The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place

A pitch-perfect lighthearted Victorian murder mystery - slash - girl's boarding school story. Its preoccupations include friendship and chosen families, small town life, and the hilarity of making bad choices with unexpected corpses. Great character development (I don't love the constant use of "Dear Roberta," "Smooth Kitty," etc., but it's easy to ignore given all the other good stuff here) and use of setting.

I don't read murder mysteries, and I don't typically laugh out loud about, say, burials and poisonings, but this is just excellent. Much-recommended fun.

The seven students at St. Ethelreda's School for Young Ladies have little in common, but one thing they all agree on is that they don't care much for their headmistress Constance Plackett, and even less for her oily brother Aldous Golding. So, when both headmistress and brother drop dead over Sunday dinner, the girls mostly feel a mild regret that they will be split up -- for, despite their differences, they all get along quite well together. And then, they hit upon an idea: what if they were to bury the corpses in the back garden and just . . . carry on? Of course, this plan doesn't take into account Mr. Golding's surprise birthday party, or the visit from Mrs. Plackett's solicitor, or the Strawberry Social. Not to mention that it's show more hardly coincidence that both Mrs. Plackett and Mr. Golding dropped dead at the same meal. Poison was almost certainly involved, but who administered it? Was it Disgraceful Mary Jane Marshall, seeing a way to escape the strictures of boarding school life? Smooth Kitty Heaton, who proves to be such a competent organizer when Mrs. Plackett is out of the way? Dour Elinor Siever, with her unhealthy fascination with death? Or was it someone from outside the school? Who could it be -- and why?

This book is a delightful romp. I had so much fun reading it. I particularly enjoyed how the author differentiated the girls by using their adjectives (i.e. Disgraceful Mary Jane, not just Mary Jane) throughout -- that was by no means the sum of their characters, but it proved a useful method for keeping all of them straight in my head. The mystery was clever and by no means obvious, and the little romances were charming side-notes to the story. If this sounds like your sort of thing, you should give it a try! show less

If you’re looking for a romp of a book, either for yourself or for gift-giving, I highly recommend Julie Berry’s The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place. Ostensibly this is a young-adult novel, but it’s also plenty of fun for adult-adult readers.

Set in Victorian England in the town of Ely, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place features an engaging group of seven core characters, all boarding students at a small girls’ finishing school. When the director of the school dies, along with her brother, the girls decide to bury their bodies in secret so that they can continue living with one another and can take control of their own lives.

Watching the girls rise to this situation is an absolute delight. Each of them show more finds strengths she didn’t know she had—and they all draw closer together because of, rather than in spite of, their differences from one another.

I suspect this book is intended as a one-off, but I would welcome the opportunity to spend more time with the sisterhood. They made me laugh; they also made me think about the changes in women’s roles and opportunities over the past century (give or take a few decades). show less

There is no greater accolade one can give a novel than to say that it kept you up to the wee hours of the morning, devouring the thrilling storyline. Cliché? Of course, but in this case too true. (I’m pretty sleep deprived as I write this.)

When the irascible and cold headmistress of St. Etheldreda’s School for Girls literally drops dead at Sunday dinner along with her dissolute, sponging brother, the finishing school’s seven pupils dive into action to both preserve their school — and to investigate who wanted widowed Constance Plackett and her brother Aldous Godding dead. Each of the girls — Smooth Kitty Heaton, Stout Alice Brooks, Dear Roberta Pratley, Dull Martha Boyle, Dour Elinor Siever, Disgraceful Mary Jane Marshall and show more Pocked Louise Dudley — and even their intrepid Spaniel pup, mischievously also named Aldous — play a part in solving the mystery, relying on their various talents and proclivities. Equal parts farce and thriller, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place will make readers relish every page. Author Julie Berry expertly captures the exact tone of voice of a Victorian “horrid novel” (what we’d call a Gothic novel nowadays) while portraying seven girls who, despite everything, are willing to risk it all to stay together as a family. The many twists and turns make this novel the best sort of roller coaster ride. Highly, highly recommended.

And for those of you lucky enough to enjoy The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place as an audiobook, Jayne Entwistle’s narration positively lifts this book to new heights. I just wish I could give it six stars! show less

A couple of sunny days ago I visited a local used bookstore, Recycle Books on Campbell Avenue, which is a place I go sometimes after having lunch at Aqui. (They serve a sort of favorite Cal-Mex fusion cuisine. Yes, I adore living in the immense cultural mash-up that is California.) Usually I peruse the store rather thoroughly, but that day I hardly made it through a third of the YA/Kids section before stumbling over a lightly-used hard-cover copy of this book. I read the front-flap blurb and started on page one... and then hardly put the book down until I'd finished it this afternoon.

This is an immensely charming and satisfying book that I devoured in large gulps. I loved it to bits. The writing is crisp and clear; the characters show more rounded and lively. Probably I'd describe it as a comedy of manners, although the blurb calls it a farce, about female friendship and solidarity. The comedy is not haha-laugh-aloud, but consistently subtle and smooth from beginning to end. It also seems to be well-researched and in some sense authentic for the time period (England, 1890). show less

Ah, how I do adore when a book seems like it won't be something I'll enjoy and then it snatches me up and proves me wrong! The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place did just that, and I couldn't be more pleased. Very much a Victorian farce, this is the story of seven young girls who suddenly find themselves in a rather unpleasant predicament. What follows contains murder, mystery, and plenty of witty banter. Delicious.

It took me a while to warm up to the young ladies contained within this story. Each one has a very distinct personality which, as you might imagine, is very easy to remember when their name is preceded by an adjective to describe them. From "Disgraceful" Mary Jane, to "Smooth" Kitty, each one matches their show more description to a tee. So my big question was, at first, why did we need the addition? What was the point? I'll tell you though, it grew on me after a while. It added to the feeling of tongue in cheek humor, and after a while it didn't bother me anymore.

On to the story, shall we? This reminded me a bit of the movie version of "Clue" in the way that it really didn't take itself seriously. I was given seven young women who, somehow, manage to cover up two deaths and pose rather well as though nothing is wrong. The twists thrown in were fabulous, the cast of supporting characters vibrant, and the clues perfection. I cracked up laughing more than once at the absurd entrances that possible suspects made. I loved that Julie Berry was able to write such a fun set of characters, each one perfectly fitting the space they filled.

So, as you can see by my four star rating, I ended up enjoying this much more than I thought I would. The mixture of tongue in cheek humor, witty banter, and mystery wrapped me up and kept me reading. I'm so happy I gave this a shot! Much love to The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place.

Note: This is shelved as Middle Grade Fiction but I highly doubt most readers that age would appreciate it. I'm shelving it as Young Adult Fiction instead. show less

I bought this purely on a whim, simply because the cover was all neo-Victorian mystery and charm. There was a teacup involved, after all. So, with no expectations at all, I was open to the fizzy fun of the story, which spins a little of Agatha Christie in with a dose of Victorian school novel and flavors it with the ridiculous, sometimes to the point of absurdity.

The plot centers on seven distinctly characterized boarding school girls -- so distinct, in fact, that the author bestows on each of them a specific epithet (Smooth, Dear, Dour, etc.) to precede the first name each time the narrator mentions a girl, a twitch that starts out precious but quickly gets old -- who see their school-mistress and her brother killed. Rather than show more calling the police, the young ladies see an opportunity for freedom, and so proceed to lying, burying bodies in the garden, tracking down the murderer(s), shopping for necessities, and otherwise running their own school while pretending nothing at all is awry. You might guess where all the fun parts come from -- this "sisterhood" is pretty darn entertaining as they go about getting their hands literally and metaphorically dirty.

The mystery itself has a somewhat sudden resolution and the consequent situations for each girl are clearly contrived, some bordering on trite, but the package as a whole is just the sort of quirky amusement that any fan of the more traditional Victorian girls novel will find well worth the read. The inside jokes and pokes at both the literature and attitude of the older age are fun to find, and each send-up of a character is more of a delight than the last. For younger readers, there is also a timely message about sisterhood and the agency of women -- most of the characters are female and very few are cowed by what we think of as the limitations of the time (though several of the ladies have heads easily turned by the cute boys of the neighborhood). I'm not saying this is the brilliant apex of modern feminist literature, but it manages to be a droll while-away of a couple of hours whilst poking rather delicious fun at the gender roles and familiar tales it's aping, so you could do much worse. Also, there is tea. show less