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A review by sloatsj
The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns
4.0
I read this very quickly because the protagonist, Alice, is so sympathetic, an abused child with a good heart with whom you suffer and hope.
It's a realistic story and straightforward. Alice's mother dies near the beginning, leaving her desolate with her evil father, whom Alice suspects of poisoning the mother. The father's new girlfriend is terrible, and assists in a crime against Alice, who luckily escapes home temporarily to be a companion for the elderly mother of a suitor. The elderly mother was to me also extremely sympathetic -- I recognize much of my own elderly mother's sadness and powerlessless in her. Anyway, that is rather a side story.
Alongside the realistic plot and narration Alice discovers she has a supernatural talent, which I found a little hard to accept in a story like this. I thought she was perhaps deluded or hallucinating, but it is borne out by witnesses. After finishing and reflecting I find this bizarre twist easier to appreciate.
It's a realistic story and straightforward. Alice's mother dies near the beginning, leaving her desolate with her evil father, whom Alice suspects of poisoning the mother. The father's new girlfriend is terrible, and assists in a crime against Alice, who luckily escapes home temporarily to be a companion for the elderly mother of a suitor. The elderly mother was to me also extremely sympathetic -- I recognize much of my own elderly mother's sadness and powerlessless in her. Anyway, that is rather a side story.
Alongside the realistic plot and narration Alice discovers she has a supernatural talent, which I found a little hard to accept in a story like this. I thought she was perhaps deluded or hallucinating, but it is borne out by witnesses. After finishing and reflecting I find this bizarre twist easier to appreciate.