Captivity

by Deborah Noyes

This masterful historical novel by Deborah Noyes, the lauded author of Angel & Apostle, The Ghosts of Kerfol, and Encyclopedia of the End (starred PW) is two
The first centers upon the strange, true tale of the Fox Sisters, the enigmatic family of young women who, in upstate New York in 1848, proclaimed that they could converse with the dead. Doing so, they unwittingly (but artfully) gave birth to a religious movement that touched two the American Spiritualists. Their followers included the famous and the rich, and their effect on American spirituality lasted a full generation. Still, there are echoes. The Fox Sisters’ is a story of ambition and playfulness, of illusion and fear, of indulgence, guilt and finally self-destruction.
The second story in Captivity is about loss and grief. It is the evocative tale of the bright promise that the Fox Sisters offer up to the skeptical Clara Gill, a reclusive woman of a certain age who long ago isolated herself with her paintings, following the scandalous loss of her beautiful young lover in London.
Lyrical and authentic—and more than a bit shadowy—Captivity is, finally, a tale about physical desire and the hope that even the thinnest faith can offer up to a darkening heart.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal, Historical, Gothic, Horror

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Deb writes for adults and children and is also an editor and photographer. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.

Reviews

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book.
It is a style of writing that I don't usually gravitate towards but I so loved Ms. Noyes first book, Angel and Apostle (review here) I knew I wanted to read her second. She has the ability to draw the reader into the time and place in such a way that you don't want to leave. The characters come alive. In the case of Captivity she has taken real people, the Fox sisters and entwined their tale with an invented family. At the center of that invention is a very sad recluse, Clara Gill. What has caused Clara to close herself up in her room? What has caused her and her father to run from London to Philadelphia then to upstate New York? There are layers and layers in this book and they are slowly, intricately peeled back but never fully removed.

This is not a book to be read quickly and forgotten. This is a book to be savored. In fact. I am going to keep this one and I know I will read it again. It is one of those books that you will find something new every time you read it.

From the first page the writing style just drew me into the story and I was fascinated. There are times when I read a book that I want to go further and learn more. This is one of those times and I am going to research more about the Fox sisters as I had not known of them until reading Captivity.

I can also very honestly say I cannot wait for Ms. Noyes next book.

[Mysti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me. Gave the book more than 50 pages and put it down. Never could get interested in both story lines. Most of the time I kept thinking I was in adjective hell.

[Christy B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1840 and 50s New York, Captivity is an engaging story revolving around the infamous Fox sisters, who single-handedly started the spiritualist movement in America. The sisters Maggie and Kate used 'tapping' to communicate with the dead while their sister Leah led from the background.

Intertwined with the Fox sisters' story, is the story of fictional character Clara, who is originally from London. Now living in New York with her father, Clara is a recluse with mystery and gossip swirling around her. She comes across Maggie and Kate as they occasionally play the role of servant in her home. Maggie and Clara eventually accumulate a strong bond.

Captivity didn't have a whole lot of dialogue, but I barely noticed. The writing was so entrancing with a different sort of style which I hadn't experienced beforehand.

During the first part of the story we encountered flashbacks of Clara's life in London in the 1830s and of a love which she had never let go of. The events that we eventually come across in these flashbacks explains why Clara is the way she is. These flashbacks were especially gripping.

Deborah Noyes has written a novel about an interesting time in American history. During the time in England where people had an unusual interest in the dead, we find out it was no different in America. People would hang on to anything and believe anything, thinking that they were communicating with their dear, departed love ones. And people like the Fox sisters were there to play on desperation and take these people's hard-earned money.

I had heard about the Fox sister in various accounts, such as a biography about Victoria Woodhull I had read called Other Powers, but I'd never read a book - fiction or non - where the sisters were prominent. I am fully interested in learning about them: their rise to fame and they eventual downfall.

I highly recommend Captivity for historical fiction lovers. It is a gem.

[Misfit · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Nothing here is as it seems.”

Captivity begins in Rochester New York in 1848 and tells the story of sisters Leah, Maggie and Kate Fox, who helped give rise to the Spiritualist movement. Younger sisters Maggie and Kate seem to have a gift of communicating with the spirit world via "rapping" (don't ask me to explain it), and managed by older sister Leah they capitalized on their *skills* by giving séances and summoning the dead for grieving loved ones. Their story is intertwined with the fictional one of Clara Gill, who befriends Maggie, and we gradually learn about her back-story with her father and aunts in London and how she came to be such a recluse.

And that's all I'm really going to tell you. Despite a rocky start that could have been helped by having a bit of knowledge on the sisters and their history (or better yet taking the time to read the publisher's handout prior to starting), once I did get a handle on it I enjoyed it a lot. The writing is lovely and very sparse - no words wasted here - and you'll be hard pressed not to mark the book up with your favorite quotes.

"Real death is not a parlor game but a flat heaviness that weights the limbs, that makes every step a struggle, every breath reproach and violation. It is mold on the morning firewood and a chill that won't go even when the hearth is banked to roaring, even when the familiar quilt is wound full round weighted legs and feet on a stool like a winding sheet. It is the bitterness of herbs in an undertaker's parlor and damp shoes by a hole in the ground and the absence of sunlight and emptiness beyond reckoning."
As for whether it was real or all a hoax? Well you'll just have to read it for yourself and decide, won't you? This isn't an action packed page turner and might not appeal to all readers, but I would definitely recommend it for those interested in the topic as well as savoring the beautiful prose.

[Jenny Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lush and lyrical historical novel is based on the real story of Maggie Fox, of the infamous Fox sisters who claimed they could communicate with the dead and made a fortune conducting seances in mid-nineteenth-century New York. Intertwined with the sisters' story is the story of Clara Gill, a recluse haunted by a past that she fights to suppress every bit as hard as she fights to cling to it. Hers is a tragic story that slowly unravels as she is drawn into an unlikely friendship with Maggie, a woman who could end up being either her salvation or her undoing.

Part of the beauty of this book is the constant element of the unknown. Is Maggie faking or can she really communicate with the dead? If she is a faker, is it really so bad to give grieving people closure and peace? What happened all those years ago to Clara? Is she really mad? Is her version of past events reliable? Is she really a skeptic or is she secretly yearning for her own closure? It's remarkable to me that the author is able to create such realistic, compelling, and empathetic characters without ever really revealing the fundamental truths about them.

As I was reading this book I marked dozens of beautifully written passages and realized I could easily end up quoting the whole book in this review. So I forced myself to choose one to share as an example of the quality and resonance of the prose in this book, and this is it:

Real death is not a parlor game but a flat heaviness that weights the limbs, that makes every step a struggle, every breath reproach and violation. It is mold on the morning firewood and a chill that won't go even when the hearth is banked to roaring, even when the familiar quilt is wound full round weighted legs and feet on a stool like a winding sheet. It is the bitterness of herbs in an undertaker's parlor and damp shoes by a hole in the ground and the absence of sunlight and emptiness beyond reckoning.

There's not a word out of place in this gripping, touching and deeply satisfying novel. One of my favorite books of the year.

"Understand that thou thyself art another world in little, and hast with thee the sun and the moon, and also the stars. Thou seest that thou hast all those things which the world hath."

All this, captive in me.

[Jessica (booneybear) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am glad that I own a copy of this book because I feel like I need to go back and read it again when I have a lot of peace and quiet and I am able to slowly read it and absorb every word. I need to get used to the author's writing style. The storyline of the book is great, but I had some trouble wrapping my head around the writing.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldnt finish this. The author writes well but its very wordy, which kept me uninterested in the story line. I just couldnt get into the style of writing. Rarely do I put down a book but this one felt more like a "chore"

[Carly Thompson]

This book never captured my interest so I abandoned it.

[Christine Zibas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most interesting novels, those considered to be classics, are the ones whose stories stay with you, after the last page has been turned. "Captivity" is certainly in the tradition of the classics, in the very best sense of the word. Its multilayered story and characters are like petals of a flower, opening slowly to reveal something beautiful, both as you read and long after you’ve finished as well.

The story is the intersection of two imagined lives. The first belongs to a recluse, Clara Gill, a woman haunted by love and loss, who has withdrawn from society completely. The other is of a younger woman, Maggie Fox (based in part on the life of a real person from American history), one of two sisters who could “communicate with the dead.” The rapping of the dead experienced by the Fox sisters and demonstrated in lecture halls and at private séances across the United States eventually gave birth to the American Spiritualist movement in 1848.

Set in upstate New York, the intersection of Clara and Maggie’s lives brings both of these women’s stories to the fore. Ironically, they had much in common, although Clara is a skeptic of the Fox sisters and their activities. In fact, both women are captives of a society that limits them and has expectations of how they should conduct themselves that lie in direct opposition to the strengths of each.

Not only does author Deborah Noyes bring to "Captivity" wonderful skills as a lyrical writer (in which her phrasing seems to capture exactly the emotional landscape of the moment), but she also knows how to mete out her storytelling, letting her readers eke out the stories of these two disparate lives, their challenges, and their developing friendship in the most unlikely of circumstances. She allows each woman’s vulnerability and the impossible societal barriers each faces to show, slowly and carefully, in a way that builds trust and understanding between character and reader. Her descriptive powers are amazing, lending an insight into the essence of each character you are unlikely to find in most modern novels.

While "Captivity" is a historical novel, and some of the challenges that face each woman are the result of society’s dictates at the time, the novel never feels stuffy or heavy, let alone dull. Instead, Noyes is able to draw her readers in, engaging them in the lives of her characters, and allowing them to build understanding and hope as the story develops. This is a novel that readers will not want to end, but when it does, readers will know they have encountered something very special indeed.

Merged review:

The most interesting novels, those considered to be classics, are the ones whose stories stay with you, after the last page has been turned. “Captivity” is certainly in the tradition of the classics, in the very best sense of the word. Its multi-layered story and characters are like petals of a flower, opening slowly to reveal something beautiful, both as you read and long after you’ve finished as well.

The story is the intersection of two imagined lives. The first belongs to a recluse, Clara Gill, a woman haunted by love and loss, who has withdrawn from society completely. The other is of a younger woman, Maggie Fox (based in part on the life of a real person from American history), one of two sisters who could “communicate with the dead.” The rapping of the dead experienced by the Fox sisters and demonstrated in lecture halls and at private séances across the United States eventually gave birth to the American Spiritualist movement in 1848.

Set in upstate New York, the intersection of Clara and Maggie’s lives brings both of these women’s stories to the fore. Ironically, they had much in common, although Clara is a skeptic of the Fox sisters and their activities. In fact, both women are captives of a society that limits them and has expectations of how they should conduct themselves that lie in direct opposition to the strengths of each.

Not only does author Deborah Noyes bring to “Captivity” wonderful skills as a lyrical writer (in which her phrasing seems to capture exactly the emotional landscape of the moment), but she also knows how to mete out her storytelling, letting her readers eke out the stories of these two disparate lives, their challenges, and their developing friendship in the most unlikely of circumstances. She allows each woman’s vulnerability and the impossible societal barriers each faces to show, slowly and carefully, in a way that builds trust and understanding between character and reader. Her descriptive powers are amazing, lending an insight into the essence of each character you are unlikely to find in most modern novels.

While “Captivity” is a historical novel, and some of the challenges that face each woman are the result of society’s dictates at the time, the novel never feels stuffy or heavy, let alone dull. Instead, Noyes is able to draw her readers in, engaging them in the lives of her characters, and allowing them to build understanding and hope as the story develops. This is a novel that readers will not want to end, but when it does, readers will know they have encountered something very special indeed

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous, atmospheric writing, and fascinating historical details. It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did, the payoff was worth waiting for.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: The Victorian era is my favourite time period to read about and I always find the Spiritualist movement fascinating, in that famous, intelligent people were some of the most hardy believers.

Set in the 1830s to 1850, this is a tale of two stories. First is based on the true life story of The Fox Sisters who could talk to the dead through rappings and virtually were the beginning of the entire Spiritualist movement. Secondly, is the story of Clara, 40 or close to, spinster who lives with her aging father. She has made herself reclusive for many years after the scandalous ending to a short but passionate affair of the heart. The main character from each story eventually meet but the point of view continues to switch back and forth from one person's tale to the other's.

I had a hard time getting into this one. I struggled through the first hundred pages not because they were hard to read but because I found the Fox sisters devoid of character. There are three of them. Alice, the youngest, starts out as a main character but eventually drifts to the background and is not ever given any personality for the reader to hold any opinion of her whatsoever. Alice is replaced by the eldest sister, Leah, who is the stereotypical mean, bossy, all business older sister and while we are given an outline of who she is, that is all the reader has to go by and no personality shows through that one doesn't feel for her either good or bad. The sister who is given the protagonist's part is middle sister, Maggie, and it takes an awful long time for her character's development to attain the point of having her own personality. Thus making those first pages hard for me to get through.

On the other hand, I was taken with Clara's story right away. She is a woman "of certain age" whose father, after many years of it being just the two of them, has started to bring round a widow who is obviously insinuating herself into her father's graces and trying to interfere in Clara's solitary, reclusive lifestyle. Clara goes back to the 1830s and slowly tells the story of her first (and only) love, the terrible tragedy and why she has ended up stowed away in her own room for so many years. This is what kept me reading for those first hundred pages.

Clara's story eventually meets the present and Maggie and Clara meet. At this point the two stories are still told separately but the characters from each story now overlap. It is also at this point the pace picked up for me. Maggie became an interesting person with depth. Not until the end of the story do we get to see the inside workings of Maggie's seances but we see the drain they have on her and both her feelings of pleasure and pressure at having to perform.

Ultimately though, this is a story of unrequited love and bitterness. Clara has three spinster aunt's who try desperately to marry her off, while she has no interest. Then once her affair of the heart has broken her they become nasty and mean-hearted to Clara for she had what they never did. Maggie also finds herself a man who is devoted to her but he is a gentleman and he wants her to choose between her scandalous lifestyle and him. Then there is Leah, in the background, who always has a different husband. These women think they need a man (or needed a specific man) to set them free but they all hold themselves captive by there own doings. A man's love will not set them free. They must set themselves free first, then they will be at liberty to love.

The second half of the book was really good, kept me turning the pages and I'm glad to have read the book. An interesting look inside one of the more unusual fads of the Victorian era.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivity is an intriguing mystery, social commentary and psychological drama that explores the lives of two very different, and yet similar, women. On the surface, Maggie and Clara have nothing in common, and their burgeoning friendship helps propel the story forward while drawing the reader further into the mystery of the rappings and at the same time examining the significance of the novel. It is a beautifully, carefully written novel that demands the reader's undivided attention and forces the reader to take a stand on certain murky happenings. Compelling is too generic a term to describe Captivity fully.

The mystery of the novel involves the mysterious rappings that occur around Maggie and her sisters. The Fox sisters were real women, and they did indeed help found the Spiritualism movement because of these rappings. Ms. Noyes focuses on one of the sisters, allowing us to explore her feelings as her world explodes because of the confusion around these "spiritual" happenings. The truth behind the rappings remains murky, and Ms. Noyes capitalizes on this through her deliberate word choice. Were the Fox sisters truly spiritual mediums or were they charlatans? Ms. Noyes hints at both truths, leaving it up to the reader to make the final decision.

The psychological drama focuses on on these rappings and on Clara's own isolation. Captivity is very much a novel where nothing is as it seems. However, just when the reader realizes this, the story changes and things are exactly as they seem. This builds a tension that never eases, forcing the reader to continue with the story to seek a resolution that never quite seems to appear.

The social commentary is, to me, the most intriguing part of the novel. The 1840s were a time of limited options for women and even worse for single women. The title is an extremely significant indicator of these options. Were women captive to society, to matriarchs or those in authority, to self, to truth, to love, to death? Is anyone really free?

"every person's a slave to choice" (pg. 174)


Maggie is very much captive between two worlds: the living and the dead, her farming past and the rich milieu in which she is suddenly thrust, staying true to her sisters and staying true to her beau.

"we're all prisoners but carry around little worlds inside us that make us free" (pg. 174)


Clara is also struggling to avoid being held captive. It is my belief that her isolation is her attempt to avoid captivity by others, specifically her aunts, gossip and even her father. Regardless of what the reader thinks of the mysterious rappings, Maggie's and Clara's individual struggles through a society with such strict guidelines and expectations give Captivity its heart.

At first, the switching of narrators is confusing, but as each woman's voice becomes clear, the reader settles down to explore the nuances of the story. It has a twist in the middle that literally left my heart racing and me gasping for air because it was so unexpected. The language itself is simply gorgeous in its ability to weave the social commentary around the mystery without appearing obvious or jarring. Captivity is simply literary fiction at its finest.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was totally interested in reading about the Fox sisters who were actually known in history for their communication with the dead. The other part of the story is of the skeptical Clara Gill a reclusive women who long ago had a scandalous loss of a beautiful young lover. She stays in her rooms and draws wildlife. She meets the Fox Sisters and really has a hard time believing they really can speak with the dead.

I had a hard time reading the book, it seemed long, very involved, some times giving too much information or maybe not enough, I couldn't seem to figure out why I couldn't get into reading this book. The entire premise seemed one I would usually like to read about, but this book seemed to drag for me, I kept reading, I never gave up and when it ended I wasn't sure I got the answers I was seeking while reading the book. I was waiting for it to wrap everything up in a pretty bow at the end, and I turned the last page with questions still in my head.

What should have been a really great read for me, turned into something long and almost a chore to read for me. I never write bad reviews for authors, but I can not be less than honest, this book was not the book for me. Perhaps for someone else.

Here is the verbage from the cover of the book:
[close:] Looking out into a blue half-light, Maggie smears her hand across a pane twice and for a peculiar moment imagines her brother's trampled fields swarming with the dead. Spirits traipse here and there, tufts of light, farmers and farm wives, soldiers and babies and old ones-- some marked by their style of dress and half-familiar. They are made of light mostly, and ride lightly over the earth, treading no soil. And they are everywhere.

She blinks her eyes, suspecting her own mind has planted them like a strange crop in the field. The strangeness of seeing them is new, but Death itself is no stranger, surely. Not a day goes by in Arcadia when one among her community isn't lost to fire or drowning, typhus, malaria, yellow fever... a horse's kick, infection, suicide. These words are real and ever present, reported daily in neat columns of newsprint along with farmers' reports of stray cows, sentimental poems, ads for patent remedies like Brant's Indian Pulmonary Balsam, or word of the war with Mexico, the abdication of the French king, Whigs battling Democrats.

But what if they aren't gone over Jordan after all? What if they are just across the way, a hand's reach, waiting to be seen and heard from?

-----------------------------------------------------
This masterful historical novel by the lauded author of Angle and Apostle is two stories:
The first centers upon the strang, true tale of The Fox Sisters, the family of enigmatic young women who, in upstate New York iin 1848, proclaimed they could converse with the dead. The second story is of the bright promise the Fox Sisters offer up to the skeptical Clara Gill a reclusive women of a certain age who long ago isolated herself with her wildlife paintings, following the scandaloss loss of her beautiful young lover in London.

Lyrical and authentic Captivity is, finally, a talke about physical desire and the hope theat even the thinnest faith can offer up to a a darkening heart. [close:]

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my blog....[return]Captivity by Deborah Noyes is a stroke of literary genius and written unlike any other novel I have read, which captures and at the same time commands the reader's attention to even the smallest of details. A highly philosophical novel, Captivity must be savoured in small quantities and thought about before the reader can proceed further with the novel. Noyes' writing captures the era, the sites, sounds, and beliefs of a time long past. In Captivity, based on the historical Fox sisters and the fictionalized Clara Gill and with brilliant creative license, Noyes' characters are written in such a manner that they become quite real to the reader. The story takes place in 1840s New York, toggles back and forth between the Fox Sisters and Clara Gill's life, at times intersecting, while other times Clara's narrative takes the reader back to England when she still went out and was relatively carefree and in love. The Fox sisters, Leah, Maggie and Kate have a gift, referred to as knocking, that allows them to commune with the dead. Naturally, due to the times, there were many who believed but many who did not believe and felt at they very least they were committing fraud. The Fox sisters go through a series of committees and public hearings and are found innocent of all counts of fraud, yet each time the public demands yet another committee. All the while the Fox Sisters, whether knowing it or not are beginning a new phenomenon in America. Meanwhile, a scandal occurred in England forcing Clara and her father to flee into relative obscurity, settling in New York. Clara, indulged by her father is so reclusive she rarely even leaves the safety of her room. What secret binds Clara and her father so close, yet so distant? What cruelty has occurred in Clara's past to cause a once enthusiastic woman to choose to seclude herself within her darkened room with only her memories, her seashells, and her sketches? When Maggie is sent to help in the Gill residence, is it a kindred soul she sees in Clara Gill, if not, how else can one explain Maggie's repeated attempts to draw Clara Gill out, literally and figuratively? While it may appear as though I have given the entirety of the novel away, rest assured I have not even begun to touch the depth and breadth of this extraordinary novel. Noyes has created a deeply profound and at times quite philosophical novel, which lends itself to contemplation and would make for a brilliant discussion group novel. Captivity is in a class all its own. The distinctive narratives and relationships are masterfully crafted and are seamlessly interwoven until the story reads as a singular novel rather than several tributaries, which make up the whole. My words cannot do justice to this work of literary genius and it is my fervent hope that Deborah Noyes is working on yet her next literary masterpiece.

[Vanessa James-brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

" Captivity"
Written by Deborah Noyes
I found this book VERY interesting The Fox Sisters have a VERY talented Gift speaking to the dead. Pilgrims come far to camp out on their land to Pier into their windows to see what they do. The sisters have a ghost in their home they found out the name to be Mr. Splitfoot men start looking for the mans remains in the Cellar. I LOVE this book I love reading about the past and with this being set in the 1800's I enjoyed it immensely. Sorry I do not have much to say on this book It is a FANTASTIC read out of 5 stars I give it 5 stars~! I really wanted to keep Reading and it was VERY fascinating..... Here is what the AUTHOR has written about the book.......


In March 1848, Maggie Fox and her younger sister rivet family and neighbors by claiming to be able to communicate with an unseen spirit in their house. When the girls reveal the identity of "Mr. Splitfoot," men with picks and shovels arrive to excavate the cellar in search of his remains.

As word of the Fox sisters' strange ability spreads far and wide, pilgrims arrive en masse, staking their tents in surrounding fields and peering in the family's windows. Invitations for "tea and table tilting" begin to arrive, and Maggie is subjected to rigorous demonstrations and humiliating investigative committees, to strangers who poke and prod but can't unpuzzle her. She takes refuge in an unlikely friendship with Clara Gill, a reclusive scientific artist. Exiled in Rochester in the wake of a London scandal, Clara is a skeptic of an altogether different sort -- one with reason to believe, though reason won't allow.

As Maggie's fame grows and a mania for contacting the dead sweeps the nation, her circle widens to include the likes of Horace Greeley, P.T. Barnum, and First Lady Pierce. She embarks on a turbulent affair with the equally famous polar explorer Elisha Kent Kane who challenges her to give up her "disgraceful" calling. Torn between love and independence, shame and duty, Maggie's ties to Clara become all the more binding. Against all odds, she takes it upon herself to help her friend confront a loss beyond reckoning . . .

Told from alternating points of view, Captivity explores an especially haunted moment in U.S. history when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead were flamboyantly lifted, when science and spirit were colorfully at odds, and when the wills of two very different women collided to work an ordinary miracle of devotion.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivity is a beautiful and enthralling story that weaves together fact and fiction. From the fictional Clara Gill and her work at the factual menagerie at the Tower of London to the imagined personalities of the real Fox Sisters. Nothing felt awkward or out of character. It's obvious that Deborah Noyes did her research into the time period before she began writing. I am glad, though, that my knowledge of the Fox Sisters and the American Spiritualist movement was minimal before reading the book as I believe it would have distracted from Noyes' lyrical language and the haunting tale that she was spinning.

As for the characters, I found Maggie Fox irritating at the start of the book due to her self-centred nature, but came to appreciate Noyes' artistic portrayal of her as she matured. Maggie began to see the sisters' performances as more than a game and to consider the results of her actions. In comparison, I liked Clara from the start. It was hard not to empathize as it became obvious just how withdrawn from society she was and how obsessed she was with an unknown tragedy in her past. And I have to admit, I was intrigued by the mystery of what that tragedy was, and loved how Noyes expertly prolonged the suspense by offering only a bit of Clara's backstory at a time. Though in the end, I was surprised by the revelation as I'd been expecting something simpler and more innocent.

Overall, Captivity is a book that I'd recommend to other readers, but one that I'd be selective in recommending. It's a wonderful and entangled read, not something for those just looking for a quick afternoon's diversion. But those willing to give it a try will be rewarded.

Thanks to Unbridled Books for the ARC of Captivity. A positive review was not a requirement and the views expressed above are my own. For more information on Captivity, check out the Unbridled website.

[Wendy Hines · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's 1848 and Maggie and Kate Fox hear a rapping from within the walls of their small cottage. No one is sleeping tonight as the rapping keeps them awake. The girls ask questions of the spirit within the walls and it raps an answer. Soon, their mother is entranced yet horrified and gets the neighbors to see this phenomenon, who in turn, get their neighbors, friends, and family.

When the girls sleep, the rapping desists. When the family moves, the spirit no longer "speaks", but wherever the girls are, there are spirits knocking, rapping, and always about. The girls are mediums and soon have a following. Known for their medium capabilities, the Fox sisters are believed to be able to communicate with the dead, and this story is based somewhat on their historical facts.

Clara is a spinster woman in her forties who just wants to be alone. She is a recluse, living with her father. But when her father starts to see a widow woman, her life changes. Clara wants nothing to do with the woman or how the woman's thoughts and concerns may affect her. When Maggie comes into the household as help, Clara becomes friends somewhat with her and finds herself re-examining her own life and that is when we hear about Clara's tragic story and how she came to be a recluse.

Fascinating, captivating, and page-turning, Captivity is a memorable book that will stay with you for a long time. It took me awhile to get into the story, unused to the prose and words, but once I did, I found myself immersed and unable to let go. I had sympathy for Clara and the actions of the Fox Sisters were compelling and thought-provoking. Quite enjoyable!

[Sabrina Rutter · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this in a firstreads giveaway here on goodreads. One of the things I like so much about the giveaway is that I get the chance to step outside of my comfort zone, and find other styles of writing that I can also enjoy. This is definantly another style of writing, but of the type I don't enjoy.
I really hate to give this book a low rating becuase I'm sure the author put a lot of work into this. The writing while very beautiful is just not something I can get into. It took me several hours of reading just to make it to page 77. The tone of the writing does make the era of this book come alive, but since I'm not used to thinking, or speaking this way it drove me crazy making the book feel more like a chore than a pleasure.
I will probably pass this book onto someone who will love, and cherish it's style since the author was kind enough to sign the book for the winner of the giveaway. I would like this book to belong to someone who will appriciate it's beauty in the way that I don't.
Soemtimes I hate to be honest in my reviews, but I have to stick to what I feel. I'm sure that most of the people in my group of friends on here would feel the same way about the style of writing. I would hate to write that I enjoyed this only to have my friends think it must be great, read it, and then no longer pay any attention to my opinions on books.

[Elysia Fionn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's strange how the mind can change, even as you read a book. When I first started reading this, the austere and nearly Amish writing style jarred me out of my comfort zone. The sparse way the author expresses herself seemed at first like a lack of something, but as I kept reading, I realized there were very deep emotions being expressed, and the very bareness of the bones of each paragraph in some way magnified them. By the time I was halfway through the book, I had accustomed myself to the intriguing play of characters, the minimalist verbiage, and actually enjoyed it. I suppose it's a bit like being on land all the time and learning to enjoy a boat ride, or being on the ocean for a long voyage and getting used to the feel of land again. In any case, it's a great story, which leaves the reader to make their own decisions regarding the truth of certain characters' "powers" to contact the spirits of the dead.

It was also an odd insight into the character of someone truly timid - Clara - who suffered many more tortures at the hands of her family than I would ever have put up with. At one point in the story, Clara's aunt destroys the last letter she would ever get from the man she loved. She fantasizes about retribution... and lets it go at that. If I was Clara, there would have been some serious Hell to pay for that.

[Kathleen Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 3 because the writing is just beautiful and I'm always happy to encourage beautiful writing. The story is actually two story lines interwoven. One concerns the Fox sisters of Rochester, NY who were famed spiritualists in the mid 18th century. The other story is that of Clara Gill, a middle-aged spinster who, with her father, escaped to America after a sad, devastating experience of loving the wrong man which resulted in tragedy.

The story of Clara is beautiful, poignant and fully realized. Her fascination for the handsome young Will is sweet and its horrible end is tragic. However the story of the Fox sisters is, quite frankly, confusing. The narrative bounces from character to character and none of the characters seem particularly likable. I appreciated the time the author gave to the entire issue of the Spirtualist movement and the mixed reaction of the public to it. I got a chill when she mentioned the discovery of a barrel of warm tar outside one of the seances.

The language is beautiful, the premise intriguing, and the story of Clara is wonderful, but I would have appreciated more character development and less confusion around the Fox sisters.

[Andrea Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received for review from netgalley.
This is an interesting read, well written, and the characters are believable and engaging. The juxtaposition of the character's lives illustrates the adage, 'the more things change, the more they stay the same.'
A novel exploring the many ways in which humanity is trapped by its very nature. Full of mystery, loss and (the possible) supernatural. The novel follows two women trapped by their own lives and ambitions, one by the pursuit of fame and fortune, and another by the promise and tragedy of lost love. Both become paralyzed by indecisiveness when presented with the possibility of a different life, and their hesitations ensure they remain entrenched in their present circumstances.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the [...] book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 [...] : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

[Lilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivity is told in two parts. The first centers around the true story of the Fox Sisters, who in 1848 upstate New York, proclaimed they could converse with the dead. Their declaration incidentally gave rise to a religious movement known as Spiritualism, which garnered followers from two continents, including the rich and famous.

The second story revolves around Clara Gill, a self-isolated “woman of a certain age” who seeks the refuge of her drawings rather than that of the outside world after losing the love of her life back in London. Her story interweaves with that of the Fox Sisters when Maggie and Lizzie become servants at the Gill residence. Lizzie fears “Mad Clara” but Maggie longs for her companionship, of someone older (and other than her Ma and aunt) to talk with.

{ read the rest of my review here }

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

CAPTIVITY tells two stories: that of reclusive Clara Gill, a victim of her class, time and circumstances, and Maggie Fox, one of the sisters credited with founding American Spiritualism, who is captive to her celebrity and scheming older sister. Noyes' writing is beautiful, incandescent at times, and her descriptions of both the seen and unseen, internal and external worlds drew me in.

I loved Clara's story the most and would have liked more details of her inner life. I had a hard time believing that she would have befriended Maggie Fox. I understand why the author interwove these two stories, but I might have found it more interesting to tell the stories in separate books. I kept expecting more change to happen to each of the characters because of the other one, but reading their perspectives in alternating chapters left me wanting more of who Clara and Maggie were and how they were transformed. The writing is detail-rich and Noyes makes that time period come alive.

[Teddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

aptivity is actually two stories intertwined that took place mostly in upstate New York in the early to mid 19th century. The first is about the real life Fox Sisters. They were a family of women who were mediums who claimed that they could communicate with the deceased. They had many followers but were also constantly questioned by people who wanted to discredit them. They were put though numerous tests which included improper poking and prodding of the women by men. The Fox Sisters inadvertently gave birth to the Spiritualist Movement.

The second part of the story is about the fictional reclusive Clara Gill. She long ago suffered the loss of her.. read my full review here.

[Cyn Cooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are two parallel stories in this fictionalized tale of the origins of the American Spiritualist movement and I found one of the two much more engaging from the outset than the other. The story of the Fox sisters did not engage me until about two thirds of the way into the book but the story of Clara the "spinster" shut-in, engaged me right away. In the last third of the book when the stories truly converged was the part of the book I found most engaging. The writing is excellent and the two main characters are likable (most of the time!) but the book didn't draw me in from the get go the way I had hoped although I will say that upon reflection, it has stuck with me which is certainly the sign of good story telling.

[Adrienne Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Immersive and gripping, this historical fiction keeps the reader guessing until the very well-composed end.

Fans of The Devil in the White City and The Thirteenth Tale will find Captivity equally mesmerizing.

Our slightly longer review is available at http://babytoolkit.blogspot.com/2010/06/captivity.html.

[Lindis Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It wasn't what I expected it to be, but in a delightful way. Deborah Noyes did a wonderful job of using the voice of the 1830's and 40's without taking it over the edge. Her writing gave me a nice feel of the time, with out it being difficult to read. I will admit that I was a bit lost at first. It starts out as the story of two different lives, but the lives of these two women are then woven together nicely. I am now interested in reading some of the books about Maggie Fox that the author mentioned in the Acknowledgments. I recommend it to anyone that is enterested in the early Spiritualist movement in our country. Thank you Ms. Noyes! : )

[Leslie Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to like this book. I had read about the sisters [the book is based on] in an article of the "Smithsonian." Not only were they particularly sensistive women who claimed to have connections with the otherworldly, they were from the midwest which brings a certain kind of charm to the type of book I was looking for.

Let me say that Debra Noyes is a gifted writer, hands down. Her historical fiction is well-written, it just didn't aborb me like I wanted it to...and this is the second attempt I've made to read it. I love the eloquent turn of phrases and historical language, but the overall plot and pacing just didn't grab me.

[Cheryl]

I won this as a first read. Though I have marked this as read I have not finished the book nor will I. The concept of the book sounded great even though it isn't something that I would normally read. Noyes has an eloquent writing style but it wasn't able to capture my interest. I read to page 110 but it felt like page 572. I couldn't concentrate on what was being portrayed. I appreciate the free book and the fact that Noyes signed it but I will give this book to someone who will enjoy it and encourage them to give a better review than I have.

[Melissa Wiebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally reviewed at Jayne's Books.

It took me about half of the book to get into it and it was after a podcast that I heard on the Fox sisters that I actually got into the book.The one thing that bugged me about the book was the constant back and forth between the storyline for the Fox sisters and Clara and it was a huge thing that I couldn't read it for sometime. I probably missed things that were important to the story, but by the last few readings of the book, I just wanted to get it done.