Noth­ing in this bio­graph­i­cal account of Assia Wevill, her rela­tion­ship with poet Ted Hugh­es, and all the oth­er mem­bers of their fam­i­lies, extend­ed fam­i­lies, friends and the ever-present ghost of Sylvia Plath is rea­son­able. Even know­ing from the start the final, worst moment of Wevill’s life, we turn each page in won­der at the tumul­tuous lives and the famil­ial cir­cum­stances that brought the play­ers to live the way they did. The inse­cu­ri­ties, insen­si­tiv­i­ty, out­ra­geous flir­ta­tions, assump­tions of accept­able behav­ior, and actu­al trag­ic actions are metic­u­lous­ly researched and recount­ed chrono­log­i­cal­ly with great tension. 

It is true, as stat­ed on the book cov­er, that one does not need a great curios­i­ty about poets Sylvia Plath or Ted Hugh­es to appre­ci­ate the sto­ry. The authors have skill­ful­ly inte­grat­ed the time span between the late 30’s until Wevill’s death with impor­tant his­tor­i­cal events, lit­er­ary trends, and notable peo­ple. Bib­li­og­ra­phy, index, notes.