Grace McCaffery is a recent immigrant to New York from Ireland in 1900. She had an abusive father and was torn from her loving mother to live in a workhouse and was recently sponsored to come to the United States to have a better life. She struggles with the unfamiliarity of her new life, has some serious trust issues, and struggles to believe that she is special in any way. In New York she meets a cast of characters ranging from mostly trustworthy to some dangerous crooks who think her new photography hobby is infringing on their crimes (they are correct).
I was very torn in writing this review. I know there are many who will love it, so I'm certainly not wanting to discourage anyone from reading it. I was eager to read this book; however, I just couldn't fall in love with Grace or the writing style no matter how hard I tried. I did appreciate the historical detail, especially on several different topics that I haven't typically seen in previous historical fiction I've read....Ultimately I just personally found Grace unlikeable -until the very end- and since this book is primarily about her, it was challenging. I also thought it strange that her mantra of "You are smart. You are important. You are able." was SO similar to the one in 'The Help' (written in 2009 by Kathryn Stockett), "You is kind, You is smart, You is important."
Again, I know there are many who will love this book so please read it and decide for yourself......totally my two cents.
No comments:
Post a Comment