Unseen is a very well written book that had me totally immersed in it for a weekend. It is hard to write much about the plot without giving anything away to the storyline surprises you’ll uncover along the way. So, I won’t go there with this review. If you are looking for spoilers, read another review.

The story is set in 1911 and 2011, which I found a unique way to show the perspective of the story. Katherine Webb writes so well that these two very different time periods flowed perfectly and didn’t feel like two different books. Not an easy accomplishment for the subject matter, but she did it flawlessly.

The characters are all well-formed and memorable. Cat, Hester, and Leah are the females we root for in the story, and sometimes wish they’d stop allowing themselves to be used by the males. Even in a 100 year difference of time, that is still a recurring theme throughout the book.

I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a fascinating piece of historical fiction. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of The Unseen, William Morrow, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.