SLASHED BEAUTIES

Cursed sex workers find love and seek vengeance.

In 1769, 18-year-old Eleanor runs away to London with her boyfriend, Nicholas, assuming they’ll marry. Instead, after two weeks of passion, Nicholas leaves their lodgings and doesn’t return. Eleanor is searching for him at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens when the elegantly dressed Elizabeth suggests they have dinner. Over an array of delicacies, Eleanor tells Elizabeth her troubles, and “fallen woman” Elizabeth offers Eleanor employment. After having been “kept” for two years by a wealthy sea captain, Elizabeth is opening her own “genteel” establishment—”a sérail, no less”—offering “entertainment and fine company.” For half of what Eleanor earns “entertaining” rich men, Elizabeth will train, clothe, house, and feed her. Eleanor moves into Elizabeth’s opulently furnished King Street rooms, where she meets and develops an immediate affection for fellow new hire Emily. Needing capital, Elizabeth negotiates payment for the three of them to serve as models for wax anatomical Venuses designed to entice medical students through a local anatomist’s studio door. Meanwhile, in the present day, antiques dealer Alys acquires Elizabeth’s wax form, having already secured Eleanor’s and what remains of Emily’s. Preternaturally captivating on their own, legend has it that when united, the three “slashed beauties” assume human form, hunting and killing “any man who has dared to look at them lustfully.” Alys’ family has a “long connection” with the Venuses, and she knows it’s her destiny to destroy them; however, certain diabolical forces will do whatever it takes to stop her. The first-person, present-tense narration alternates between Eleanor and Alys, their stories informing each other while unfolding in tandem. Though the mechanics of the Venuses’ dark magic are at times confusingly vague, Rushby’s prose is lush and vivid, her characters are tragically complex, and Emily and Eleanor’s mutual devotion proves the perfect foil for the macabre tale’s more gruesome elements.

Ferociously feminist body horror with a sentimental heart.