Daughters of Chaos

Starred review from June 10, 2024
Fawkes (Tales the Devil Told Me) juxtaposes Civil War America and ancient Greece in this dazzling historical fantasy. Sylvie Swift is raised in poverty by her widowed father in a tiny Kentucky town. Beginning in the 1850s, teenage Sylvie and her twin brother receive monthly envelopes of cash from an unnamed sender in Nashville. In 1861, when Sylvie’s 20, she receives from the same sender the script of a play titled Apocrypha. After a bit of digging, she comes to believe the play is an unknown comedy by Aristophanes. In it, the goddess Chaos calls on Greece’s women to masquerade as prostitutes and use their wiles to trick men into submission and “put a stop to the endless wars.” The following year, Sylvie travels to Nashville to find her mysterious benefactor. At first glance, the address appears to belong to a brothel, but it’s actually a front for the Cult of Chaos, an ancient sisterhood with the same aim as Apocrypha’s women. From a series of uncanny events, Sylvie gathers that the women, like those in the play, are aided by a paranormal force. Both the historical and fantastical elements come alive in Sylvie’s suspenseful narration, which is interwoven with the text of the imaginary play. Fawkes wows with this wildly original tale. Agent: Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.

June 1, 2024
After the death of her partner, Hannah, Sylvie Swift documents her (and their) history, hoping to eventually share it with the daughters Sylvie had to give up. Sylvie had a dysfunctional childhood in antebellum Kentucky with her twin brother Silas, her older sister Marina, and their alcoholic father. When the twins were 14, Marina disappeared, and shortly thereafter, they received money from a mysterious benefactor in Nashville. Later, after their father's death, Silas joined the Confederate army, while Sylvie headed to Nashville to find Marina, her only clue the return address on the last package they received. Sylvie ends up at a brothel called Land of the Sirens, which is not what it first appears to be. Mixing epistolary writing with fantastical elements and excerpts from (real and fake) newspapers, encyclopedias, and a play, Fawkes' genre-blending debut novel expertly examines how women have found and exerted their own power throughout history. Inspired by the real-life experiences of the exiled Civil War era "public women," Daughters of Chaos will appeal to readers and book clubs seeking to savor a layered, chaotic, feminist read.

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August 15, 2024
In 1862, Sylvie Swift leaves the Kentucky farm where she was raised with her twin brother, Silas, for Nashville, where her life takes an otherworldly turn. Following her older sister Marina's abrupt departure years before and Silas' decision to join the Confederate army, Sylvie finds herself alone. When an obscure play calledApocrypha mysteriously shows up on her doorstep, she begins translating it from ancient Greek. As the project develops, she begins to feel compelled to track down the anonymous sender of the script. Her instinct takes her to Nashville, which is entirely different from her bucolic home. Against the backdrop of a city struggling to control a syphilis outbreak, feed the poor, and fund the Civil War, Sylvie meets Evangeline Price, the proprietor of a brothel whose clientele includes politicians, military officers, and high-society gentlemen--and who has a curious connection to Marina. Eventually it becomes clear that there's far more going on at Evangeline's establishment--and, indeed, in Nashville--than it appears. As Sylvie's translation takes shape with the help of Evangeline's multitalented workforce, she begins to make connections between the Ephesus of the play (inspired by Aristophanes'Lysistrata) and the Nashville underworld she becomes increasingly tangled up in--finding parallels between the Greek women (mortals and gods alike) seeking to undermine the male violence surrounding them and the women of the American South. Based on the true story of Nashville's attempt to exile its prostitutes during the Civil War, Fawkes' novel layers found texts--including journal entries, letters, and play scenes--to create an enchanting, immersive narrative interweaving the everyday with the fantastical and Civil War history with Greek mythology. She prompts us to question familiar notions of history and reminds us of the quiet, adaptable power of women through the ages. Sylvie learns the often-dangerous ancient ways of female rebellion but is preoccupied not by the peril of her situation, but by the absence of Marina, whose presence she feels everywhere. A riot of lust, secrets, gods, and mythical creatures make this a thoroughly entertaining novel, rich in detail and lavish prose. Fawkes shines a light on women troublemakers through time in this dazzling feminist tale.

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