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user613 's review for:
A Drowned Maiden's Hair
by Laura Amy Schlitz
I enjoyed reading this book as a child.
Rereading it as an adult, I discovered many layers to the story that I’d been completely unaware of previously. This book has a lot of depth to it and is a story for adults as much as it is a story for children.
Maud is a young orphan in a horrible orphanage. She's adopted by loving, charming Hyacinth and her sisters. Maud is completely under her spell. However, she's starved for her love and desperate for her attention, and never fully manages to attain either. Hyacinth goes from charming and loving to controlling and manipulative in the next and Maud can't be sure how Hyacinth will react at any given moment. And, as much as Hyacinth’s two sisters try to love Maud, they’re not Hyacinth. And, their lives are also controlled by her.
There’s a mourning mother. A deaf servant. Hyacinth herself. And her two sisters.
The book did a great job with all the conflicts. There was also a great depth of emotion conveyed, most of all Maud's emotions, of a lonely, desperate child, trying to make sense of the confusing reality she’s thrust into, betrayed by the adults that she trusted to keep her safe.
The book deals with many mature topics. Death. Abuse. Summoning spirits. Deception. However, it’s all written from the eyes of a child, and so is pretty age appropriate, provided the mature topics themselves aren’t a turn off.
All in all, this is a clean historical read that I recommend to readers of all ages.
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Content:
Religion:
There are some Christian themes discussed in the book. There are discussions of spiritualism, heaven and different kinds of Christianity.
Maud and the sisters are shown to recite psalms on their rest day. There's a picture of "Jesus blessing the children of Judea" in Maud's orphanage.
Violence:
There are many direct and indirect scenes with violence, nothing graphic, though many of them involve the adults in Maud’s life betraying her.
The orphanage she was raised in is a cruel place. Child laborers are mentioned. Hyacinth is abusive. She makes fun of many people, Maud included. She and her sisters hold fake seance. Maud is forced to help with their descriptions. She lives as their secret child, in a state of constant fear. She witnesses grown men crying as they speak to their supposed relatives.
In one scene Maud is playing the part of a girl’s ghost and hiding in a close, when a fire breaks out. She’s abandoned by everyone and is forced to fend for herself for two nights.
Other:
There is a lot of deception shown in this book. Maud is adopted by three sisters who pretend to hold seances and speak to spirits and thus cheat people out of their money.
Romance: None
Rereading it as an adult, I discovered many layers to the story that I’d been completely unaware of previously. This book has a lot of depth to it and is a story for adults as much as it is a story for children.
Maud is a young orphan in a horrible orphanage. She's adopted by loving, charming Hyacinth and her sisters. Maud is completely under her spell. However, she's starved for her love and desperate for her attention, and never fully manages to attain either. Hyacinth goes from charming and loving to controlling and manipulative in the next and Maud can't be sure how Hyacinth will react at any given moment. And, as much as Hyacinth’s two sisters try to love Maud, they’re not Hyacinth. And, their lives are also controlled by her.
There’s a mourning mother. A deaf servant. Hyacinth herself. And her two sisters.
The book did a great job with all the conflicts. There was also a great depth of emotion conveyed, most of all Maud's emotions, of a lonely, desperate child, trying to make sense of the confusing reality she’s thrust into, betrayed by the adults that she trusted to keep her safe.
The book deals with many mature topics. Death. Abuse. Summoning spirits. Deception. However, it’s all written from the eyes of a child, and so is pretty age appropriate, provided the mature topics themselves aren’t a turn off.
All in all, this is a clean historical read that I recommend to readers of all ages.
Similar recommendations:
[b:Eight Cousins|14570|Eight Cousins (Eight Cousins, #1)|Louisa May Alcott|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328864060l/14570._SY75_.jpg|2905864]
[b:Moon Over Manifest|8293938|Moon Over Manifest|Clare Vanderpool|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320541883l/8293938._SY75_.jpg|13142485]
[b:The Witch of Blackbird Pond|703292|The Witch of Blackbird Pond|Elizabeth George Speare|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1345499790l/703292._SY75_.jpg|2904401]
Content:
Religion:
There are some Christian themes discussed in the book. There are discussions of spiritualism, heaven and different kinds of Christianity.
Maud and the sisters are shown to recite psalms on their rest day. There's a picture of "Jesus blessing the children of Judea" in Maud's orphanage.
Violence:
There are many direct and indirect scenes with violence, nothing graphic, though many of them involve the adults in Maud’s life betraying her.
The orphanage she was raised in is a cruel place. Child laborers are mentioned. Hyacinth is abusive. She makes fun of many people, Maud included. She and her sisters hold fake seance. Maud is forced to help with their descriptions. She lives as their secret child, in a state of constant fear. She witnesses grown men crying as they speak to their supposed relatives.
Spoiler
There's a little girl who died from drowning. Maud dreams of her and speaks to her about her death in those dreams.In one scene Maud is playing the part of a girl’s ghost and hiding in a close, when a fire breaks out. She’s abandoned by everyone and is forced to fend for herself for two nights.
Other:
There is a lot of deception shown in this book. Maud is adopted by three sisters who pretend to hold seances and speak to spirits and thus cheat people out of their money.
Spoiler
Maud is adopted to play the part of a girl’s ghost. There are also mentions Maud and Victoria having dreams where they interact with dead people and know details about them that they couldn’t have known in real life.Romance: None