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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Ein sehr interessantes Buch, stellenweise auch belastend, aber mit einem angenehmen Schreibstil.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Denne boken likte jeg! Litt treig, men ble vandt til det, var nok bare at jeg så for meg at den var page turner. Men den var fin og fæl, ga litt Jude på klosteret i a little life vibes:( men selve mysteriet syntes jeg var litt forutsigbart
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this book but I was really disappointed in the ending and I really disliked the character of Sam. You'd have to be very unlucky not to get away with murder in the time before CCTV and DNA, even more so as a female killer so I felt the guilt and sense of jeopardy of the main character just came across as false and insincere. I had no sympathy for the murdered woman but I had no sympathy for any of the characters to be fair, apart from Bridget.
I would have given this book a 4 if it wasn't for the out-of-character reaction of Sam and the ending but we are where we are.
I would have given this book a 4 if it wasn't for the out-of-character reaction of Sam and the ending but we are where we are.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Abandonment
It has child abuse and murder at the heart of this book. For good reason and they are integral to the plot but if they are triggering to you give this a miss.
Hmmm I'm not sure how I feel about this one. This was a book club choice - which I'm enjoying as I'm picking up books I wouldn't necessarily have chosen. It is written from Lily's point of view - a very childlike and innocent feeling all the way through.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this book but found the structure all over the place and felt it could have flowed much better.
I also found the relationship between Lily and the Policeman a bit odd…… i understand a young girls attraction to Sam, a man who saved her as a baby, a man in uniform who was her saviour etc, but Sam being attracted to a young girl who he had saved as a new born baby a bit creepy …….
I also found the relationship between Lily and the Policeman a bit odd…… i understand a young girls attraction to Sam, a man who saved her as a baby, a man in uniform who was her saviour etc, but Sam being attracted to a young girl who he had saved as a new born baby a bit creepy …….
Less substantial than some of her previous books but nonetheless engrossing and moving, this is the story of a nineteenth-century English foundling girl, the harsh system in which she is raised and the consequences of this on her life.
This book is a proper Victorian melodrama.
A baby girl found on a freezing night by a police officer and taken to the foundling hospital. She spends the first few years of her life as a foster child in an idyllic setting before being forced back to the hospital for the rest of her childhood. The hospital is the complete opposite of her early years and I'm not giving anything away by saying it was an horrendous place.
The second half is the grown Lily and the mystery of the murder.
The first half, the story of the young Lily certainly had me hooked and I completely empathised with the poor child. However, the grown Lily just didn't appeal. I'm not really sure why as the writing was great and definitely gave an atmospheric picture of Victorian London that was completely believable. Perhaps it was the mindset of victimhood that Lily portrayed that just didn't work for me. Her way of thinking was certainly true of the time and her utter belief that she would be punished for her crime felt true for the period, but it just rubbed me up the wrong way!
I struggled to finish the book because I really didn't care what happened to Lily, but I have a feeling that is just my struggle to put myself in the head of a Victorian woman.
A baby girl found on a freezing night by a police officer and taken to the foundling hospital. She spends the first few years of her life as a foster child in an idyllic setting before being forced back to the hospital for the rest of her childhood. The hospital is the complete opposite of her early years and I'm not giving anything away by saying it was an horrendous place.
The second half is the grown Lily and the mystery of the murder.
The first half, the story of the young Lily certainly had me hooked and I completely empathised with the poor child. However, the grown Lily just didn't appeal. I'm not really sure why as the writing was great and definitely gave an atmospheric picture of Victorian London that was completely believable. Perhaps it was the mindset of victimhood that Lily portrayed that just didn't work for me. Her way of thinking was certainly true of the time and her utter belief that she would be punished for her crime felt true for the period, but it just rubbed me up the wrong way!
I struggled to finish the book because I really didn't care what happened to Lily, but I have a feeling that is just my struggle to put myself in the head of a Victorian woman.
I adored this, I think it is my favourite Rose Tremain yet. A simple story of a young woman abandoned at birth, fostered till the age of seven, returned to the Foundlings Home till the age of 17, then let out into the world to make her way. Or not as the case maybe. But not so simple, because it is set in the mid1850s, in the truly awful squalor and deprivation of the city of London, Lily has no one, not a single soul to offer her kindness, love or even hope. Because she has committed a murder and now she is just biding her time until she is caught, arrested, found guilty at her trial and hung. There is a ring of Charles Dickens in the telling of this story, even down to the slightly funny names that are reminiscent of Dickens, as well as the characterisations of the people in Lily’s life. And as in all of Dicken’s stories there are characters who are good and kind. After being rescued within hours of her birth by a police officer, Lily goes to a foster family Lily in the country side, where the Parkins are paid to look after her until the age of seven, when by law, she is returned to the awfulness of the Foundling Home. Lily is not the first or last child they foster, but she is the one that they come to love and adore, breaking all their hearts when she has to be returned. How any society can think it is a good thing to do this to children is inexplicable. And the Foundling Home is truly awful in every possible way. Lily comes through all this, finds work with a milliner, the third good and kind person who comes her way. But what about the guilt from the murder, how can she continue to live in herself with what she has done?