Having been abandoned by her father, lost her mother, the story is about Nessie. A strong minded female in a desolate family unit also composed of her brother, sister and baby brother. Nessie as the good character takes on the burden of supporting the remnants of a family, scrapping around the slagheaps for coal and a bit of wood, finding work and facing a harsh environment and horrible people who seem hell bent on bringing her down.
It's well written and the description of the cold weather, the limited resources and lack of support in the olden days paints a stark picture. Warmth flows from the central character Nessie who has unlimited kindness. She is a one dimensional character, it would have been nice to see some flaws to her character, moments of hatred or some other negative emotion to make her more believable and enjoyable. The brother has more dimensions, flowing from a kind and virtuous character to a hateful resentful one, and then back again; which worked really well. Similarly her minx of a sister had many dimensions.
The plot is very engaging and has you rooting for Carson family, right until the last page. A few characters could have been better developed, the father appears fleetingly but as a very complex character he could have really added to the novel had his story been told fully. Also the mother of Andre, a French lady with gypsy blood and many interesting facets of personality could have added a nice and interesting side story had she been allowed to develop, alas she featured as a sort of summary of some background information which didn't add a lot to the plot.
This is a straightforward easy reader, there won't be many surprises, but where there are surprises they are big and have no signposting ahead of their introduction. Some of the shocking revelations could have been better introduced by developing certain characters more and adding some hints ahead of the big reveal. As it stands, when these things were revealed, they feel awkward and confusing due to the lack of build up.
The story ends well and is fulfilling, but the last 50 pages feel rushed, the author trying hard to tie up the loose ends in a too few words. The finale would have benefitted in expansion, if it was about word count then cutting the input of minor characters such as Molly and her husband, maids and serving staff portions. A lot of this serves as unnecessary support of the concept of the purity of Nessie, it doesn't make the story a better or worse, but more value could have been added from focussing on some of the more interesting characters. In particular some of the very hard story lines could have been better represented too, rather than just making an appearance for shock value.
Overall this is a good and very entertaining little book.
It's well written and the description of the cold weather, the limited resources and lack of support in the olden days paints a stark picture. Warmth flows from the central character Nessie who has unlimited kindness. She is a one dimensional character, it would have been nice to see some flaws to her character, moments of hatred or some other negative emotion to make her more believable and enjoyable. The brother has more dimensions, flowing from a kind and virtuous character to a hateful resentful one, and then back again; which worked really well. Similarly her minx of a sister had many dimensions.
The plot is very engaging and has you rooting for Carson family, right until the last page. A few characters could have been better developed, the father appears fleetingly but as a very complex character he could have really added to the novel had his story been told fully. Also the mother of Andre, a French lady with gypsy blood and many interesting facets of personality could have added a nice and interesting side story had she been allowed to develop, alas she featured as a sort of summary of some background information which didn't add a lot to the plot.
This is a straightforward easy reader, there won't be many surprises, but where there are surprises they are big and have no signposting ahead of their introduction. Some of the shocking revelations could have been better introduced by developing certain characters more and adding some hints ahead of the big reveal. As it stands, when these things were revealed, they feel awkward and confusing due to the lack of build up.
The story ends well and is fulfilling, but the last 50 pages feel rushed, the author trying hard to tie up the loose ends in a too few words. The finale would have benefitted in expansion, if it was about word count then cutting the input of minor characters such as Molly and her husband, maids and serving staff portions. A lot of this serves as unnecessary support of the concept of the purity of Nessie, it doesn't make the story a better or worse, but more value could have been added from focussing on some of the more interesting characters. In particular some of the very hard story lines could have been better represented too, rather than just making an appearance for shock value.
Overall this is a good and very entertaining little book.