My god, I only made it about 7 chapters in but this book can get in the bin. It had such a good Goodreads score that I gave it a shot – never making that mistake again.
Since I didn’t finish this book take whatever I say with a pinch of salt. It’s set in a wealthy house in England in the 1920s, about a small family (Mother Elizabeth, father who’s been at the war, and daughter Claudia, plus the protagonist, Jenny, their maid). Think downton abbey.
This isn’t a hot take, but it’s very hard to enjoy a story where the characters are painted as entirely good or entirely evil.
Claudia is like a demon who’s naked all the time, cruel all the time, and wants to have sex all the time. The blame for how evil she turned out is placed squarely on her father, without his own character being questioned beyond a meek “I guess I shouldn’t have spoiled her”. Why is the mother not being held responsible for raising this sex demon?
There’s some ways the sex scenes are described that make me feel like the author is shaming this young woman for thoroughly enjoying sex. I’ll caveat that by saying that Claudia is having sex with married men, which obviously is bad. But firstly, she’s 18, and secondly, why is she portrayed as worse than the men who she seduces who are actually married? What has she been through to be so experienced and confident around sex at such a young age in the 1920s?
The vibe I get is that this girl is completely miserable and the only joy she gets out of life is when she’s getting some good d*ck. If she weren’t so evil that might be an interesting thing to explore. But she is completely evil. She’s so evil. Maybe there’s a redemption arc later in the book but I doubt it. She’s so evil. She kills her own horse. She’s so cruel to her dad he kills himself. She lies to her mum that her post-war PTSD-suffering dad RAPED her. God damn Claudia.
Jenny on the other hand, the maid, is an angel. She’s consistently selfless, kind, hard-working, loyal, and of course extremely pretty and slim. We get frequent reference to how pretty and slim she is. She’s taking the weight of the world on her slim shoulders. She’s laughing with light in her lovely blue eyes. She always does the right thing. I can’t root for a protagonist without flaws – it’s just boring.
I gave up after the SECOND scene in which both these things happen – 1) the mother hits her daughter with a stick and 2) the daughter tries to shock her mother by saying she got pregnant by her own dad. Why does this happen twice? Who knows. Also the second time it happens, Claudia’s naked. Go figure.
Anyone else read this book? Feel free to put me in my place. I’ll take this post down if it ends up turning into a masterpiece later on. Personally I will never be picking it up again.
by IrascibleOnion