"people do who have been through something very significant, and come out the other side”
“I looked up at the window, where I’d seen Alexandra waiting fretfully all those weeks before. I looked at her now, standing between Ambrosia and Doctor Mead in the doorway, and we smiled at one another in the way that people do who have been through something very significant, and come out the other side”
Similar to The Familiars, Stacey Halls again takes us into the life of a women and addresses the harsh reality they face. In this book, we are introduced to shrimp hawker Bess and a wealthy merchant widow Alexandra, two women from two different worlds and two different circumstances, Bess with a child out of wedlock and Alexandra suffering from agoraphobia due to childhood trauma. Through Charlotte, both women navigate what it means to be a mother, a woman and their position in society. Both see their opposing class with disdain and Halls explores the social barriers as we also explore the two characters. I really enjoyed how everything all began to click in place so well, it was so satisfying and grew incredibly exciting as the big reveal drew near and the last puzzle piece put together! I really loved Lyle, his character was brilliant, wish we had more of him! Doctor Mead, Ambrosia and Keziah were lovely too, bless him. Most of the characters were likeable. The ending was a very satisfying close for me, everyone had come out of the situation for the better, healed. Especially Alexandra, her character finally broke free from her trauma.
Looking into a fictional retelling of Georgian society, the book immediately introduces the two very different class systems- the women hoping to give their babies up to the Founding Hospital in hopes of a better way in life and the women that watch from the windows in their best dress. A women abandons her baby and jumps in front of a carriage when she is not chosen while the finely dressed women see the lottery event as entertainment. While upper class men and women (like Ambrosia and her husband) are “allowed” to sneak around and have affairs for fun with hardly a dent in reputation, if a lower-class woman like Bess did so, her livelihood would be ruined. Bess treats her first interaction with the upper-class “wigged creatures” with disdain and Alexandra does likewise, dismayed Bess’ family is poor and unrespectful. It was nice to see the two look past such barriers by the end of the book.
I loved reading the hustle and bustle of London market life, especially around Billingsgate as I used to pass that area of the Thames nearly every day pre-lockdown (I miss those walks!)
Both women have sad beginnings. Bess grows up in a poor and miserable household, her mother had died when she was 8, her brother was a lost and wayward drunk, her father was getting old and she was the sole female leaving her with duties both at work and at the home, now also with the addition of a lost daughter with a dead father. Alexandra is an even more complex character, although pampered and smart, she struggles to be intimate and maternal, is incredibly agoraphobic and anxious, repetitively checking her safety measures and keeping to a routine to feel safe due to her parents brutal murder in which she survived. Both connected by one man who draws them together through a daughter, Charlotte. Though both at odds and competitive over Charlotte, by the end of the novel it was heart-warming to see them both become mothers to the child. It was also wonderful to see Alexandra walking around outside and visiting people, finally free of her fears and anxieties and on a road to healing, while Bess no longer has to stress with growing up a spinster (being older than usual marriage age?) and unwed mother as she marries Lyle.
Though I must admit, it was very difficult to feel empathy for Alexandra's character sometimes, simply because she was quite harsh and stuffy in her stiff upper class nature.
I appreciated Doctor Mead’s character, he was place slap-bang in the middle of the two women without realising the implications and he almost became the voice of the reader, at least my voice, as they had both taken each other’s daughter, he allowed them to see each other’s position and work through it. I also loved Lyle’s character, he was fun and mischievous and he his speech to Alexandra really voiced everything I had been thinking about the two opposing classes! Took the words out of my mouth.
Similar to The Familiars, Stacey Halls again takes us into the life of a women and addresses the harsh reality they face. In this book, we are introduced to shrimp hawker Bess and a wealthy merchant widow Alexandra, two women from two different worlds and two different circumstances, Bess with a child out of wedlock and Alexandra suffering from agoraphobia due to childhood trauma. Through Charlotte, both women navigate what it means to be a mother, a woman and their position in society. Both see their opposing class with disdain and Halls explores the social barriers as we also explore the two characters. I really enjoyed how everything all began to click in place so well, it was so satisfying and grew incredibly exciting as the big reveal drew near and the last puzzle piece put together! I really loved Lyle, his character was brilliant, wish we had more of him! Doctor Mead, Ambrosia and Keziah were lovely too, bless him. Most of the characters were likeable. The ending was a very satisfying close for me, everyone had come out of the situation for the better, healed. Especially Alexandra, her character finally broke free from her trauma.
Looking into a fictional retelling of Georgian society, the book immediately introduces the two very different class systems- the women hoping to give their babies up to the Founding Hospital in hopes of a better way in life and the women that watch from the windows in their best dress. A women abandons her baby and jumps in front of a carriage when she is not chosen while the finely dressed women see the lottery event as entertainment. While upper class men and women (like Ambrosia and her husband) are “allowed” to sneak around and have affairs for fun with hardly a dent in reputation, if a lower-class woman like Bess did so, her livelihood would be ruined. Bess treats her first interaction with the upper-class “wigged creatures” with disdain and Alexandra does likewise, dismayed Bess’ family is poor and unrespectful. It was nice to see the two look past such barriers by the end of the book.
I loved reading the hustle and bustle of London market life, especially around Billingsgate as I used to pass that area of the Thames nearly every day pre-lockdown (I miss those walks!)
Both women have sad beginnings. Bess grows up in a poor and miserable household, her mother had died when she was 8, her brother was a lost and wayward drunk, her father was getting old and she was the sole female leaving her with duties both at work and at the home, now also with the addition of a lost daughter with a dead father. Alexandra is an even more complex character, although pampered and smart, she struggles to be intimate and maternal, is incredibly agoraphobic and anxious, repetitively checking her safety measures and keeping to a routine to feel safe due to her parents brutal murder in which she survived. Both connected by one man who draws them together through a daughter, Charlotte. Though both at odds and competitive over Charlotte, by the end of the novel it was heart-warming to see them both become mothers to the child. It was also wonderful to see Alexandra walking around outside and visiting people, finally free of her fears and anxieties and on a road to healing, while Bess no longer has to stress with growing up a spinster (being older than usual marriage age?) and unwed mother as she marries Lyle.
Though I must admit, it was very difficult to feel empathy for Alexandra's character sometimes, simply because she was quite harsh and stuffy in her stiff upper class nature.
I appreciated Doctor Mead’s character, he was place slap-bang in the middle of the two women without realising the implications and he almost became the voice of the reader, at least my voice, as they had both taken each other’s daughter, he allowed them to see each other’s position and work through it. I also loved Lyle’s character, he was fun and mischievous and he his speech to Alexandra really voiced everything I had been thinking about the two opposing classes! Took the words out of my mouth.