I recently finished book #2 for the Chunkster Challenge. Misfortune by Wesley Stace clocks in at a hefty 544 pages. The premise sounded so interesting that its been on my to-read list for a while, but the idea of lugging this monster back and forth with me for lunchtime reading everyday put me off a bit.
The novel starts in 1820 and revolves around a baby found by a garbage heap by the wealthiest man in England. Although the baby is a boy, the man has never gotten over the loss of his sister and so decides to raise the child as a girl. Hooked yet?
When explaining the idea of the book to my husband, he declared it creepy sounding, but it isn't at all! I loved so many of the characters in this book. There's Rose Old who grows up believing herself to be a girl, her childhood playmates, the adopted librarian mother so geniusly named Anonyma, and her caring but obviously not-all-together father.
It took me about 100 pages to get really hooked on the story. Thankfully, the blizzard of '08 hit just as I got to the point that I couldn't bear to put it down. The book is an interesting mix of Possession and Fingersmith as well as its own delightful and odd originality. I really really enjoyed this one.
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