Then Came October by Usher, L.E. (2008) Paperback

by L.E. Usher

Rare Book

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2008

Reviews

[JimZ]

This was an interesting read for the most part. I thought that the first 2/3 of the book a bit too long (for my liking) and the point of it being Victorian times where a rich girl could have hissy fits and be in foul moods and faint (I guess literally) could have been condensed. And I do not like dream sequences and there were several of them. The first 2/3 of the book was chiefly Edith’s entries into her diary for from 1878 to 1888. But the last third of the book picked up considerably. Edith, the main protagonist in the story, fell out with her parents and had to marry to avoid embarrassing the family, and subsequently gave birth to a girl, Marjorie, who she called Mardie because when little that was what the girl called herself (pretty hard for a baby to blurt out the word Marjorie). Edith called her “piglet” and it was in a derogatory way. She was very mean towards the girl – what led her to be mean? Why did she call her husband the Pig? Why was she considered mad by some? Did she murder somebody? Why did she marry the Pig when she was madly in love with Crantock? That would reveal too much. Suffice it to say I felt quite sorry for Mardie as she was in her 40s when she became more of the central focus of the book. This was the third book of L.E. Usher’s the first being The Sudden Spoon and Miss, which I very much liked. And I liked this book…I read it in one day.

[Bronwyn]

This was a really interesting book. Loosely based on a true story (the jailing of a woman for the murder of her husband), the author admits that this was merely a jumping off point for an exploration of the lives of those who might have been impacted by this murder.

I really enjoyed reading this, the diary style, the flipping back and forth between the diaries and the daughter reading adds a poignancy to the narrative and adds a different dimension to the characters and the storyline.

Some aspects of the story required a suspension of disbelief, the very bohemian lifestyle of the welsh family during victorian times, the main one. But overall this is very readable and I really enjoyed the character development and storylines.