2024/096: Accidental Darlings — Crystal Jeans

2024/096: Accidental Darlings — Crystal Jeans

The Aunt smoked her cigarettes back-to-back and laughed with abandon. I hated her more than ever. She could have been this to me -- for me -- yet chose not to be. Which side of myself shall I show to this orphan henceforth? she'd thought. Jolly aunt or ice-pick aunt? Hmmm. [loc. 827]

The novel begins in the 1920s, just after Anastasia's mother dies: she never knew her father, though her mother told her of his heroic sacrifice in the Great War. In lieu of other family, Anastasia is packed off to the dubious comforts of life with 'the Aunt', a fearsome and stony figure who reminds Anastasia (a great reader) of Miss Havisham. The Aunt does not take kindly to this comparison, or to Anastasia poking around among her possessions and reading a series of lewd and explicit love letters, signed 'Big Willy'.

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