The Ruins of Lace by Iris Anthony

I received a galley of this novel from NetGalley for review. This in no way affected my opinions.


The Ruins of Lace takes place in the 17th century, and the story revolves around the lust and illegality of lace into France.

The story is told from seven different perspectives, and we only get five chapters with each character. After the first two times I went through the characters' perspectives, I wondered how they're all connected, and it's soon made clear. However, there were a couple characters that we probably didn't need to hear from. One of which was a dog. Yes, a dog. I understand that one of the ways lace was transported to France was using dogs, but we didn't really need the perspective of a dog to get that. Another character that probably would have been fine leaving out was a soldier. If we took these two characters out of the equation, I don't think the story would have lost anything.

Like I said, the story was about lace, and how it changed and destroyed lives. The characters became more and more connected as the story went on, through one piece of lace. The second half of the story was better than the first half, I felt, and read faster.

I can't say much more, because I fear I'll just start giving things way. It's not a happy story, I can say that. However, some characters' stories ended a bit happier than others.

A good read about an unusual subject, and interesting time period.