She Rises by Kate Worsley
Bloomsbury, 2013.
Overview: Louise
Fletcher is a young dairymaid who is suddenly sent to the “big” port city of
Harwich to be a lady’s maid to a captain’s daughter, Rebecca Handley. Before
she leaves, her mother asks her to find out what happened to her brother, Luke,
who was presumably press-ganged into service to the British navy. The story
follows both Louise and Luke’s struggles, but Louise’s attraction to her
mistress is what drives her story forward.
My reaction: This book was very well done. After finishing it, I was not
surprised to read that Sarah Waters, one of my favorite authors (who I reviewed
here and here, and the Lesbrarian here and here), actually mentored Kate Worsley, as She Rises has a similar attention to
historical detail (albeit in a century and a half earlier than the majority of
Waters’ oeuvre), a delicately balanced dual plot-line, and a CRAZY plot twist.
Like in Waters’ Affinity, I did catch
multiple hints of said CRAZY plot twist as I read, but when it was confirmed,
my mind was still blown. I wish I could get into a whole discussion about that,
but I will resist the urge to spoil it!
To give you fair warning, She Rises is not an easy read. It definitely is no modern lesbian
romance dropped into Harwich, c. 1740, which led to some serious discomfort for
me more than once. The
internalized misogyny and gender norms in particular made me think; I realized
that it was much more realistic to write the story like that, but a little part
of me wished that the characters had been able to free themselves of society’s
more repellant mores.
That said, I could write a paper on the ways that class and
gender and sexuality intersect in this novel, and it’s always a pleasure for me
to read a book that not only has a compelling storyline, but real substance.
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