Briefly, A Delicious Life has been on my radar for years—a literary novel with a sapphic ghost main character? I’m listening. But it made its way to the top of my TBR after I read and loved Nell Stevens’s 2025 release, The Original. This one follows Blanca, who died when she was 14 years oldRead More
A Masterpiece of Lesbian Historical Fiction: The Original by Nell Stevens
As someone who read and loved Nell Stevens’s previous historical novel, Briefly, a Delicious Life (2022), I was eagerly anticipating her latest release, The Original (Norton, 2025), and it did not disappoint! Set primarily in England in 1899, Grace is the longtime ward of her uncle’s family on their once-grand estate. After her parents were sent to mental institutions,Read More
Curses, Forgeries, and Family Secrets: The Original by Nell Stevens Review
When Grace’s parents are institutionalized, she’s sent to live with her uncle’s family, where she’s looked at with suspicion. The family considers her an inconvenience at best: they think she’s strange and destined to go “mad,” like her parents. She mostly tries to stay out of the way. It doesn’t help that she has faceRead More
Rachel reviews Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Nell Stevens’s debut novel, Briefly, A Delicious Life (2022), is a stunning historical novel about a centuries-old ghost who falls in love with one of history’s most infamous writers. The novel is told from the perspective of Blanca, a ghost who has been fourteen for hundreds of years by theRead More