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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
Really quite bleak. She recreates Victorian London's squalor so it closes on on the reader. Characters are are well-written. Some scenes in the Coram Hospital are a tough read.
A neat and perfectly formed Victorian tale of pain, suffering, abuse, redemption and revenge. There really isn’t anything bad about this book, it just seems a little “gothic by numbers”. A little gothic beige. Happy ending? probably.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
An excellent Dickensian novel which tells us the story of Lily, who we learn from the start is a murderer. She was abandoned by her mother and left at the gates of a park near Bethnal Green where she was found by a policeman, Sam Trench. For the first six years of her life she is fostered where she enjoys the rural farming life. But by law no child could remain with their foster family for more than six years and so she is returned to the harshness of the foundling hospital. The reason Lily grows up to be a murderer is slowly revealed in this beautifully written novel which perfectly portrays the brutal, precarious life of an orphan in Victorian England.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
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.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Rose Tremain does write a good historical tale. Foundlings, merry farmers, orphanages, debauched wig makers, with a side of murder - this book has it all. I did find some of the changes in timeframe a bit abrupt - but it could be that my early copy had some formatting issues. All in all this a charming read, for all of her faults I was rooting for Lily throughout and was delighted to be reading a book from Rose Tremain who I have always enjoyed but have not seen much from recently.