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Juvenile Fiction. Juvenile Literature. Mystery. Historical Fiction. HTML:There's a murderer on the loose�??but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce. The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner. Now the school will almost certainly be closed and the girls sent home�??unless these seven very proper young ladies can hide the murders and convince their neighbors that nothing is wrong. Julie Berry's The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place is a smart, hilarious Victorian romp, full of outrageous plot twists, mistaken identities, and mysterious happe… (more)
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The plot centers on seven distinctly characterized boarding school girls -- so distinct, in fact, that the author bestows on each of them a specific epithet (Smooth, Dear, Dour, etc.) to precede the first name each time the narrator mentions a girl, a twitch that starts out precious but quickly gets old -- who see their school-mistress and her brother killed. Rather than calling the police, the young ladies see an opportunity for freedom, and so proceed to lying, burying bodies in the garden, tracking down the murderer(s), shopping for necessities, and otherwise running their own school while pretending nothing at all is awry. You might guess where all the fun parts come from -- this "sisterhood" is pretty darn entertaining as they go about getting their hands literally and metaphorically dirty.
The mystery itself has a somewhat sudden resolution and the consequent situations for each girl are clearly contrived, some bordering on trite, but the package as a whole is just the sort of quirky amusement that any fan of the more traditional Victorian girls novel will find well worth the read. The inside jokes and pokes at both the literature and attitude of the older age are fun to find, and each send-up of a character is more of a delight than the last. For younger readers, there is also a timely message about sisterhood and the agency of women -- most of the characters are female and very few are cowed by what we think of as the limitations of the time (though several of the ladies have heads easily turned by the cute boys of the neighborhood). I'm not saying this is the brilliant apex of modern feminist literature, but it manages to be a droll while-away of a couple of hours whilst poking rather delicious fun at the gender roles and familiar tales it's aping, so you could do much worse. Also, there is tea.
Ok, by the end of the first chapter I was ready to toss it in. It wasn't that there were too many lead characters, their adjectival names or the situation they found themselves in, it just wasn't the level of 'farcical' I expected. Now, The "Importance of Being
A NetGalley ARC
I started reading The Scandalous Sisterhood in bed one night and got about 100 pages into it. I was interested in
I tried again with an audiobook version read by Jayne Entwistle and she was a wonderful reader. The voices of each girl were distinct and easy to identify with so many female characters and her English accent really added to the girls/ setting/ story. Sadly even after listening to it for an hour I wasn't as enthralled as I had hoped to be.
The writing style just made for an overall choppy sounds story. All of the ---- said, then ---- said and back and forth between the girls started getting to me. I wanted more plot and faster. It just seemed to drag on.
The original theme, the mockery of the death of the headmistress was wonderful and hilarious, but there was only so much of that I could take before I wanted more from the story. I guess this absurdity was not for me.
This book is a delightful romp. I had so much fun reading it. I particularly enjoyed how the author differentiated the girls by using their adjectives (i.e. Disgraceful Mary Jane, not just Mary Jane) throughout -- that was by no means the sum of their characters, but it proved a useful method for keeping all of them straight in my head. The mystery was clever and by no means obvious, and the little romances were charming side-notes to the story. If this sounds like your sort of thing, you should give it a try!
This is a bit of an unrealistic premise, but I was hooked by this point. Almost for that reason.
Anyway, seven girls, two dead people and the doorbell rings. We don't know who killed them, why, or what to do. So let the games begin.
It's a fun story, completely ridiculous, but well written and enjoyable. There's no easily defined main character, just some who seem to get more screen time. I particularly liked how different everyone's personalities were; some authors struggle giving two or three characters unique personalities, Berry tried her hand with seven and was mostly successful. Sometimes it felt like the girls were interchangeable, but not often. I enjoyed the way that the world of the girls was completely intact; we have to read the pages before the story to know each girls' back-story.
On the whole, it's a scandalous book. It's fun, it's confusing, and the end wraps up into a neat little bow with no horrible consequences. It's fun.
It's a very well written book, with individual characters, and a good read. The first half drags a bit in spots, but the second half moves fast. Very original
It's a very well written book, with individual characters, and a good read. The first half drags a bit in spots, but the second half moves fast. Very original
It's a very well written book, with individual characters, and a good read. The first half drags a bit in spots, but the second half moves fast. Very original
The young women at Etheldreda's School for Girls don’t know what to do when the headmistress Mrs. Plackett
This was an okay Victorian mystery type of young adult story. The writing flows decently and the mystery is cleverly put together. However, it takes a long time for the story to get going and there are a lot of characters here. It was a bit much to keep track of and the first part of the book was a bit of a drag for me. The second half of the book was much better. Things really start to happen quickly in the 2nd half and we know the characters better, so it’s easier to follow what’s going on.
There are a lot of character to follow and all of their names have an adjective in front of them which was odd. I guess having the adjective in front of the name (Smooth Kitty, Dear Roberta, Dull Martha, Disgraceful Mary, Stout Alice, Pocked Louise, and Dour Elinor) helps you connect the character personality with the name. It’s a lot of characters to keep track of. The problem with this is that all the characters are very stereotypical and the only one we really get to know in any detail is Smooth Kitty.
This is primarily a goofy Victorian mystery of sorts. It was mildly entertaining, but I did have quite a bit of trouble engaging with the story for the first half of the book. The whole things reads a bit like a game of Clue.
Overall an okay young adult Victorian mystery. I enjoyed the way the plot was put together and the mystery behind it. I thought there were too many characters and had trouble engaging with them and following them all. I would tentatively recommend this book to those who enjoy Clue-like who-done-it Victorian mysteries.
It's listed under both YA and middle grade, which I felt was appropriate after listening to it.
As mentioned before, I listened to this
The feel of the book was exactly what I expected when I saw the title but not the plot. We're given an introduction that includes how each girl ended up at the school, and that's when you know you will love this book or hate it. I knew I'd love it.
I loved the way each girl at St Etheldreda's School for Girls was addressed; Stout Alice, Smooth Kitty, Disgraceful Mary Jane, Dear Roberta, Dull Martha, Pocked Louise and Dour Eleanor. The girls are resourceful and some are brilliant. As their descriptors indicate, each girl is wildly different from the others but they are sisterhood. They're friends despite being very different and though they get annoyed and irate with each other, they are still loyal friends. They appreciate their differences and even seem to enjoy them sometimes.
What I didn't expect was a murder mystery. There was no way that this lot was not about to be entertaining, but there were some enjoyable little surprises and upsets as well. I had been enjoying the whole story and then was particularly pleased with the end and denouement.
It's a great middle grade book and could be enjoyed by some young adults, but I do feel like there is a bit of an age threshold for it.
It took me a while to warm up to the young ladies contained within this story. Each one has a very distinct personality which, as you might imagine, is very easy to remember when their name is preceded by an adjective to describe them. From "Disgraceful" Mary Jane, to "Smooth" Kitty, each one matches their description to a tee. So my big question was, at first, why did we need the addition? What was the point? I'll tell you though, it grew on me after a while. It added to the feeling of tongue in cheek humor, and after a while it didn't bother me anymore.
On to the story, shall we? This reminded me a bit of the movie version of "Clue" in the way that it really didn't take itself seriously. I was given seven young women who, somehow, manage to cover up two deaths and pose rather well as though nothing is wrong. The twists thrown in were fabulous, the cast of supporting characters vibrant, and the clues perfection. I cracked up laughing more than once at the absurd entrances that possible suspects made. I loved that Julie Berry was able to write such a fun set of characters, each one perfectly fitting the space they filled.
So, as you can see by my four star rating, I ended up enjoying this much more than I thought I would. The mixture of tongue in cheek humor, witty banter, and mystery wrapped me up and kept me reading. I'm so happy I gave this a shot! Much love to The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place.
Note: This is shelved as Middle Grade Fiction but I highly doubt most readers that age would appreciate it. I'm shelving it as Young Adult Fiction instead.
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place was the sort of middle grade novel I simply had to read. Mostly because I snicker every time I read the word “prickwillow” because I’m a very mature, grown up sort of
Farces are not everyone’s tea and scones. Frankly, tea and scones are not my tea and scones. The Scandalous Sisterhood is utterly madcap and ridiculous. If you like things to be neat and orderly and realistic, this book will seem like a bit of silliness and be frustrating. Personally, I don’t so much mind my books not making a lick of sense so long as they’re doing so intentionally.
The book opens with the death of the indomitable Mrs. Plackett and her brother, Mr. Godding. The girls of the school then decide that, rather than risk being sent to their various homes, they will pretend that nothing is amiss, so they bury them in the garden. It’s obvious from page one that this will not work out as planned, but it sets a hilarious romp in motion and I am all for it. Serious mysteries often fail to capture my attention, but I was totally on board for everything happening in The Scandalous Sisterhood.
The characters, though not fully fleshed out, are more developed than the adjectives attached to their names might indicate. There’s more to Smooth Kitty than her smoothness, to Dull Martha than her lack of intelligence, to Disgraceful Mary Jane than her flirting. The character names are often said in conjunction with their adjective, and, though not my favorite aspect, it also did help keep the girls separate in my head. I think it also beautifully highlights the reasons that these girls have been shipped off to St. Etheldreda’s School for Girls by their families; they’ve been cast as one-dimensional and not worth keeping about. The course of the book shows how much more there is too them.
The best surprise of The Scandalous Sisterhood was the shippiness. I totally do not expect a lot of shipping in my middle grade novels. Actually, I think The Scandalous Sisterhood sits on the border between middle grade and YA, and that YA readers should consider this too, even if they don’t generally do middle grade. Most of the girls get a ship of some sort. It’s also nice that not all of them sail, so it’s not a total pairing off. I think my favorite was the hilarious pairing of Dour Elinor with a young man who excels in the funerary arts. The romance isn’t the largest element, but I super appreciated it being there.
I actually received a print ARC of The Scandalous Sisterhood as well, but, due to all the BEA books, I didn’t manage to get to it in time. Then I had the option of the audiobook, and I could not resist. This was a most excellent choice, though I’m positive the book is just as much fun in print. Jayne Entwhistle fulfills my three main qualifications for an excellent narrator: 1) she’s completely willing to be silly, 2) she does a fabulous job with voices, and 3) she’s British. This audiobook was such a pleasant way to pass the time.
The Scandalous Sisterhood was the perfect bit of silliness. It’s been a long time since I read a farce, and it was so perfect for my mood.
Witty, playful and filled with suspense and the thrill of detection, Berry’s carefully researched Victorian mystery is wonderfully read by Entwistle, whose narration won the recorded version an Odyssey honor.