Recent Reads: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Publication Date:  September 23, 2013

 

Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for review. Receiving this book in no way effects my opinion and review.

Rating:



Goodreads Synopsis: 
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.

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place is a smart, hilarious Victorian romp, full of outrageous plot twists, mistaken identities, and mysterious happenings.
 

Review: 
First of all, I love this cover. It is beautiful and I think that is why I had such high hopes for this book. I know - don't judge a book by its cover - well I did, and now I am sad...

I started reading The Scandalous Sisterhood in bed one night and got about 100 pages into it. I was interested in the girls and their background, scheming, the murder and what was to come in the pages of this beautiful book, but I could not get into it again after those first pages.

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.