The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
Genres: Kids (Middle-Grade), Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction
Maturity Level: 2
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆
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.
I’m not very well-versed in the mystery genre, so the only adult mysteries I had to compare this to were The Hound of the Baskervilles and Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency. So I’m not sure whether Berry’s task of bringing a real mystery novel to the children’s genre was successful or not. It seemed to follow the format of mysteries as I know them pretty well, while adding a sense of humor, a friendship in a way only young ladies can bring, and a mischievous tone. So, all in all, I would definitely recommend this to a young person looking to get in to the mystery genre.
However, this was not really my style. While I could tell the book was very funny, the humor was rather dark and morbid for my personal tastes. And while the concept of referring to each of the main characters by her defining characteristic (poor Dull Martha) was creative and unique, by the end of the book I was rather tired of reading the traits. And, for all that, several of the girls never stood out enough for me to remember them. And I just plain didn’t like the ones who I did remember. This book was fun and upbeat, but I just couldn’t get into it.
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