Wormwood Abbey: A Guest Post by Gina Dalfonzo

Today we are happy to share a guest post from Gina Dalfonzo, author and fellow book reviewer. Gina has been a guest at Redeemed Reader before: don’t miss her bio and our Back Porch Book Chat with her, linked below. This review was originally published on Gina’s Substack, Dear Strange Things.

Wormwood Abbey, Christina Baehr, Independently Published, 2023, 208 pages.

• Reading Level: Adult
• Recommended For: Teen/Adult

Christina Baehr describes the genre in which she writes as cozy gothic, and the description fits perfectly. Wormwood Abbey, her debut novel, is cozy enough to keep things from getting overly creepy, and gothic enough to avoid the syrupy sentimentality that too often goes with “cozies.” It’s the best of both worlds, and it’s delightful.

Our heroine and narrator is Edith Worms, a young Victorian woman who publicly carries out all her duties as a clergyman’s daughter, while privately writing popular detective novels. Only her warm and supportive family know about her secret career. But it’s Edith’s turn to be supportive when her father unexpectedly inherits his family home in Yorkshire, where, in his childhood, he once “saw a dragon in the garden.”

Nobody really believes him about the dragon, but once they get to Wormwood Abbey, everyone has to agree there’s something a little strange about the place and its current inhabitants, Edith’s three cousins. The oldest of them, Gwendolyn, seems positively haunted by secrets. And then there’s the mysterious neighbor, Drake, who keeps hanging around for no discernible reason.

And that’s even before we get to the creature that hatches itself in Edith’s fireplace.

Christina Baehr (a Facebook friend of mine, in the interest of full disclosure) knows her Gothic tropes and mythical beasts so well that she can both embrace and satirize them with great skill. She plays with Brontë references and French history and Victorian mores and so on, in ways that will charm readers who love those things. But they’re not the whole point of the story; rather, they decorate a thoroughly engaging tale of family, friendship, and adventure that’s suitable for both adults and teens.

There’s plenty to love about the characters here. Edith’s father, the Reverend Worms, quietly but generously lives out his faith by doing his best to provide for his orphaned nieces, and the rest of the family follow suit. (Edith quips at one point that her father likes to “shock his respectable parishioners by suggesting they follow the tenets of Christianity.”) They deal with whatever comes, from prejudice to entails to wyverns, with a united front and unquenchable spirit. Edith herself is a highly enjoyable narrator—honest, witty, and courageous. She’s very much a woman of her time, yet also a woman not afraid to take risks or to strike out on an uncharted path—just the kind of woman, in short, to adopt a small monster and name him Francis.

Perhaps the best part is that Wormwood Abbey is the first in a series, The Secrets of Ormdale, so there are more opportunities to spend time in this enchanting world. I’ve already bought the next one (Drake Hall) and can’t wait to get started.

A Note From Christina Baehr

Hayley here: I have had the pleasure of corresponding via email with the author of Wormwood Abbey, Christina Baehr, and she provided this helpful summary of the upcoming series and what to expect, with some words on age suitability.

 I believe there was a question about what age it is appropriate for. It is definitely suitable for a family audience. However, the vocabulary is sophisticated, so I usually tell people 14 and up (though very literate kids will probably sail through the Victorian word choices!).

There is nothing at all inappropriate for a family audience in WORMWOOD ABBEY, and it would be fine as a family read-aloud. However, in subsequent books I do deal with sins in Edith’s family’s past that have to be righted, and each family will have to make their own decision as to what is appropriate for their kids – another reason why I would suggest the series for mid teens and up. 

I will not have anything *on page* of an adult nature in these books (apart from suspenseful, adventure-story peril that you expect in YA), but as I said, discovering that sin has happened in the past and needs to be addressed in the present is an important part of the series. I try to handle it gently and sensitively, but I’m aware that standards vary, so pre-reading the later books in the series if you have younger kids in mind would be a good idea.

To be quite honest, I wrote the book I myself wanted to read, so it wasn’t initially aimed at younger readers, though I do include child characters (children are big part of my life!). But when I passed it onto my own family, I discovered that my 14 and 12 year olds adored it. Then my 9 year old, too! Then I found that many of my readers were sharing it with their tweens and teens and loving the book together.  -Christina Baehr, author of Wormwood Abbey

Thank you, Christina, for that helpful explanation. And thank you, Gina, for agreeing to share your review with us. (Thank you, also, to one of our Golden Key members, Julie Z, for first bringing this series to our attention!)

About the reviewer: Gina Dalfonzo is the author of Dorothy and Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C.S. Lewis and One by One: Welcoming the Singles in Your Church, and editor of The Gospel in Dickens. Her work has been published in Christ and Pop Culture, Plough, Christianity Today, The Atlantic, First Things, and elsewhere. She writes about books at her Substack, Dear Strange Things.

Remember, unless a book is starred, a review is not necessarily a recommendation. Read more about our ratings here.

Recommended Reading at Redeemed Reader

• Book Review: Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl
• Resource: Here Be Dragons: Mega Fantasy and Sci-Fi Booklist! (All ages)
• Resource: Back Porch Book Chat: Gina Dalfonzo (Writer, Book Reviewer)

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