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sophia_sol) wrote2018-05-25 09:42 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2018-05-25 09:42 pm
A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama, by Laura Amy Schlitz
I'm about....85% sure I've read this book before. I only started keeping track of all books I read in 2009 and I read a LOT of books in the years before that and have a terrible memory. A lot of things about this book seemed familiar, but that might just be because I read reviews of the book when I first added it to my TBR list years ago? But it also seems fairly likely that it's because I actually read this book before!
At any rate it's a book that is well worth a first read OR a reread so it doesn't really matter in the end.
It's a story of an orphan girl, Maud, in the 19th century who is adopted by three elderly sisters on the condition that she remain a secret. She's perfectly willing to abide by this because the orphanage is not all that great and she desperately wants to be loved and belong with someone.
But eventually, once the sisters are more sure of Maud, they tell her why she must remain a secret: because they are charlatan mediums and having a young girl as their helper would be a great boon in swindling lots of money out of gullible grieving people. And at first Maud continues to be happy to go along with this, because she feels it's worth the trade-off of having a family! But eventually she starts to question the whole scheme.
The setting and the plot for this book are great - fraudulent Victorian spiritualists! But the things the author does with this through the characters are even better.
The three elderly sisters are, although approximately united in their chosen profession, not actually all that united in their thoughts. And although all of them ultimately fail Maud in various ways, there are different degrees of....of having any opinions about whether other people's feelings matter. I was going to say different degrees of malice but I don't actually think Hyacinth has any malice, she's just totally amoral. Anyway the three of them are interestingly awful instead of being an Evil Monolith.
And I love Maud's growing ability over the course of the book to make decisions based on what she wants and what she thinks is right, instead of doing whatever it takes to be acceptable to the people she wants to belong to. Maud is clever and loving and a bit obstinate and she tries so hard! I love her a lot.
But I particularly love what's done with the house's serving-woman, Anna (mean-spiritedly nicknamed Muffet by the sisters) who is deaf. Maud's evolving reactions to her are believable and moving - from when she's first introduced and is encouraged by Hyacinth to make fun of Anna, to the end of the book where Maud is able to consciously recognize that Anna is the only person in that house who truly cared for her. And I love how clearly Anna communicates her thoughts and feelings throughout the book despite not having much language to be able to communicate with.
And then the book ends with Anna getting the opportunity to learn a sign language and her new mistress knows it too and Anna can TALK to people and connect with a community of other deaf people and ugh I'm just so happy for both Anna and Maud that they can have a home with a genuinely good person at the end, and still have each other too!
At any rate it's a book that is well worth a first read OR a reread so it doesn't really matter in the end.
It's a story of an orphan girl, Maud, in the 19th century who is adopted by three elderly sisters on the condition that she remain a secret. She's perfectly willing to abide by this because the orphanage is not all that great and she desperately wants to be loved and belong with someone.
But eventually, once the sisters are more sure of Maud, they tell her why she must remain a secret: because they are charlatan mediums and having a young girl as their helper would be a great boon in swindling lots of money out of gullible grieving people. And at first Maud continues to be happy to go along with this, because she feels it's worth the trade-off of having a family! But eventually she starts to question the whole scheme.
The setting and the plot for this book are great - fraudulent Victorian spiritualists! But the things the author does with this through the characters are even better.
The three elderly sisters are, although approximately united in their chosen profession, not actually all that united in their thoughts. And although all of them ultimately fail Maud in various ways, there are different degrees of....of having any opinions about whether other people's feelings matter. I was going to say different degrees of malice but I don't actually think Hyacinth has any malice, she's just totally amoral. Anyway the three of them are interestingly awful instead of being an Evil Monolith.
And I love Maud's growing ability over the course of the book to make decisions based on what she wants and what she thinks is right, instead of doing whatever it takes to be acceptable to the people she wants to belong to. Maud is clever and loving and a bit obstinate and she tries so hard! I love her a lot.
But I particularly love what's done with the house's serving-woman, Anna (mean-spiritedly nicknamed Muffet by the sisters) who is deaf. Maud's evolving reactions to her are believable and moving - from when she's first introduced and is encouraged by Hyacinth to make fun of Anna, to the end of the book where Maud is able to consciously recognize that Anna is the only person in that house who truly cared for her. And I love how clearly Anna communicates her thoughts and feelings throughout the book despite not having much language to be able to communicate with.
And then the book ends with Anna getting the opportunity to learn a sign language and her new mistress knows it too and Anna can TALK to people and connect with a community of other deaf people and ugh I'm just so happy for both Anna and Maud that they can have a home with a genuinely good person at the end, and still have each other too!
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