Summer Reads 17: Lady Angel by Roberta Eckert

The Before:

I've been having some mixed luck with these summer reads. Let's see how this one goes.

The Feels:
This book might be trauma informed? I don't know if Eckert realized it or not, but these family dynamics appear to be trauma informed! Evelyn, our main character's mother, appears to be struggling with the passing of her own mother and a father, struggling with the trauma coinciding with the passing of his wife, that is emotionally distant. Evelyn's strategy for coping with this trauma is by acting out in extravagant ways. She strives for the attention she cannot get from her parents. Her sister, on the other hand, appears to cope with her trauma by being perfect. She probably feels abandoned by her parents and sees the negative attention her sister receives. Her way of actin out is by over achieving and striving for perfection as dictated by her social circumstance.  I think our main character, Angel, also falls inline with this idea. The passing of her grandmother has led to a multigenerational trauma. 

My big takeaway from this book is to be more trauma informed in my writings. It develops the characters in such a raw way. It makes them feel more like real, relatable people.

The Concerns
Angel is insulted when her grandfather states that not only does she have beauty and a good personality, but she also has a large dowery for when she marries, so it should be easy for her. Angel says there is more to her than so "prize" to be "bought". I mean... yeah... her grandpa just gave her two other complements. She has money, so what? It wasn't as though he said she was butt ugly and had a shit personality and the only way a man would marry her is for her money.


Plot: 4/10
Writing Style: 4/10
Meaningfullness: 7/10