This book without a doubt surprised me. I expected it to be all innocent and nice when I first started reading the book. But that is how she is in the beginning of the book, innocent and naive. She doesn't stay that way so neither does the book. No doubt during the time it was published it was probably a scandalous book. Now less people would be offended about some of the truths presented.

Cassandra was very observant and very aware of how much she didn't know. That may not make sense but its how Cassandra is. I neither like her nor hate her, I just feel bad for her. She and her family start out dirt poor. And this isn't your glamorous "oh we can't buy new cloths" poor; this is really really poor.

What I liked about it was that it had all these things that you don't expect to happen. Like Cassandra is actually happier when they are poor. Cassandra starts to mature once they start getting money. Usually its the other way around. Kids start to become more solemn and mature when their family is struggling financially. Its something I found very new from a classic. It may sound like an oxymoron but its true. Plus, I liked that you got a sense of everything like it’s new because it mostly is to Cassandra.

All the characters are confusing, I want to say complex but I couldn't understand them sometimes so they are just confusing. Each have their motives for doing things but I don't know what they are sometimes. I could see Cassandra's motives because she tells you them and I could see what Rose's motives were because they are, for the lack of the better word, shallow. Everyone one else is just a mess of emotions.

The ending didn't turn out the way I would've liked. But the way the author made a mess of everything I'm just grateful that no one committed suicide. Cassandra is depressed for a long time, over a quarter of the book I'd say. I remember her saying that people who didn't feel depressed every once in a while were missing out on life. Not in those exact words but in general. My reaction to this was, "Your wasting your life away when you ARE depressed!" I just think she was way too self-pitying. She knows this too because -like I said- very observant. And a lot of characters are left with some hope but it’s very vague and they are currently unhappy. There is tons drama, but it was an easy read -for a classic anyway.