Friday, September 11, 2026

The Vivisectors

 by Missouri Williams

Where to begin. This novel was a real struggle to get started with and I only picked up the flow of it from half way through and even then I was struggling.

It is set in an unnamed crumbling city of lofty spires and the university. The city is being overrun by vegetation and the gardeners-who are a powerful faction in the running of the city-are in dispute with the academics.

In the middle of this we find Agathe who is not speaking to her father and whose mother has been seriously injured in a suicide attempt. Having abandoned her own studies she is living with her uncle and working for an academic from another city.

The university is in uproar over a student who has come into conflict with a professor called Jacob and this throws Agathe and the student together in very weird circumstances.

The book has some beautifully written snippets but as a book it left me cold. Not for me 4/10

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