A Countess Below Stairs
Eva Ibbotson
3/5
I found this book pretty interesting, I liked how it was a nice blend of aristocracy and the strife and tragedy of World War I. Anna was a countess but when the Russian Revolution struck, she lost everything. She decided to work as a housemaid to make her own money and her own way in the world. She is employed by an earl's household in preparation for his return from the hospital after suffering severe war wounds.
I didn't like the weird vibes that this book adopted at certain points. Like when Anna decided that because she wasn't the victim of unwanted advances it was cause she was ugly, and no one really told her to stop doing that. There also wasn't a lot of conversation between her and the earl and it felt a little weird how things progressed between them.
I did think it was a fun twist to make Myrtle a eugenicist. That's a much easier way to make someone so totally hated from a modern perspective. I always find it difficult when there's another woman involved because I don't want to pit women against each other for a man, but she was a total villain that you could just despise the entire time.
It was good, it just had a lot of content for something that ended exactly the way I thought it would. Then there were a lot of characters that were left open-ended. Like I really liked Tom and his values and would love to see where his life went. But as a standalone it held my interest and kind of satisfied me at the end.
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