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Frog music
532 pages
A feverish, song-laced plunge into the sweltering, grimy underbelly of a nineteenth-century boomtown, driven by a fierce quest for justice.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like stepping into a sweltering, fever-dream version of the past, where the air is thick with heat, disease, and the raucous melodies of saloon songs. The narrative moves at a brisk, urgent clip, mirroring the frantic three-day scramble of a woman desperate to uncover the truth before she becomes the next victim. It is a deeply sensory experience, immersing the reader in the grime and glamour of a bohemian underworld populated by burlesque dancers, cross-dressing frog catchers, and ruthless opportunists. The prose is lyrical yet unsentimental, capturing the gritty reality of survival on the margins. It will thoroughly delight readers who crave atmospheric, morally complex historical fiction centered on fierce, unconventional female friendships and the dark, hidden corners of boomtown history.
- Mood
- feverish
- sweltering
- claustrophobic
- bohemian
- Tone
- gritty
- urgent
- lyrical
- unsentimental
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- unconventional female friendship · survival on the margins · complex motherhood · the weight of secrets
- The writing
- Sensory and cinematic, woven tightly with period slang, historical song lyrics, and visceral descriptions of a grimy boomtown.
- The arc
- Moves from a state of shocked, feverish grief into a fierce, desperate scramble for truth and self-reclamation.
- Who it's for
- Fans of gritty, atmospheric historical fiction who are drawn to morally ambiguous, fiercely independent women surviving on the fringes of society.
Content notes
- murder
- child neglect
- epidemic illness
- sex work
- gun violence
About the book
"Emma Donoghue's explosive new novel, based on an unsolved murder in 1876 San Francisco. Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heatwave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman called Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice--if he doesn't track her down first. The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women and damaged children. It's the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts. In thrilling, cinematic style, FROG MUSIC digs up a long-forgotten, never-solved crime. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue's lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes captures the pulse of a boomtown like no other"--
Description from Open Library.
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