A review by rosekk
Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue

4.0

Well the ending was something of a surprise. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I really enjoyed the book. The characters were detailed, and felt individual. Her writing painted a picture of the London & Monmouth of the time. Mary's story was a fairly addictive thing to follow. I did feel as though the end was a little incongruous, but having read the note in the back of the book and discovered that it was loosely based on a true story, I find the ending less improbable since in real life the end doesn't always have to make sense with the rest of it. Donoghue did a good job bringing very distant, little known people to life in the novel. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars was because it's taken me a while to read, and I've had little else to do, and I know me - if I'd loved the book enough to give it 5 stars I would have had trouble putting it down.