Describing my experience
Once again we come to a post where I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to read next. But since we had time off for spring break I took that as my time to figure out what I wanted to read and to start as soon as possible. I started my book search, by looking through WonderCat for some recommendations based on immersion since that is typically what draws me in. Maybe it’s just me but I would rather do a broader search online than just WonderCat. So my next step was to look up the different branches of fiction to find one that I hadn’t really read before. To which I found mystery/thriller and historical fiction. Granted I typically watch crime related shows so I thought this might be a good fit, and I don’t typically read historical fiction.
After this, I went online to Barnes and Noble and looked through their selections for mystery thrillers and historical fiction. In the mystery thriller section it was kind of all the same brand of spy thrillers or murders in a small town, which isn’t like off brand for me but for some reason I’d rather watch something in that vein than read it. So I moved on to historical fiction. Under that I found The Lost Bookshop and read the small description that said:
The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.
Description of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from the Barnes & Noble website)
I was interested because for me pieces of media like books, movies, etc. are used as an escape from my life, which I’m sure is the same for others. But then I was confused because this didn’t seem the least bit like historical fiction. So I did a quick Google search to see if it was and Google said yes, so I figured this could be considered me “branching out”. I bought a digital copy and started reading.
At this point, I am about halfway through the book and can say I am pleasantly surprised with the plot, granted I wasn’t really sure what it would be from the description besides the lost bookshop. The book is told in three perspectives of the three characters mentioned in the description: Opaline, Martha, and Henry. Opaline’s chapters take place across Europe in the 1920s, while Martha and Henry’s chapters take place in present day Ireland. The chapters alternate in that order.
Opaline flees her home in London at age 21, to escape an arranged marriage. She trades her father’s copy of David Copperfield to have enough money to secure passage to Paris. She mentions that this is the first time she became a book dealer. While making a life for herself in Paris, her brother Lyndon eventually finds her and tries to get her to return home to resume this arranged marriage. She then escapes to Ireland, where she then becomes the shop owner of what used to be Mr. Fitzpatrick’s Nostalgia Shop. She then changes the shop to be a bookstore with the books she has collected along the way and uses the items from the nostalgia shop to create intricate displays. It is starting to become clear to the reader that the shop has some sort of magical properties, since it is the recycled wood from a library in Italy (details are still a little fuzzy on this). Opaline is also on the hunt to see if Emily Bronte ever started a second manuscript before she died. After going around Europe following leads, she is gifted Charlotte Bronte’s (Emily’s sister) sewing box. In it she discovers a small notebook with the second manuscript! Opaline is then kidnapped by her brother Lyndon and taken to a psychiatric hospital and is held there for years before escaping back to her shop. She writes her own book A Place Called Lost, for her daughter (who she gave birth to in the hospital and was told was dead, but was actually sold).
Martha flees to Dublin to escape her abusive husband, which isn’t explicitly stated off the bat, but readers can use context clues for that and it is later stated in following chapters. She becomes a housekeeper for an older woman named Madame Bowden, and lives in the apartment in her basement. She is trying to make a new life for herself outside of the small village she grew up in, away from her family and abusive ex-husband, Shane. Martha wants to go to university but has an odd relationship with books, she claims she’s scared of them. Martha has this uncanny ability to read people, by reading their body language and talking to them. She also gets these visions, I guess you could call them, of words she needs to get tattooed on her back – I’m not sure what this is leading to but it is definitely adding an air of mystery to the book. The last that was left off was Martha went to the tattoo shop to get more words tattooed on her back, but they were already there.
She meets Henry when he stumbles onto the property of the house looking for something he lost. He explains to her how is searching for a manuscript that could lead him to the lost bookshop, so Martha and Henry go on this hunt together. They soon catch feelings for each other, which makes things complex since Martha just escaped Shane, and Henry is engaged to a woman named Isabelle who is back home in the UK. He ends up leaving Isabelle for Martha, and goes home to tell her in person and meet his niece Felicity, and reconcile his relationship with his abusive father. He left a letter explaining everything in Martha’s mailbox, but she only knows he left, and is hurt that he would leave without saying goodbye – she then blocks him while he is away. Where I left off, Henry just booked his flight back to Ireland. Martha rekindles her relationship after trying to be friends and they continue researching Opaline together, finally solving the mystery.
Classifying my experience
So as I mentioned in class this week, I’m not having any strong experiences like I’ve had in the past 2 assignments. But after looking through the experience glossary I have settled on a few. The first is confusion (The feeling of being bewildered or unclear) and curiosity (When we feel we have some idea about an answer, but are unconfident about what that answer is. The active form of wonder. Where the first form of wonder is passive (essentially pausing in astonishment as a miracle washes over you), curiosity is active). I am pairing these together since I believe, at least for me they lead into one another. Next is empathy (The feeling of understanding another person’s actions. You may not condone the actions or identify with the person, but you accept that their actions weren’t wrong). Finally, I feel a little bit of identification (Recognizing, in a character’s experience, a conflict that you have experienced) but not as much as I have in the past. After finishing the book, I am going to add righteousness (Resentful anger aroused by an act that you believe is immoral) to my list of experiences.
I want to preface this section with that I am enjoying this book. I am just not feeling any strong experiences. For the confusion and curiosity pairing, I think my confusion is leading to my curiosity to keep reading. For instance, since the chapters bounce back and forth from the three different perspectives, I am more confused on how Opaline’s chapters link with Martha and Henry’s (besides the obvious that Henry is searching for the lost bookshop that Opaline ran back in the 1920s). So that is why I keep reading, but also because I am curious to see where the character arcs go.
In terms of empathy, the three main characters have experienced a lot of hardships which essentially make me feel bad for them, but also understand why they act the way they do because of their actions. For example, Martha ran away from her small town and abusive ex-husband. She is skittish in the beginning of the book, since she is worried about Shane coming to find her. This also impacts her relationship with Henry because she is scared to open herself up romantically again. Henry goes back home to break things off with his fiancé, but while he is there, his sister ends up having her baby. Henry’s sister Lucinda is still in contact with their father, who Henry has essentially written off since he was abusive to him. When Henry’s father shows up at the hospital, he is shocked and honestly angry that his sister would invite him. Opaline is trying to be an independent woman in a time where that was completely unheard of. There are multiple examples of her being looked down on or being used because of the fact she is a woman. Mainly her brother trying to put her in an arranged marriage, when she wants absolutely nothing to do with it. And subsequently hunting her down when she tries to make a new life for herself.
Finally, I do feel a little bit of identification with Martha and Opaline. I wouldn’t consider it full identification like I felt in my past two posts for Bree and Jemma Simmons, but these 2 characters will make comments that I’m like yeah I relate. I would say it’s not full identification because I haven’t really gone through any similar conflicts that they have.
I am now adding righteousness to the list of experiences because of specifically all the horrors and trauma Opaline had experienced. While I was reading, the chapters of Opaline being incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital and the things to follow, I was honestly so angry that this had even happened to her because 1. she didn’t deserve it and 2. it was all at the hand of her brother.
Features that defined my experience
Confusion and curiosity
Like I mentioned I am curious to see how the three perspectives all connect. As of right now, Martha and Henry are doing research on Opaline, while the events of Opaline’s chapters are happening so they are discovering things that have not happened in her chapters yet, or have already happened. For example, this is from one of Henry’s chapters while doing research on Opaline:
“‘Oh, maybe nothing. It’s just I can’t seem to find any other records of Opaline Gray and now I’m wondering if she spent any time in Paris.’
She took out her phone, which I thought was rather rude but one can only capture attention for so long.
‘Is this her?’
‘What?’
She shoved her phone in my face, showing a grainy black and white photo from an old newspaper clipping.
‘Who is it? What did you do?’
‘Well, Mr Fancy-Pants Scholar, I googled the words “Opaline”, “books” and “Paris” and found this.’
I looked closer, hardly daring to believe my eyes.
‘This is Ernest Hemingway!’
She grinned like the proverbial cat, but did not meet my eyes. I read the caption underneath: ‘Sylvia Beach, proprietor of Shakespeare and Company, shop assistant Opaline Carlisle’. There she was; a young woman with dark cropped hair, halfway up a ladder with a book in her hand, Hemingway by her feet.”
Chapter 9 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
This happens before Opaline’s perspective on this incident where she says this:
“Once, when I was on the ladder putting books on to a high shelf, I found him staring at me.
‘Yes?’ I asked, giving him a direct look that I hoped would shame him into looking elsewhere. It did not work.
‘You ought to be careful, Missy.’
Missy. Honestly.
‘And why is that?’
‘All writers are cannibalistic by nature.’
I wasn’t sure what he was driving at, but it didn’t sound very appetising to my ears.
‘Meaning?’
‘Keep waving that ass around here, you might find yourself a character in one of my books,’ he grinned, openly enjoying my vexation. Honestly, writers could be such egoists!
As I slowly lowered myself down the ladder, Sylvia and another man, a reporter, entered the shop and as quick as lightning, he took a camera out of its case and almost blinded the three of us with the flash.
‘There we are, I will have it in our next edition,’ he said, and the two men left, discussing Hemingway’s bruised fingers, which he said he’d got defending Joyce in a drunken brawl.
‘What was that for?’ I asked, wary of the idea of my photograph appearing in print.
‘Cosmopolitan magazine, they’re printing one of Ernest’s stories.’
I was halfway up the ladder, I thought to myself. I probably wasn’t even in shot. Besides, Lyndon was hardly a reader of Cosmopolitan. Nothing to worry about, I assured myself, and almost believed it too.”
Chapter 10 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
As you can see by this example, the chapters are interconnected. Part of Henry’s research is wondering what happened to Opaline and the bookshop. At the point in the book I am at now, Opaline has just been kidnapped by her brother and brought to a psychiatric hospital. Back then, women were looked down upon enough and thrown into mental institutions for having any sort of free thought, so I am genuinely curious to see how she gets out of this.
In finishing the book, the chapters seem to cross over more with a final culmination at the end of the book. A few things happen to tie it all together with I was happy with because it all fit together. Granted I did see some of these coming but others I did not.
- Henry and Martha go to the psychiatric hospital that Opaline was held at and obtain her records as well as photographs of her. Because of this they are able to see a photo of Opaline that had Emily Bronte’s manuscript sewn into her skirt. Opaline did this to keep her from forgetting it while incarcerated.
- The reader then finds out that the mysterious tattoo on Martha’s back is EMILY BRONTE’S MANUSCRIPT! I did put this together before it was officially revealed, but still satisfying nonetheless.
- Next, Martha in a conversation with her mother finds out that there is a hole in her family lineage. That her grandmother was adopted and she never found her birthmother.
- This puts the pieces together when going through Opaline’s records that her lost daughter is MARTHA’S GRANDMOTHER – making Martha Opaline’s great granddaughter. This one I also did see coming but still a nice twist.
- In Martha’s apartment in the basement of the house she works in, a tree started magically growing and giving her books. One being Opaline’s A Place Called Lost. This culminates in the house becoming the bookshop through magic essentially, that Martha and Henry work at and get their happy ending.
Below are a few quotes highlighting some of these twists where I wrote notes of being like OH MY GOSH, and other similar phrases that I will not include since I did use some inappropriate language:
“I looked at her back again and saw the initials at the end.
EJB.
My scalp tingled and it felt like my hair was standing on end.
‘Henry, I think this is Emily Brontë’s manuscript.’”
Chapter 51 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
“Are you ready to cross the threshold and claim your birthright? … This was my journey.”
Chapter 53 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
“Well, this was nuts. I had met the woman of my dreams only to find out that she carried the missing manuscript of Emily Brontë ON HER SKIN, and now, it seemed, was the great-granddaughter of Opaline Carlisle, one of the greatest book dealers of the twentieth century.”
Chapter 54 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
Empathy
Like I mentioned I definitely feel empathy for the three main character’s since they each go through their own hardships and that influences their actions. For instance, when Martha opens up to Henry about her abusive ex-husband. She said this:
“I was so lost in my memories, I almost forgot where I was or what we were doing. I looked up at him and saw a look of empathy in his eyes. Not sympathy, thank God. I couldn’t bear that.
‘I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do this.’
‘It’s okay,’ he said, about to embrace me but then stopping short. ‘Um, do you want a hug?’
I nodded. A lot. Yes, I did want a hug. I never asked anyone for anything, but to have what I needed offered to me like that was a blessed relief.”
Chapter 14 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
I empathized with Martha because obviously this is a horrible situation to go through, but I knew I would so the same if I was in Henry’s position. For me personally, from a young age I’ve experienced a lot of loss through people in my family so I feel that experience gave me the skills to empathize with others.
Identification
Like I said, I feel a slight identification with Martha and Opaline just because of comments they have made throughout my reading. Here are a few quotes that I highlighted and made a note saying relatable:
“I tended to live in my imagination…” – Opaline (Chapter 1 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
“Books are like portals.” – Opaline (Chapter 1 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
“I had hardly left England’s shores and already I was succumbing to the charms of a foreign accent like some ingénue. I had to get a hold of myself.” – Opaline (Chapter 4 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
“‘No tears,’ I warned myself, but it was no good. I could already feel them running down my cheeks.” – Opaline (Chapter 16 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
“My mind was frazzled and full of doubts. What if I humiliated myself by not knowing anything? Would I make any friends or end up sitting alone for the entire term? What if, what if, what if … The thoughts were endless.” – Martha (Chapter 32 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
“‘The thing about books,’ she said, ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’ – Martha (Epilogue of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
Righteousness
This, I think is going to be a shot in the dark because I feel like my feelings fit into the category of righteousness but that might be more in line with frustration or anger. As Opaline’s chapters went on, I continued to grow more and more frustrated and angry with hand she was being dealt mostly at the hand of her brother. It felt like she was taking one step forward and then three steps back. I began to notice however that most of her misfortune was as a result of men in her life. Now for the time period this is in, that’s not uncommon. Women were overlooked and taken advantage of a lot, but seeing her treatment get worse and worse made me really angry, especially in the psychiatric hospital. She was hospitalized because of Lyndon claiming she was crazy (obviously she wasn’t) to keep her from having an independent life. She had her baby while incarcerated and the doctors lie to her saying the baby died, when in reality the baby was just put up for adoption through illegal channels. Opaline enters a depression after this, and doesn’t find out the truth until years later. While in the hospital she makes this realization:
“It didn’t seem to matter how talented, intelligent or independent a woman was, she was still seen as the property of a man, to do with as he pleased.”
Chapter 48 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
This is honestly a sad truth of the time period Opaline is in, but I feel still rings true to a degree today which is probably why I was so upset by it.
After escaping incarceration, Opaline aims to publish an exposé about her brother regarding his war crimes and what he did to her. She goes to confront her brother to tell him what she is going to do. Now, this next part I did not see coming and was shocked but definitely fueled my feeling of righteousness/anger. When she confronts Lyndon, she learns two things. The first being her daughter is alive, but the second is that Lyndon is actually HER FATHER. I was shocked to say the least, because that came out of nowhere (I do find it funny tho because I made a note earlier in the book about their age difference – and thought they had the different parents at first). Lyndon says this:
“‘I suggested an orphanage, but Father, being the weak-willed man that he was, insisted on keeping you. I wanted nothing to do with it. I had my career in the army. So they brought you up as their own and you have been the thorn in my side ever since.’”
Chapter 52 of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (copy/pasted from Amazon Kindle)
I am refraining from inappropriate language here, but oh boy was I mad, honestly I’m still mad about it. He explains that Opaline was following the path of her mother and he needed to do something about it to save his reputation, even though no one knew Opaline was his daughter. The fact that he felt the need to incarcerate her to keep her from having her own life, oh and selling HIS OWN GRANDDAUGHTER, is actually insane and messed up. This could be because I felt empathy for Opaline, but also because it was a sad truth about the time period.
Narrative Technologies
For the identification side I think the I Voice (A narrator who speaks in the first person) probably led to my identification. Due to hearing Martha and Opaline’s thoughts on the things happening to them in real time. Another technology that I think is at play is poetic justice (A plot technology of having good things happen to “good” people and bad things happen to “bad” people). The reason I think that this plays a part is because Shane, Martha’s ex-husband tries to kidnap Martha to bring her home and shows up at Madame Bowden’s house. In the process of their struggle he falls over the side of the stairs, but it’s somewhat unclear if he was pushed or not. But when that happened I honestly was glad he died because he’s a terrible person. I also think this fits for Lyndon since he ended up committing suicide, after Opaline was going to expose him. Finally, I would say that suspense (Revealing some part of the story, but not all of the pieces) plays a big part in my confusion/curiosity and my urge to keep reading. I am also going to add plot twist (“The plot twist isn’t a twist. It’s the final link in a chain of untwisted events, where each link connects smoothly with the one before, carrying the story forward without bends or breaks. Yet even though the chain of the story is arrow straight, its final link is so stunning that it feels like a swerve. It overthrows all precedent, delivering us to a destination unexpected” (16)) since the twists at the end kept me engaged and pieced everything together for me. Finally I would like to add wish fulfillment (A plot technology that shows a character getting everything they want) because I was rooting for Martha and Henry to solve their mystery. I am also happy that Opaline got a nice ending even if she never found her daughter.
Conclusion
After finishing this book, I am pleasantly surprised. I honestly loved it and am so glad I read it. Kaylee also happened to read the same book as me so we had a good discussion about our feelings about the book and the big twists. Another thing we discussed that wasn’t explicitly stated in the book was the disappearance of Madame Bowden. Later on in the book Martha thinks she went missing, but you find out that when Martha’s mom comes to visit, she never met Madame Bowden when Martha clearly remembers it. When Martha and Henry discover the bookshop, there is a note signed B. After doing a quick Google search, we established that Madame Bowden is a magical personification of the bookshop. It was definitely nice that I could discuss with Kaylee to see that we had similar perspectives.
Works Cited
Experiences Glossary – Story & The Brain. https://unewhavendh.org/story-and-the-brain/experiences-glossary/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2025.
Technologies by Element of Narrative – Story & The Brain. https://unewhavendh.org/story-and-the-brain/technologies-by-element-of-narrative/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2025.
Woods, Evie. The Lost Bookshop: The Most Charming and Uplifting Novel for 2025 and the Perfect Gift for Book Lovers! One More Chapter, 2023.
Woods, Evie. “The Lost Bookshop: Paperback.” Barnes & Noble, HarperCollins Publishers, 7 Nov. 2023, www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lost-bookshop-evie-woods/1142677742?ean=9780008609214.
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Cover for The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods. One More Chapter. All Rights Reserved.
