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My Starry Rating: 5/5 Stars
Reason for Rating: An occult mystery that was exactly what it needed to be. I also loved that it had a Canadian setting.
What I Learned: The Tarot is really a tool to explore the unconscious
Publication Date: June 18, 2024 by DoubleDay Canada
Genres: Occult Fiction, Mystery, Fiction
DESCRIPTION:
A lost tarot card is the key to unravelling decades of secrets in this dazzling novel about art and deception, from Governor General’s Award–winning author Sarah Henstra.
Theresa Bateman, a struggling junior art historian in Toronto, receives a single tarot card in the mail. The image is unmistakably the work of celebrated avant-garde artist Lark Ringold, and its discovery would mean a breakthrough in Theresa’s career. But the legendary Ringold Tarot doesn’t exist. . . . Its paintings were lost in a fire that claimed Lark’s life along with dozens of others—the final, horrific implosion of a notorious cult called the Shown.
Sixty years earlier in England, Lark and his twin sister Nell join a bohemian commune led by their charismatic uncle. While Lark settles happily into his work on the tarot project to aid in his uncle’s occult teachings, Nell finds it harder to adjust. Just beneath the Shown’s golden surface she uncovers secrets that, if revealed, threaten to erupt into chaos.
Why was the tarot card sent to Theresa? How can she prove its connection to Ringold when her art-world superiors declare it a fake? And who has been holding onto it for all these years—and why? As Theresa follows the trail of the lost tarot, she is drawn into the deeply entwined mysteries of Nell, Lark and the Shown. What begins as the tale of one artist and the battle over his legacy unspools into a web of passion, violence and deceit. In twist after startling twist, and in vibrant, exquisite prose, The Lost Tarot is a landmark novel about love, creativity, power and perception.
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REVIEW:
The Lost Tarot by Sarah Henstra is an occult mystery about the seen and unseen and the power of art to perceive and deceive.
The Lost Tarot is a dual timeline story that follows Theresa Bateman, an junior art historian in Toronto who receives a mysterious tarot card in the mail and becomes embroiled in a decades old mystery about a legendary artist named Lark Ringold and the obscure cult called the ‘Shown’ he was rumoured to be a part of.
In the other timeline, set 60 years before, Lark and his twin sister Nell go to stay with their controversial uncle Corvo in England, who is the leader of the Shown, where he requires Lark to paint a tarot deck that will eschew his occult teachings to the world. The pagan and twisted teachings and practices at the cult disturbs Nell who sees beneath its seemingly innocent facade and that of her uncle Corvo, while her brother Lark becomes lost in its tantalizing promises. As Theresa begins exploring the origins of the Lark Ringold tarot, she discovers a heart wrenching truth about the tarot paintings, the Shown, and Nell which will completely shatter her perception of the past.
This story takes the reader on a journey through the Major Arcana and the process of individuation which will lead to the truth about Lark, Nell, and Corvo, with each character and event reflecting the archetypal meanings of the cards. With explorations about perception and deception, a good portion of the plot involves discussions around surrealism and art criticism and how everything we perceive is influenced if not controlled by the unconscious. The duality of life and how everything has a good and bad expression was a metaphor used throughout the story with twins, the sun and moon, and the eyes common symbols used in the plot. Sex, desire, and identity were the cards both upright and reversed, offering different interpretations for the characters who never had clear answers themselves. The role of women in the art world was also a big part of the story and how their respect and credibility is still questioned today.
There are many layers to this story as there are combinations of tarot cards, and how we choose to interpret their messages is up to the eye of the beholder.
Arcane and suspenseful, The Lost Tarot is the perfect read for fans of The Cloisters by Katy Hays.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
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My novel The Red Word is available March 2018 from Grove Atlantic (US) and ECW (Canada), and in 2019 from Tramp Press (UK). Mad Miss Mimic was published by Penguin Canada in 2015. We Contain Multitudes is coming in 2019 from Penguin (Canada) and Little, Brown (US). I’m also an English professor and I teach courses in Fairy Tales & Fantasy and Gothic Horror.
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