Book Review: Pandora
Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman (Harper Perennial, 2023).
At some point you’ve probably heard or read the Greek myth of Pandora, the woman who rashly opened a box—or possibly a jar—and let loose all the evil in the world. So let me ask you this: If you were a young 18th-century woman who happened to be named Pandora, and you discovered a beautiful and mysterious Greek vase with a lid on it, would you open it?
Frankly, I wouldn’t. I’m too chicken. But Pandora Blake, the titular heroine of Susan Stokes-Chapman’s debut novel, is not me. When she finds the large, elaborately carved vase in the basement of the antiques shop where she lives and works with her uncle, despite the creepy atmosphere and the sound of whispering, Pandora doesn’t hesitate to lift the lid. That’s the kind of person she is, and that’s good, because it makes her the kind of heroine who compels you to follow her through all the twists and turns of this unusual story.
Pandora, better known as “Dora” (it would be a bit easier to go through life with that nickname, I imagine), has a talent for jewelry designing and a desperate desire to get away from her greedy and domineering uncle, who runs what used to be her late parents’ shop. The vase, with its fascinating carvings, seems to offer a way of escape—if she can copy the drawings and model jewelry after them, she’ll have an edge she never had before, a way to finally interest people in her designs.
Meanwhile, for her new friend Edward Lawrence, a young bookbinder, the vase represents a chance to become the antiquarian he’s dreamed of being—if he can find a way to use it without getting Dora and her uncle in serious trouble. Still others suspect that the vase represents something far darker. As for Dora’s Uncle Hezekiah, he can think only of the profits the vase might bring him—and how he can keep them away from Dora.
Stokes-Chapman has come up with an impressively unique situation and intriguing characters for her first novel. Dora’s and Edward’s hopes and motivations aren’t quite like anything I remember reading about before, and the obstacles they face feel very real and very intimidating. It makes them easy to like and to root for. (And Hezekiah’s hopes and motivations make him very easy to root against!) The ties to Greek mythology and the supernatural are clear, but not overdone—the author wisely leaves us guessing about a few things.
The book’s weakness is that it doesn’t really feel like it was set in 1799. There’s very little about the dialogue that reflects the era, and the mores and morals are closer to those of the 21st century than the 18th. Aside from an occasional mention that someone’s wearing a wig or that the streets are full of horse dung, it’s easy to forget when the story is taking place.
Still, the originality of the premise, the strong plot, and curiosity about how our main characters would achieve their goals kept me reading (even though graphic descriptions of sores and other injuries sometimes made me feel a bit queasy!). Ultimately, Pandora does read like the work of a debut novelist, one who’s still finding her footing a little bit—but a novelist with promise.
(Cover image copyright Harper Perennial. Thanks to the author for the Advanced Reader Copy of Pandora, which I won in a giveaway!)
Book Links:
Pandora on Amazon
Pandora on Bookshop