Customer Reviews

Sixpenny Girl

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This is the first book I truly believe is worthy of being called a "classic" in some time. As my first Meg Hutchinson novel, I fell madly in love with it from the beginning and found it difficult to leave alone until the very end. It is more than a pleasure to find a current British author who writes period novels in a Dickens style about the impoverished poor rising above some very oppressive odds.

This story starts out in 1830s England when women have no power once they are married, and their husbands often treat them viciously. Saran Chandler is a beautiful teenager whose widowed mother married a drunken scumbag named Enoch Jacobs for the money their father left them. Eventually, after he's drank up everything, he enslaves her, Saran, and her little sister until he sells the two of them in a tavern, and he would do it to Saran as well, except he drowns while sleepwalking.

A young boy named Luke Hipton becomes Saran's friend, and together they both go in search of her mother and little sister, encountering hardships galore, finally settling in a dreary little industry town called Wednesbury. There are tons of heartache for these two young, penniless friends, but they are also blessed with the strong ties of loyal friendship from others because of their honesty. It is there in the unlikely Wednesbury that things go from bad to worse, but then miraculously change for the best for all concerned. The action never stops in this fast paced novel. You come to care for all the good characters, hate the truly evil ones, and root for both Saran and Luke all the way. It's a wonderfully told story you won't want to miss, and the wrapups bring the sweetest, smile evoking surprises. Saran was an ambitious mover and shaker, building her own empire from nothing but sheer determination and a few penniless friends in a world where English women once had no say, crushing all her and her friends' adversaries. You go girl! Rewards of reading Sixpenny Girl? Priceless.

I guess I like Catherine Cookson the best. I think when a book is written it should leave things to the imagination. A bit off color for me and very violent. I would not purchase from this author again.