The Infamous Gilberts

by Angela Tomaski

‘We shall be forgotten.’ he said. ‘We shall be lost. They will scrub us away like a set of dirty fingerprints on a plastic kettle.’

The crumbling Gothic mansion of Thornwalk, long-term home of the Gilbert family, is being handed over to a chain of luxury ‘historic’ hotels. Millions will be spent in its restoration. But for every ‘improvement’, what will be lost? What value can there possibly be in a threadbare carpet, a tarnished spoon and a thousand empty jam jars?

Before the hotel people arrive, with their clipboards and their skips and their bottles of bleach, Maximus, loyal guardian of the Gilberts’ legacy, invites us on a final tour of the once-stately home, where each room holds a secret. From the bolt on the blue room door to the tiny dents in the bars at the nursery window … these are the keys that will unlock the lives of the five fatherless Gilbert children.

A frustrated romantic, a stubborn traditionalist, a dreamer, a diva and an The Infamous Gilberts will be cast adrift on the irresistible tides of the twentieth century, buoyed by love, buffeted by loss, and tangled together in an unputdownable story where the lines between eccentricity and madness, cruelty and love become hilariously, heartbreakingly blurred.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Gothic, Historical, Literary Fiction, Adult, British Literature

294 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 20, 2026

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+
Thornwalk, is a great manor house in England that housed a mother and her five eccentric children…
Hugo, Lydia, Annabel, Jeremy and Rosalind.
We are taken on a tour of a the manor by a family friend …Maximus, after the last of the living Gilbert children has passed, before a hotelier takes over.
Each short chapter provides more insight of the rooms of the house, the siblings relationships with each other and their outside relationships, and mental health struggles and just general struggles in life.
This is a darkly comic yet increasingly sad.
All the gothic feels.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boo to Scribner for dropping “gothic” “Jackson” and “du Maurier” in to the jacket copy for this one. I loathe copywriters who load up on keywords that really have nothing to do with the book they’re describing. I swear every book published this year has been called gothic.

Ignoring the jacket copy, I absolutely loved what’s between the covers. The book completely clashed with the endless sunshine we’re having at the moment. It’s depressing atmosphere, darkly amusing narration and downward spiral of its characters was the perfect most un-beach read that became a beach read.

I loved the unique way the story is told, as if you’re on a tour of the crumbling estate before all of its history gets erased in the form of a hotel conversion.

Deeply melancholic, it’s Downton Abbey if the estate fell to ruin.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an early peek.

[Erin]

ARC for review. To be published January 20, 2026.

DNF at 20%

I don’t know what ails me. This is maybe my fourth DNF book in about two weeks. Am I just in a mood or am I choosing poorly?

This family saga follows the used-to-be-wealthy Gilbert family, particularly the five children and appears to go up through to their deaths. I think.

Reading this just seemed like a chore to me and each time I left it I didn’t want to go back to it. So, finally, I didn’t. YMMV.

[Haley Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!

[Dona's Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ p25

Pre-Read Notes:

I love stories about what people and families leave behind in a place they have inhabited. Also, that cover was irresistible!

"You are entering through the servants’ hall, as you see. The keys to the rest of the house have already been surrendered to the hotel people, but this one was given to me by Miss Annabel Gilbert herself, and it shall not be relinquished to anyone but her. Since she is dead, that is unlikely to happen." p9

Final Review

(thoughts & recs) Unfortunately, between the unstable POV and all the passive constructions, I am not getting along with the style here.

Thank you to the author Angela Tomaski, publishers Scribner, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of THE INFAMOUS GILBERTS. All views are mine.

[Desiree Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely liked the style. It did remind me of Remains of the Day in its subtlety and the things left unsaid.

None of the characters are very likable, except for maybe Jeremy and Annabel. Jeremy pretty much leaves and never comes back to his kooky family. Annabel is sentimental and sweet, but stymied by some unspecified disability or mental illness.

But we are one step removed, as we hear the tale of the narrator Max as he doles out the family history and secrets in a measured pace, while giving a tour of the home and grounds (to unspecified persons).

The book is a little too subtle, in that English way. Are the oldest brother and Max supposed to be in love? If it was 100 years ago, I would say no they are just good friends. But possibly this is a same-sex relationship. Regardless, the tale ends on a sweet but melancholic note.

-Desiree Reads
January 26, 2026

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The conceit of this novel is that a neighbor who addresses the reader as “you” is giving you a tour of a once grand English estate now in severe decline, showing you to different rooms and different objects in them, and through that, telling the story of the extremely messed up family that once lived there.

Sadly this one was a big miss for me. I love crumbling mansions and dysfunctional family novels, but this one was just beyond. The structure of the book is super odd and screams “I’m so literary and quirky” but not in a good way. And the characters are well beyond quirky into mostly extremely unlikeable and unpleasant to read about. Not to mention that the book is utterly devoid of the humor the blurb promises. Depressing and confusing. But I’ll bump it up to 2.5 stars because it didn’t bore me, in fact there was something mesmerizing about it that kept me reading. But would not recommend.

[Janereads10 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars

This started slow for me. Pairing it with the audiobook helped the story pick up.

What stood out: The family and the tragedy of what they became over time. The book is told through a narrator's POV as he walks through the old Thornwalk mansion. The setting felt like its own character - I could see it in its glory days and watch how it lost its shine. As the narrator moved through each room, he shared anecdotes of what happened there, connecting to the overall plot.

The story of the Gilberts - the mother and her children - had its funny moments. Like how they convinced one of the sisters to break up with her tutor, or the mother always running to her sister-in-law for help. But it got tragic. The siblings drifted apart, a promising relationship failed. Some siblings got greedy over the family fortune and I wasn't sure how I felt about them. What kept me reading though was finding out who the narrator was.

Audio note: Michael Bertenshaw's narration made it feel like touring a Gothic mansion with a guide sharing stories of the Gilberts.

You'll love this if: You're drawn to novels about families and their complex relationships, or mansion settings that become characters in the story.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the advance copy.

[Niamh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very kindly given an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley and Penguin Fig Tree.

We're not even one month into the whole year and I might have just found the worst book of it. I will very, very rarely write one-star reviews, but I read the vast majority of this book and considering what it put me through, I'm claiming it as part of my reading tracker this year. Did I like it? No. But let me explain why, so I don't throw a brick at someone. I really do feel like throwing a brick at someone.

Firstly, please ignore the copy on the jacket / Goodreads description of this book. 'Darkly funny' it is not. I struggled to find anything funny about it at all. If anything, it was rather depressing in how quickly it slunk into the stereotype of 'odd rich family with a house falling down around them'. It felt, oftentimes, that the writer was trying to be clever and literary. To have her narrator break the fourth wall (the fourth page?) and show us around this grand house while peppering their tour with a rambling, disjointed history of the family that once lived there. A narrative choice that may have perhaps been better used had the book being discussing generations of Gilberts who had lived there and the things they had seen - a 'Forrest Gump' style-exploration. Moreover, every time said narrator uttered the phrases 'we won't talk about that now' or 'that's coming later' or 'that's for another time', I wanted to commit a minor crime. I had no sense of how that information would come in useful later because I was being bombarded with exposition about these people and their lives.

Speaking of the people. As children, the Gilberts are difficult to distinguish. And even as they got older, I found myself mixing up which one was which and what they had done when they were younger. They are all, of course, deeply unlikeable, but that didn't particularly bother me. What bothered me was just how bland they all were. Each drawn with a heavy-handed brush that seemed to be particularly unpleasant to the women, all of whom at some point appeared to have a mental affliction, be cruel, get abused or assaulted by men, or have terrible things happen to them.

Had I not double-teamed this one with the audiobook, I'd have put it down so much sooner. The pacing is odd, simultaneously dragging its feet and lurching wildly from one moment to the next. I can't help but feel the idea was sound, but the execution was particularly flawed.

[Megan Deemer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book…. Is like Saltburn meets Winnie the Pooh- only 10x the mental illness and incredibly dull.
If there was one thing this book proved it was that syphilitic insanity was real and passed on from mother to child (or children in this case).
Meet the Gilbert’s, the most mentally insane and boring family there was… the end.
#netgalley #ARC

[Erica (Cheekymama2) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had potential but fell short. The book was told in third person. The book begins with Max the neighbor, guiding the reader through the rooms of the Thornwalk House and the hidden stories they contain. Each room and its contents serve as the beginning of a story into the past lives of the five Gilbert siblings.

Unfortunately the story does not flow. I didn't feel like I really got to know any of the characters well. I wish the story had been told by each character instead of someone from the outside.

Thank you NetGalley for an early read of this novel.

[Trishita (TrishReviews_ByTheBook) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even before the book was in my hands, I was already a little obsessed with its aesthetics. It was described as eccentric, that word by itself is the most irresistible invitation to me. Gathering some of my favourite literary tropes, The Infamous Gilberts unfolds as a family saga centred around sibling drama. The family mansion stands as one of the characters, secrets coiling through its rooms and among its residents, resentments simmer, rivalries sharpen, scandals of all kinds lurk in the background.

The novel gives us a guide, a narrator who opens the mansion’s doors and beckons us inside, pointing out the hidden spots and long-buried messes, admitting us into the intimate orbit of the family, the gullible, dense mother and her five children (with a cameo by a villainous aunt). We meet them first as wild, unguarded children, all petulant in their own way, racing through the years they fracture into lost, flailing adults, moving inexorably toward their ultimate ends. Time goes on, fast for some, slower for others, innocence curdles too soon, the girls are dealt the harshest hands, who does that surprise?
At its heart, this is a story about the fierce love and the inescapable bond between siblings amid the slow disintegration of their way of life. The war comes and goes, the world shifts and their place in it finds itself on shaky ground. Tomaski writes with a light touch, the novel is so immersive, its chapters so engrossing, that I hardly noticed how deeply I’d been drawn in, almost blindsided by the weight it carries. This is a novel that does not easily let go. 3.5 stars!

[Priscilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb for this book begins: "The Remains of the Day meets The Royal Tenenbaums." This debut work of fiction feels definitely more like the former than the latter, with its enigmatic and wistful narrator, Maximus, sharing the history of the Gilbert family and their estate, Thornwalk. It does have a certain dark humor, but by the end I felt a bit gutted (be warned: there's mental illness, intellectual disability, domestic violence, depression, and PTSD).

The story's structure is clever. Maximus--Max--appears as a tour guide, addressing readers directly and beconing us to follow him on a tour of the Thornwalk, the Gilbert family's grand country estate being turned into a luxury hotel. He introduces us to each of the five Gilbert children: Lydia, Hugo, Annabel, Jeremy, and Rosalind, as well as Mrs. Gilbert and various family relations and staff by walking us through the house and around the estate and showing us meaningful objects and locations. The chapters have amusing titles like "A Tuft of Wool," "Where the Clock Was," "The Pine Cone Under Annabel's Bed," and so on. While this is whimsical on the surface, the stories surrounding the objects and places and their meaning to the characters involved often conveys something much darker. If this sounds like a gimmick, it's not. Tomaski has Max move deftly through the house and the surrounding area, telling us what happened to each of the family members over the course of seventy years or so. All of the Gilberts are well-drawn, and we meet each of them time and again through the objects and places indicated by Max, so each one has a chance to come front and center for a short time before taking a back seat to another character. Somehow this structure creates a more complete picture of the characters and their relationship to each other than is Tomaski has opted for a more traditional multi POV structure, giving each character a turn. Tomaski is definitely a writier to watch, if this debut is any indication.

Netgalley provided a copy of this book for review.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This unique book tells the story of the Gilbert siblings from World War II to the early 2000s. The narrative device is clever, using the many rooms and objects of Thornwalk, the family’s estate, to tell their tragic tale. The reader is taken on a tour of sorts, by family friend Maximus, and the second person tense is regularly employed. Smart, witty, funny, and bleak in equal measure, with bite sized chapters. The pace drags slightly and becomes somewhat haphazard in the final stretch, but this is a strong debut.

[lucy is reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Justice for Annabel, she did nothing wrong

[Ygraine]

v elegant, sensitive, quaint little book & a good companion while sick, which i am AGAIN.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book does feel like some wacky, dark Royal Tenenbaums-esque story as the blurb teases. Five siblings’ stories are told, but really it’s the story of their lives within the walls of Thornwalk, their crumbling, once revered home. The third person narrator walks us through the rooms and the memories, literally ushering us through a tour of the home, how it came to have its stains and quirks and hidden treasures, and along the way we learn the stories of Hugo, Jeremy, Rosalind, Annabel, and Lydia. Truthfully, I think I would’ve enjoyed this story more had it not been told by a third person narrator and instead we got to be in the heads of each character and immersed in their stories a little more deeply. It took me a bit to get into it but the story finds its groove about halfway through. I do think this book would make for a good movie or show adaptation to bring it all to life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely interesting. Couldn’t put it down.

[Chloe]

Officially DNF-ing this because one of my reading goals this year is to just put down books I'm not enjoying to make more space for books I will enjoy. Sad about this one as I really thought I would love it - comped to The Royal Tenenbaums, one of my fav movies, a story about a dysfunctional family, one of my favourite things....but I just really don't vibe with the narration and how the story is told.

[Gigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because of a New York Times book review that compared it to a West Anderson film, and I was like “say less.” However, this isn’t a West Anderson film at all, for the exception of the beautiful setting and characters that can be described as zany. However, Anderson characters are often zany with a little bit of hope, the Gilberts are zany with a lot of despair and denial.
Many of the stories were compelling but hard to read. Mrs. Gilbert’s inability to live in reality, prepare her children for adulthood, or protect the from their awful Aunt Beatrice, was beyond frustrating, although when she eventually gets what’s coming to her, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Besides Annabel and Jeremy, all of the Gilberts are horrible, selfish, and cause so much pain to others, I hated them by the end. Besides all this, I did enjoy reading about their horrible lives and downfall, and the narration was stylishly interesting and well done. There is a line about 75% through the story talking about Annabel‘s writing that I felt was a little meta for how one might enjoy the book:
“Feel free to read the entire manuscript, but if you didn’t find the above extract interesting, then perhaps the book is not for you.”

[Shantel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so engrossed in this. I loved the writing style and how the narrator retold the stories as you walked throughout the home and grounds, so unique and well done. All the characters were so complex, each with their own identities and not falling into stereotypes. Such a good read! 5 ⭐️

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise for this book was alluring. The story of Thornwalk, a country estate, and its resident family, The Gilberts (Mother, five children and oft-visiting over-bearing Aunt) over a period of time spanning from just before the break-out of WW2 till the early 2000s, when Thornwalk has been acquired by a luxury Hotel chain.

So, plenty of scope to get our teeth into all the dramas, secrets and relationships of the family and how it leads to the sale of the estate, right?

Sadly not. The ‘interesting’ choice the author made for the narrative style was bold, but unfortunately for me, didn’t pay off.
It was rather jarring and at times a bit too jumpy between time periods, so a lot of the impact was lost. Also, it just didn’t give me a chance to get a real feel for the characters, so there was a big remove.

Of course, I did keep wondering who the narrator, Maximus, was. I had a couple of theories, but the narrative style was so off-putting that I soon started to feel uninterested in Maximus’ role.

The blurb promised a ‘darkly funny modern Gothic’ - but I don’t feel that either of these were really present.
So, unfortunately, I felt quite disappointed and can’t really get behind this one.

*Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

[Lily Cloud · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book because the cover is gorgeous and the premise sounded right up my alley. A gothic tour of a crumbling mansion with a dysfunctional family seemed like the perfect weekend read. Unfortunately, the execution just did not work for me. Instead of being a fun mystery, it felt like a long walk through a house where I did not want to be.

The biggest issue was the narrative style. The guided tour framing felt clever at first, but quickly became distracting and emotionally distant. Instead of sinking into the story, I always felt held at arm’s length, as if I was being told about events rather than experiencing them. The constant shifts in time and perspective made it harder to stay invested.

I also struggled to connect with any of the Gilbert siblings. I know they were supposed to be eccentric and infamous, but they mostly just came across as selfish and annoying. It is hard to stay invested in a story when you do not actually like or care about what happens to any of the characters. By the time the big secrets were revealed, I was too frustrated with their behavior to feel any real sympathy for them.

The tone was another mismatch for me. I went in expecting sharper dark humor and more bite, but the book leaned heavily toward melancholy. It wasn’t bad, just heavier and flatter than I hoped, and the sadness often felt repetitive instead of revelatory.

Overall, this was a disappointing read that did not live up to the hype for me. While the writing is technically good and the atmosphere is thick, the lack of likable characters and the crawling pace made it a chore to finish. I can see why critics might enjoy the literary style, but as a casual reader, nope. I would not recommend this unless you really love slow-burn stories where everyone is miserable.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Infamous Gilbert’s
By: Angela Tomaski
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Genre/tags: family dynamics, eccentric,

Why I picked this up:
I read this summary line and immediately hit the library hold button:

“Remains of the Day meets The Royal Tenenbaums in this darkly funny debut novel about a wealthy, eccentric family in decline and the secrets held within the walls of their crumbling country manor.”

What I enjoyed:
* The narrator’s knack for describing the locations with small little details. as if the listener could walk into the room and find the scene in its state today, but then takes you back in time. The cottage itself is described in such detail it becomes a character itself.

Good to know before picking this
* While there are things that make you smile or even chuckle when reading, I wouldn’t call it funny like the book blurb suggests.
* Very character driven book. Not much going on outside of the eccentricities of a wealthy family in decline.

[Stephanie (aka WW) · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5 stars) The Infamous Gilberts are five siblings and their mother who live in the once stately, but now crumbling English country manor called Thornwalk. As the property is set to be converted into a hotel, the history of the fmaily is told in all its sordid details. Each of the five siblings is looked at in-depth, everyone���s history a combination of humorous and sad. While the book started off a little slow for me, it soon reached cruising speed, and I sped through the pages to find out how (or if) the family survived its circumstances.

This book is billed as similar to The Royal Tenenbaums and this resonates with other reviewers. (I haven’t read the book or seen the movie.) I was highly entertained by the well-written accounts, their contents and pacing excellently rendered. Especially notable as a debut, The Infamous Gilberts succeeds in spades. Angela Tomaski is a new author to follow.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me access to this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is scheduled to hit the shelves on January 20, 2026.

[Oolookitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written but so incredibly depressing that I am very close to finishing it and just can’t go on with it. Comparisons to Shirley Jackson are not accurate; this book lacks the sharp characterization that Jackson was so good at. This book literally gave me bad dreams.

[talia ♡]

as the biggest fan of both salinger and anderson, if you comp ANYTHING the royal tenebaums you better know that i have it preordered

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh goodness, this was weird. I kept wanting to put the book aside, but like any train wreck, I was strangely drawn to the chaos.

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really unique. When you read as much as I do, sometimes just a different style that I’m not used to is enough to impress me. That might have been the case here…but there was also just something really compelling about this. I was simply sucked in by the storytelling.

[thebookybird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the style this was told in, was a like a guided mystery/family drama the audiobook was absolutely fantastic