Seize Your Copy The Ghost And The Machine Envisioned By Benny Lawrence Distributed In Booklet

so this book happened and its one of the kind where you begin to read, realize it is going to be very intense, you take a deep breath, hold it, and only exhale when youve reached the last page.
Holy smokes. Benny Lawrence really produced a brilliant book,

The Ghost and the Machine is dark and triggering so read Heather Jones review because she explains it so well and she writes much better than I do, so there.


The book consumed me totally, I just had to keep reading, There are fantastic twists and turns I did not anticipate, I cant say much about the book less I spoil something, Read the blurb, read Heathers review and make up your mind, I think it's utterly fantastic, No need to worry if you cant play chess, I cant and I still enjoyed every bit of it, A sublime book that will put your emotions through the wringer,

f/f all players are women but be aware that this is NOT a romance

Themes: mental, physical and sexual abuse, agoraphobia, alcoholism, Stockholm syndrome, automaton, chess.


Stars If you're looking for homophobic propaganda, then this is the book for you!

I gavestar because Benny spent time writing this, and I love both of her other books.
Dark and yet somehow hopeful seems to a her base for her books, With a dose of heavy sarcasm mixed in to keep things light, This book is definitely not a lesbian must read, This story brought me back to's dime store novels that depicted the lesbian as a villain, because that is exactly what it portrays, No decent lesbian found within the pages, Doesn't even suggest that the main character is gay, but she is raped, controlled, and abused by a lesbian, I am not even going to get into the lazy ending, I think perhaps Benny Lawrence forgot her base audience, and decided to write some homophobic propaganda, Well done Benny you definitely got me to second guess purchasing your books, I will read the reviews carefully from now on, What I knew about this book going in was that it concerned a young woman and a mechanical chessplaying automaton in the earlyth century, I expected intrigues and hoaxes andgiven that I bought it though a lesbian book distributorsome amount of queer identity, What I didnt expect was a dark psychological thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat right up to the end, This is not a fluffy, feelgood comfort read, Its a gripping adventure and mystery that left me both satisfied and emotionally wrung out,

All the content advisories: psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, alcoholism, agoraphobia, dissociation, and in case it needs mentioning, this is not a romance novel, Which sometimes needs mentioning as readers default to expecting lesbian books to be romance, The sexual abuse is not presented graphically on the page but everything else is,

What grabbed me from the start was the excellence of the writing, Not only is Lawrences prose brutally exquisite, but she has the knack of portraying complex psychological experiences without falling back on modern medical terminology that would be out of place in a historic setting.
The firstperson protagonist, Kit, lets us know from the start that she will be an unreliable narrator, This leaves plenty of space for uncertainty as the plot twists and turns in ways reminiscent of a Sarah Waters novel, The historic details are both sharp and unobtrusive, I highly recommend this book for those who are up to the tension and the depictions of abuse,



Note: This next discussion isn't part of my book review proper, I vary in whether I look at other reviews before reading a book, so it wasn't until after I'd read the book and written my review that I ran across a couple reviews that interpreted the portrayal of sexual abuse by a woman against a woman to be homophobic.
It is certainly true that in a historic context, one of the tropes associated with female samesex desire is the "predatory lesbian"the implication that samesex desire is inherently controling and abusive.
Here's my take on that within the context of this story,

This is a story that focuses entirely on female characters, and those characters encompass a number of different personalities and actions, All of the interpersonal interactions in this storyboth bad and goodare between women, So the fact that the abuse is from one woman to another doesn't to me single out the samesex aspect as saying something essentialist about samesex interactions.
The story does not set up predatory samesex desire in contrast to redemptive and positive differentsex desire, There is no heroic male rescuer waiting in the wings, The background references to heterosexual relationships mostly involve prostitution, And the one central redemptive and hopeful relationship within the story being vague to avoid spoilers is also between two women, Within the context of the story, it is only potentially romantic and is definitely not erotic and I'd find it implausible it it were immediately erotic, given the character's history but it's there.


Secondly, the abusive character is pathologically abusive on all axes, The story would be equally horrific if the sexual element were not in play, And I want to emphasize that the actual details of the sexual abuse are not described, unlike the other aspects, Her personality is clearly shown to be about control and not about desire, as such, She is not depicted as having samesex desire lead to abuse, but rather as being an inherently abusive person for whom sexual abuse is only one part of her toolbox.


This is a powerful book and an angry book, but I don't in any way interpret it as a homophobic book, and then I ran out of books by Benny Lawrence, because I couldnt stop reading,

This was a painful read, I find it always painful to read about abuse and exploitation, especially when it is about cheap thrills in order to entertain, which is not the case here.
Benny Lawrence doesnt use dirty tricks, She lets us see and understand, It hurts nevertheless. Or because.
But then there is the humour, And the humour makes things easier, And then there is a really smart plot with really clever and surprising and oh so good twists, And those very real characters, who are so loveable and so hateable, with those very witty dialogues, And as an Austrian I also enjoy that it is set in Austria,

The ghost and the machine“ is darker than Lawrence two other novels, But its just as quick to read, I wished I would have taken my time, though, I want more.stars. Wow. That was intense and heavy but also had some dark humor to it, I really enjoyed it though it definitely had my nerves acting up, I loved the writing. Lawrence has such a way with words and her writing is so addictive and atmospheric, This wasnt an easy read but it was definitely worth it,

The main character Kit is very likable and my heart hurt for the things she went through, Shes strong and resilient and I just adored her character a lot, Also, theres a lot of chess talk and playing and I enjoyed that, It couldve easily slowed the plot down or had been boring but it wasnt, It was fascinating and Im not sure how Lawrence managed to pull that off, Overall, this was fantastic and I will be picking up more from this author soon, I enjoyed reading Corrie's review for The Ghost and The Machine but a book centering on chess Chess, . . Chess But I remember loving Tracey Whitney when she kicked the chess prodigies' butts this book made to Corrie's Best ofOhow indebted I am to her for the awesome Moira Quirk, so here I am.
Terima kasih, Corrie:

The Ghost and The Machine is every single thing that I love about dark, twisted, mystery and suspenseful books, I purposefully waitedhours to write this poc to spare everyone from verbal diarrhea of fangirling, Even more so, I'm treading lightly here as this book should be experienced as blind as a bat

Benny Lawrence has a poetic yet humorous writing style that engrossed me from the start.
Not over the top, coupled with thorough characters' developments, and depth of story, It's truly a book to get lost in, . . lost in the world of her characters, lost in this more thansquares chessboard because of the well developed/complex plot that filled with many interesting turns and revelations.


What is this book about An Automaton Chess Player A FAKE chessplaying machine and yes, The Best Lead in this whatever genre, Kit, Kit is the storyteller to her tale, yes there are more than a few gasps out disturbing scenes and I did cry for Kit but I did laugh out loud too many times because of her.
Kit's characterization is simply excellent, She is endearing, full of life, brave, strong, intelligent, adventurous, funny and so daring, Overall, she is an amazing heroine and I love her from the start and enjoyed reading her tumultuous story,

Ms. Lawrence is a talented author with a unique ability to create engaging characterdriven stories, So trust Corrie, you don't want to miss this, It is so different, so much better than what I expected, surprising me in such a good way,  So am I saying YES to the dress err chess Heck yes!

As most of my reads, this one is not for everyone, It deals with child abuse mental, physical and sexualimplied abduction and a deranged woman, But the hours spent, listening to Kit and some wonderful secondary characters, I don't have enough thumbs to express how awesome this book was,

Mindfcuk level Skyrocket

Hilarious Quote
" The Duke wasnt exactly a Chessmaster, He kept asking whether it was time to roll the dice '
Eleanor

Corrie's right, this is not a romance but all the characters in this book the heroes, the unsung heroes, the villains are women and you don't have to be a chesshead to enjoy this.


Highly recommended! This is a darkly funny, sexy tale with no explicit sex, It is a Gothick adventure a mad inventor, an eccentric noblewoman,

a decadent Old World castle filled with scary treasures, an abducted, imprisoned ingenue, a booklong game of chess in which the stakes are life and death narrated by the prickly maidenindistress whose fate depends on whether she learns in time which opponents to trust.
She's a magnetic storytelleras a rule I prefer a thirdperson narrator, especially if the story has a dark emotional undertow, but "The Ghost"'s Kit alternately poignant, scathing, hilarious, and scared just pulls you in and won't let go.
If the tale's Victorian trappings sound quaint or comic, think again: this is a story of playful seduction that is also an unflinchingly honest depiction of the psychology of abuse.
Kit meets her match, which is a good thing, but she has to fight herself every step of the way towards freedom, This The Ghost and the Machine's wonderful writer should be encouraged in every way possible,.stars. This book really surprised me, Im glad I was able to binge it in flight its hard to put down, Im only marking it down slightly because I dont think I would read it again and I would have liked a bit more at the end, Some of the other reviewers have added content warnings which I would advise you to read before you pick this book up, I would recommend this book, Kit, a young woman inth century Europe is the invisible brain behind the mechanical chess playing "Rajah", Living a life of utter seclusion literally in the Rajah's box she is kept by her mistress, Rush, to make money outwitting the world's best players, as well as for Rush's own sadistic pleasures.
At the home of an eccentric countess, Kit is discovered and forced to make moves that risk far more than a chess game, Lawrence's concept and relationships are intriguing, and her plot twists and turns like a king fleeing checkmate, Looking forward to more by this talented new author, .