Saturday Review: “Untangling the Strings” a review by Sharon Colley of Heather Newton’s novel The Puppeteer’s Daughters (2022) in NCLR Online Winter 2025
Another early look at a review in the forthcoming NCLR Online Winter 2025 issue!
Heather Newton’s novel The Puppeteer’s Daughter explores the relationships between puppeteer Walter Gray and his three daughters. In her review Colley examines the complexities of these relationships and the way “the half-sister’s relationships with each other, their mothers, and the men in their lives are colored by their perceptions of their celebrated and enigmatic father.”
These complex family relationships are made even more strained by the discovery of a fourth daughter the sisters were entirely unaware of. As Colley states “The existence of a fourth sister might rewrite their understanding of their place in the family and sense of self.”
Colley also addresses the role creativity plays in the story. Though talented and successful Gray struggles to make his more artistic work lucrative. His daughters are also creative and talented, but their relationships with their father have impacted the way they express it. As Colley writes “In the novel, the most beautiful and original art is inevitably made for oneself.”
Read the preview from the Online Winter 2025 issue! And order the book here.
