Emma Donahue is one of my favorite authors and the topic of this newest novel is fascinating. It’s the reconstruction of Anne Lister’s (aka Gentleman Jack, the 1800s openly lesbian trailblazer) year at a boarding school in York as a teen, and of Eliza Raine, her first love. The mass of research and passion that went into writing this novel is evident on every page, but the narrative bogs down from the weight of it. This novel lacks the classic narrative pull that makes an Emma Donahue book so unputdownable. I was also put off by the uncharacteristically clunky dialog tags. That said, it was still an interesting read.
