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leighryks 's review for:
A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama
by Laura Amy Schlitz
This was a surprise. I bought it on a whim when it was a $0.99 kindle deal. Probably my idea was to pre-read it and see if it was something my son F would be interested in hearing. He loves things that are a bit spooky. But, despite the word “seance” it is pretty clear from the book summary that this is not a spooky story, maybe it was the word melodrama that made me think it had potential.
Hubby and I take turns reading to F, age 7, before he goes to sleep. We each read an entire book to F before switching and last time my turn caught me by surprise. I went to Amazon and download a “sample” of a different book to try thinking that would give me something to read that night and buy me another day to find something if we didn’t like it. When I sat down to read, I offered to read him the sample or read him a bit of this with the option to change books the next night either way. F chose this book.
The Drown Maiden’s Hair tells the story of a turn early 20th century orphan girl who is adopted by a trio of spinster spiritulatists. There are many descriptions of the places she stays, where she goes, and what she wears. The main story is about her relationships with the people around her and her sorting out the what it means to be loved. Some of the vocabulary used was incredible, and the story is was told in such a way that many realities of the time are implied rather than spelled out.
I do not subscribe to the idea that boys will only read books with a male lead character. However, had I read this first, I would never have suggested this to F. I wouldn’t have pictured him sitting through Maud’s dreams of lace dresses and long curly hair. I wouldn’t have pictured him understanding some of the less overt actions---seven year old boys are not masters of anything subtle. I would have chosen a book with much more direct action. There are pretty much no male characters in the book at all.
He loved this. (I’m sure he will never admit that in public and certainly not to any of his male buddies.) He seemed to understand Maud and was particularly taken with her interactions with Muffet/Anna who is a deaf servant. He was also fascinated by the time and place--that only some houses had indoor plumbing and that there were carousels but not cars. He seemed to have no problem following the story at all though there were words that I actually wasn’t familiar with. I did find that it was better to stop occasionally and ask him why he thought someone was acting as they did or what he thought might happen next, and we had some really good conversations. He might have got a bit misty-eyed at the end, but I will never tell....
Hubby and I take turns reading to F, age 7, before he goes to sleep. We each read an entire book to F before switching and last time my turn caught me by surprise. I went to Amazon and download a “sample” of a different book to try thinking that would give me something to read that night and buy me another day to find something if we didn’t like it. When I sat down to read, I offered to read him the sample or read him a bit of this with the option to change books the next night either way. F chose this book.
The Drown Maiden’s Hair tells the story of a turn early 20th century orphan girl who is adopted by a trio of spinster spiritulatists. There are many descriptions of the places she stays, where she goes, and what she wears. The main story is about her relationships with the people around her and her sorting out the what it means to be loved. Some of the vocabulary used was incredible, and the story is was told in such a way that many realities of the time are implied rather than spelled out.
I do not subscribe to the idea that boys will only read books with a male lead character. However, had I read this first, I would never have suggested this to F. I wouldn’t have pictured him sitting through Maud’s dreams of lace dresses and long curly hair. I wouldn’t have pictured him understanding some of the less overt actions---seven year old boys are not masters of anything subtle. I would have chosen a book with much more direct action. There are pretty much no male characters in the book at all.
He loved this. (I’m sure he will never admit that in public and certainly not to any of his male buddies.) He seemed to understand Maud and was particularly taken with her interactions with Muffet/Anna who is a deaf servant. He was also fascinated by the time and place--that only some houses had indoor plumbing and that there were carousels but not cars. He seemed to have no problem following the story at all though there were words that I actually wasn’t familiar with. I did find that it was better to stop occasionally and ask him why he thought someone was acting as they did or what he thought might happen next, and we had some really good conversations. He might have got a bit misty-eyed at the end, but I will never tell....