Nature of Monsters（ISBN=9780156034081）

　　From Publishers Weekly
　　Starred Review. British author Clark's second novel, a moving historical set in early 18th-century London, surpasses her acclaimed debut, The Great Stink (2005). When teenager Eliza Tally gets pregnant, her mother sells her into servitude to an apothecary, Grayson Black. Eliza struggles to survive in a bizarre household, unaware that her new master is interested in the effects of various emotions on her unborn child. Isolated save for a kindly, slow-witted fellow servant, Mary, Eliza develops an unlikely relationship with a French bookseller, Mr. Honfleur, who supplies Black with the scientific treatises he uses to inform his sadistic researches. Eliza hopes Honfleur will provide her with the means for escape. Unlike The Great Stink, this suspenseful tale contains no whodunit element, but as in her previous book, Clark's empathetic portrait of the powerless and the victimized will remind many readers of Dickens. Author tour. (May)
　　Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
　　
　　From School Library Journal
　　Adult/High School–Clark is a first-rate storyteller. The setting is 18th-century London, a dark and unwelcoming city of massive size. Eliza Tally, pregnant and unmarried, has been sent there by her mother to begin service as a maid for apothecary Grayson Black. His shop is managed by Mrs. Black, who holds an unyielding grip over all the affairs of the elusive man. Upon her arrival, Eliza meets Mary, the other servant, whom she finds annoying and bothersome at first. Eliza's new home sits in the shadow of the impressive landmark of St. Paul's Cathedral, and the young woman becomes readers' eyes and ears as she vividly conveys the sights and sounds of the city's bustling life. She is disturbed by the changes in her body as the baby within her grows. At the same time, she discovers that all is not right with the mysterious apothecary and his ever-vigilant wife. His interests in her and her condition make her increasingly uncomfortable as she perceives that she is somehow an unwitting party to his secrets, and she and Mary come to rely on one another for warmth and companionship. Ultimately, Eliza learns that monsters can take many forms, and that human behavior is oftentimes most fearsome. The novel's well-described setting and its well-realized themes of unplanned pregnancy and exploited female labor will engage teen readers.–Catherine Gilbride, Farifax County Public Library, VA
　　Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
　　
　　From Booklist
　　Clark's sophomore novel, after the well-received The Great Stink (2005),is another authentically detailed and atmospheric historical. Set in the aftermath of the Great Fire in the fetid streets of eighteenth-century London, the complex plot involves a pregnant unmarried teen shunted off into domestic service as an apothecary's maid. As it becomes increasingly clear to Eliza Tally that her shrouded employer has sinister motives, she must uncover the nature of his dubious experimentations and his unhealthy obsessions with the monstrous and the malformed before it is too late to save both herself and her half-witted fellow maid. Readers who are not put off by the graphically documented grotesqueries and perversions will be drawn into the spellbinding gothic netherworld Clark spins. Margaret Flanagan
　　Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
　　
　　Review
　　"As a storyteller, Clark is endowed with verve and intelligence, but her larger gift, dazzlingly in evidence throughout both her fine novels, lies in the originality of her imagination. She gives us a world that feels alive and intense, magnificently raw." -- The New York Times Book Review
　　
　　"Brave, full-hearted . . .A compelling story which will draw in, for different reasons, fans of Sarah Waters' dense narrative complexities and Andrew Miller's metaphysical horrors. Clark meets the 18th century on its own terms: knocks its wig off, twists its private parts and spits in its eye." -- Hilary Mantel, The Guardian
　　
　　"Clark has emerged as a writer of style and energy . . . Clark's evocations of both rural Northumberland and London, then the largest city in the world, are beautifully achieved. It is the balance between her exemplary historical research and her narrative skills that make The Nature of Monsters such a pleasure. The voice of Eliza is a delight: sharp, crude, defiant and vulnerable." -- Times Literary Supplement
　　
　　"[A] triumph... [A] stunning new gothic novel, driven by mystery and drenched with menace. The author has absorbed her research so completely that, instead of getting in the way, her meticulous detail enriches the story.... The Nature of Monsters is a spellbinder. Writing with grace and energy, Clark has the power to pull her readers into the deep past and hold them prisoner long after the story ends." -- St. Petersburg Times
　　
　　"[T]he pleasures here are many, and one hopes this latest excursion into the underside of historic London won't be her last." -- Bookforum --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
　　
　　Review

　　1666: The Great Fire of London sweeps through the streets and a heavily pregnant woman flees the flames. A few months later she gives birth to a child disfigured by a red birthmark.1718: Sixteen-year-old Eliza Tally sees the gleaming dome of St. Paul's Cathedral rising above a rebuilt city. She arrives as an apothecary's maid, a position hastily arranged to shield the father of her unborn child from scandal. But why is the apothecary so eager to welcome her when he already has a maid, a half-wit named Mary? Why is Eliza never allowed to look her veiled master in the face or go into the study where he pursues his experiments? It is only on her visits to the Huguenot bookseller who supplies her master's scientific tomes that she realizes the nature of his obsession. And she knows she has to act to save not just the child but Mary and herself.

　　CLARE CLARK's first novel, The Great Stink, was a New York Times Editors Choice, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award. She is also the author of The Nature of Monsters. She lives in London.