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A review by octavia_cade
Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin
4.0
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, from the point of view of his young household servant, Mary Reilly. Mary herself is the high point of the book - cool, collected, most deliberately not a whiner even though her life is a harsh one. (Martin doesn't glamourise servant life as anything but hard labour and long hours.) It's very easy to feel for her, to get caught up in her confusion even though, being familiar with the originating story, I knew what was happening and how it would end.
It's one of those books that's very easy to read - the writing flows nicely, carrying you along. I'm not sure that the conceit of "these are the real diaries of!" in the final pages is necessary, though. Granted, it provides an excuse for the unlikely level of literacy, but that could have been done equally well with a publisher's note or even nothing. We're already suspending disbelief, after all...
It's one of those books that's very easy to read - the writing flows nicely, carrying you along. I'm not sure that the conceit of "these are the real diaries of!" in the final pages is necessary, though. Granted, it provides an excuse for the unlikely level of literacy, but that could have been done equally well with a publisher's note or even nothing. We're already suspending disbelief, after all...