The Betrayal of Thomas True is an historical fiction novel about a somewhat forgotten segment of history but it just missed the mark for me.
I am definitely in the minority with this review as I know it’s well-loved and gets very high ratings but after reading The Betrayal of Thomas True and really thinking about my experience with the book, I was left feeling a little underwhelmed. That’s not to say that you might not love it, after all, reading is subjective, but here are my thoughts.
What is The Betrayal of Thomas True About?
Set in the early 1700s, Thomas True arrives in London to escape an abusive father and a life in the church. Thomas has never felt like he’s really being allowed to be himself that is until he finds himself stumbling around the backstreets of London.
Here he finds Mother Clap’s molly house. A secretive and outrageous underworld where men are free to express themselves and love who they like. Thomas finally feels like he belongs. However, with Thomas’s arrival comes whispers of a rat. A man posing as a molly who would see all his friends hang for their sins.
Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin can’t quite accept his double life as Lotty the molly guard. But when he hears about the rat, he’s determined to uncover who is betraying them before a pair of murderous Justices uncovers the molly house.
As forbidden love blooms, Gabriel and Thomas must work out who they can trust and put a stop to the rat before anyone else dies.
Book Review for The Betrayal of Thomas True
The premise of this sounded fantastic and instantly drew me in. 18th-century molly houses aren’t a topic you see in books every day and given that A. J. West is both an LGBTQ+ author and an historical researcher, I expected a lot from this book. Sadly I was left feeling disappointed and like the subject matter wasn’t quite given the love it deserved.
Right from the start something felt off about the story that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was a feeling that only intensified as I went on. Usually, this would be a sign for me to DNF a book, however, the amazing reviews and the subject matter made me continue with it, I was desperate for it to get better. Unfortunately, the entire book felt like it struggled with flow and pace and it never improved.
I think my biggest bugbear with the story was that I felt like the subject matter should have been given a more informative and serious story. I am well aware that The Betrayal of Thomas True is a work of fiction and therefore to be used for entertainment, however, molly houses were very real places in the 18th and 19th centuries. Mother Clap was an actual person and she did indeed run a molly house. Both the author’s note and A.J. West’s website are full of information about Mother Clap, molly houses and general 18th-century history yet this was lacking in the novel.
Instead what we got was a distracting cast of characters that didn’t really add much to the story and sort of diminished the one true character I cared about—Gabriel Griffin. All of the mollies have a male and female name and freely switch between the two in the novel, there is a guide at the front of the book which can help with this, but this becomes more troublesome if you’re reading on a Kindle like I did. In truth, there were only one are two mollies I cared about, the rest felt somewhat insignificant.
As for other characters in the book, Thomas’s aunt and uncle were some of the strangest characters I’ve ever met. They’d added practically nothing to the story, seemed to be there for comic relief half of the time and then suddenly became vile people toward the end. Every scene with them felt strange and almost like it didn’t make sense. Personally, I found the two Justice’s to be of similar strangeness and significance too. They added next to nothing to what is already quite a large number of characters.
Gabriel was by far the best person in the book and his story was what redeemed the novel for me. He felt well-developed and relatable. My heart truly did go out to him. Credit where credit is due, the ending for him was pretty moving and fairly well done. His storyline is how the whole book should have been done. I would have much preferred more of a focus on him over the other characters.
Another positive was that I absolutely could not guess who the rat was and the revelation didn’t come until right at the end to keep you guessing. But for me, that’s where the positives of the rat storyline end. The revelation was utterly underwhelming and it didn’t make much sense. I won’t spoil the revelation for anyone but for me, it undercovered a few plot holes and historical inaccuracies once the rat was revealed.
Around 60% through the novel a hint of magical realism comes into play. This felt totally out of place with the rest of the story and left me totally confused. It was unnecessary and really took away from the historical importance of the subject. I never DNF that far into a book, but I was pretty close here!
Ultimately the story of molly houses in the 18th century wasn’t done justice in my opinion. There was so much more that could have been explored in a much better way. Clearly, I’m one of the very few that feels that way so I still encourage you to pick up The Betrayal of Thomas True and see what it’s about for yourself. Without Gabriel being such a strong character, this would definitely have been a DNF or a much lower rating.
Have you read The Betrayal of Thomas True? What were your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments!
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