Review: Vandemonian Spirit by Missy Birch

An intense period drama laced with the timeless theme of love lost and found, Vandemonian Spirit by Missy Birch is a powerful tale of feminine resilience and the relentless pursuit of joy in the face of systemic indifference.

After a selfless act of desperation to save her sister’s life, Hannah Fearn lands in the hands of the law, and she is sentenced to seven years of servitude in Van Diemen’s Land, the colonial name for present-day Tasmania. Forced to leave her life of squalor, she hardens herself to the inevitable cruelty of the years to come as she sails to the unknown edge of the ocean.

Her helpful and generous conduct on the long voyage earns her an enviable post working at the estate of the respected and handsome Dr. Markham. Falling once more into obsessive but seemingly unrequited love, she steels herself against her desires, convincing herself that she will not be caged in a dangerous emotional affair. When Mrs. Markham’s brother Sam enters Hannah’s life and requests her assistance in building a home in the bush, romance and the promise of a new family are not far behind.

A disaster crushes that dream, however, and she is ripped from her pastoral paradise and sent to the gloomy fate she had long ago feared – a workhouse for unwed mothers, where she is stripped of her child and the rosy future she had nearly attained. Despite bearing the burden of losing another love to tragedy, her resolve is indomitable, and fickle fate offers one final chance at happiness so long denied.

Beginning with a grim and visceral picture of survival in 19th-century England for the impoverished and destitute, as well as the perennial subordination of women, this is a searing portrait of social strife and class difference that rings with contemporary power, even if set in the fairly distant past. For fans of well-researched historical fiction, Birch is relentlessly detailed in her setting construction and writes with immersive confidence, transporting readers from the toxic morass of back alley London and the cramped confinement of a detestable gaol to the stunning vistas of Knypersley Farm and the “terrifying hell” of the Cascades.

The prose is striking in its clarity and patience, providing readers with ample exposition of Hannah’s young adulthood and the sequence of familial tragedies that led to her fateful decision to steal the foreman’s watch. By that point, readers are fully invested in her story and struggle, while her comportment in Tasmania, despite the obstacles of her station, makes her a captivating protagonist with an unquenchable spirit.

The dynamic that Birch establishes between Dr. Markham and Hannah is initially a slow-burning attraction and compassionate closeness, allowing readers to see her maturation since the youthful amour she blindly held for Michael, but at her core, Hannah remains an ardent romantic, and a sincere one, even as the numerous subjects of her affection shift. Capturing the varied locales with meticulously accurate language and strict attention to outmoded norms, it’s easy to mistake this novel for a Victorian classic.

Gripping and heartwarming in equal measure, with a well-rounded cast of fully developed foils, this is an empowering, deftly crafted novel of persistence, passion, and the noble pursuit of finding one’s place.