The Downstairs Maid

Rosie Clarke writes in a very interesting manner. She chooses descriptions (of rooms, gardens, homes, pubs, farms, etc.) over dialogue. The lengthy descriptions are beautifully written but the dialogue of the characters is often stilted and too short, leaving the reader with an unfinished feeling once the dialogue/conversation is over. The name of the book, The Downstairs Maid, is misleading. The book starts with Emily as a child living on a small farm with a father who dotes on her, a mother who seriously dislikes her and a maternal uncle who's a pedophile, always trying to touch Emily . It is a long time and a fair way into the book before the "maid", Emily, reaches maturity. And not much has changed; The father loves her more, the mother hates her and the uncle tries to rape her. Finally, FINALLY she goes to work for "the big house" as a maid (it's not made clear if she's a scullery maid, a kitchen maid or what). At this point I thought, "Finally she's the maid that who promised in the title! The the story will really start". Mmm...not so much. She's a maid for a hot second before she moves on to yet another part of her life. And then yet another part of her life. And another. She's all over the place going from tragedy to tragedy. This woman's tragedies put Jane Eyre's tragedies to shame! All throughout she's not a terribly likable character. She's not awful, she's just a coward. She makes a tremendous amount of sacrifices, always putting others first, never standing up for herself and continuously allowing herself to be a door mat for others. There is a happy end but, like most reviewers have stated, there are a lot of unfinished stories. And even the ones that are finished are unsatisfactorily relayed. At the end there's an Afterward section and I thought that there might be some closures listed there (of the many that were left unfinished) but it was a weak attempt at an epilogue. None, and I mean none, of the many, terrible, selfish characters in this book get their just desserts. With the exception of a couple of feeble comments she makes in an effort speak up and be heard, Emily never truly stands up for herself. There's NO sense of justice in Emily's world and even though it's a "happy" ending, I thought that at least one of the characters should have received a good set down just to give the reader a little, tiny bit of satisfaction. Very disappointing, so I gave it 3 stars instead of 2 because Rosie Clarke really does write beautifully. She just needs a collaborator who can help her pull it all together and actually finish the story. In the absence of that her story is like a pair of sneakers you put on that look really nice and fit perfectly. But the laces are loose, uneven and disheveled. She needs someone to tighten the laces and finish them off with a neat bow.

Really sweet!

great read really enjoyed it