3.5 Stars

Trigger warning: sexual assault

I get why some people wouldn’t like this book. But the fact that the average rating is barely above a 3.5 is truly surprising to me. I wasn’t expecting much from this book for that reason, but I am attempting to get through the 250+ unread books on my shelves (Yeah, I know. I’m not overwhelmed at all...)

Anyway, I ended up thoroughly enjoying most of this book. I loved the friendship between Emily and Ada. The mutual respect they had for one another was truly wonderful to read about.

I also liked the romance between Ada and Daniel. He was very sweet and caring and I just loved their dynamic.

The writing was quite beautiful. Lyrical and descriptive, I felt like the language used really added to the setting and atmosphere of the book and I appreciated that. Some of the passages were really lovely.

This book is not without its flaws, however.

I preferred Ada’s chapters to Emily’s. It may seem strange, since Emily Dickinson is an actual historical figure and Ada Concannon is entirely fictional, but I felt more connected to Ada and she seemed more real and fleshed out to me.

I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I don’t necessarily feel that Dickinson’s poetry added anything to the narrative.

Actually, I feel like my biggest issue with this book was that it includes real people from history but is highly fictionalized. The idea of a taboo relationship between Emily Dickinson and another woman is intriguing, but it felt like it was out of nowhere to me. Honestly, it felt like the author was trying to explain and justify Emily Dickinson’s known eccentricities by creating some sort of sensationalized fan fiction. This is going to sound ridiculous, I’m sure, but I think I would’ve preferred this story if it hadn’t been about Emily Dickinson. If she had just been a well-to-do young woman who wouldn’t leave her home and found herself connecting with a new maid.

Also, there are events near the end that felt very rushed. The book itself is very short, and I felt like the author could’ve expanded on the end without adding much to the page count.

All that being said, I’m still giving this a solid 3 stars. I actually went back and forth between 3 and 4, but settled on 3 in the end. I really loved Ada and Daniel and the writing was really beautiful, but I wish we could’ve left Emily Dickinson out of this.