Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown & Company for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest historical fiction novel by a favorite, Emma Donoghue - 4.5 stars rounded up!
In 1805 fourteen-year-old Eliza Raine is a school girl at the Manor School for Young Ladies in York. The daughter of an Indian mother and a British father, Eliza has always been judged by the color of her skin. She has her own attic room away from the other girls. When a new student arrives, Miss Lister, a tomboy who likes to be known only by her surname, like a boy, they become roommates. But soon their relationship goes further.
I love Emma Donoghue's writing and this book is no exception. Meticulously researched, this is a fictionalized true story of the relationship between these two young women The rigid atmosphere of the Manor School with all its rules and punishments feels like a character in itself. Interspersed between chapters are letters written from Eliza to Lister ten years on, when Eliza is in another institution. You can feel the angst and power of a first love. There is also much prejudice and classism present, as well as women's roles. While it felt a tad slow at points, this is another winner from Donoghue!
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