As a child, friends—years and years ago, dear God—I went through a period of time when I was absolutely obsessed with Houdini. I mean… seriously obsessed. Like, writing poems about his childhood obsessed. I won’t go into it too much due to the way it’s wildly embarrassing, but suffice to say that I blame my Houdini Phase for my love of fake psychic mediums.And guess what?This entire book?IT’S ABOUT FAKE PSYCHIC MEDIUMS!!Um. Spoiler? Spoiler.Anyway, so in A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A MELODRAMA, we meet Maud. Angry, limp-haired Maud. Maud, the least-desirable orphan at the Barbary Asylum For Female Orphans. Let’s see what the other characters thought about her: Maud was not pretty; her manners were pert and displeasing; even her posture suggested what Miss Clarke called ‘sauce.’She’s insanely awesome, as you might imagine. But the years of neglect have taken a toll on our poor heroine! She’s got zero self-esteem and has pretty much given up on anyone ever Wanting Her.Which means when someone does want her, she’s not going to say no.Enter… the Hawthorne sisters. Maud hates them on sight.Maud had an instinct for finery: the lace, the jewels, and the purplish cloth were all things to be coveted. She felt a surge of fury. She had no such things, and no chance of getting them.But they’re beautiful! Especially Hyacinth! And they need her—they keep saying she’s perfect! PERFECT! Maud has never ever been perfect! THIS IS THE BEST! And she’s willing to overlook the fact that actually they only adopted her because they need someone small enough to fit in a tiny cupboard underneath their kitchen table so that they can better fake a spirit visitation from a wealthy woman’s dead daughter and make millions of dollars off of a mother’s grief. It doesn’t matter! Because they said she’s PERFECT and that it’s all she ever wanted!!Oh, Maud.It’s really fucking tragic.Because seriously. The ladies Hawthorne are awful. Awful! Because you see them only through Maud’s admittedly-skewed eyes, it takes you a while to really get how truly terrible they are, but damn. And since you also only initially know about Mrs. Lambert (wealthy mother of the deceased Caroline, who in the true spirit of a melodrama manages to haunt Maud for a while) from the Hawthornes, you miss how strong and tragic and amazing she is.But truth will out, and the fucking shyster sisters are revealed to Mrs. Lambert, and Maud’s heart is broken into a thousand tiny pieces after she is literally (view spoiler)[left to die by Hyacinth, trapped in the tiny secret cupboard while the house burns down around her (hide spoiler)]
At the Barbary Asylum, every child was strictly classified: a girl was pretty or plain, clever or stupid, good or bad. Maud knew quite well that she was plain, clever and bad.Maud Flynn, growing up in the Barbary Asylum, knows exactly how much she's worth: not much. She's willful and plain, and gets into too much trouble to be ever considered for adoption. So when Hyacinth and Judith Hawthorne waltz into Barbary Asylum looking for a child and insist on leaving with Maud, it's hard to tell who is more surprised--the headmistress or Maud herself.At first, life with the Hawthorne sisters is a dream come true. They buy her new clothes and books, and feed her delicious food. But after the novelty of life outside the Asylum wears off, Maud begins to question the strangeness of her situation--because she is a secret child. The Hawthornes keep her confined to the third floor, and don't let anyone know that they had adopted a child.Soon, Maud discovers the truth. The Hawthornes are mediums, and they need a child in order to bilk a wealthy woman out of her money as she tries to contact her dead daughter. Maud is willing to do anything to keep her new home and make the Hawthornes love her--but how far is too far?There is a great idea for a story here, but the thing that really makes this book is Maud. She is just so genuine--she leaps off the page and feels like a real little girl. She's tough and proud and fiesty, but also broken inside. She rarely lets it show, but there are moments when I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and hold her. Maud broke my heart into teeny tiny pieces.This book also has a chillingly deceptive villain, and what's so impressive is that you only see her through Maud's adoring eyes. Maud is not stupid, but she is desperate for love and desperate to be wanted, so the picture we see of the Hawthornes is colored by what she wants so badly--and yet we still have a very complete, well-rounded picture of the Hawthornes.That's another thing I love about this book. No one--including Maud's enemies in the Barbary Asylum--is one dimensional. They are all so well-rounded and three dimensional--the villainous characters have their good moments, and the good characters sometimes have a temper and make hasty unfortunate decisions. Everyone is real.This is the second time I'm reading this book, and the second time it has made me tear up at the end. It's a quiet book, but it's the kind of book that burrows into your heart and finds a permanant home there.
What do You think about A Drowned Maiden's Hair (2006)?
I liked this book, and I thought it was a nice little contribution to the age group for which it's intended. It's wholesome (unless you're the type who worries about seances and mediums influencing young minds, but the book makes it pretty clear that it's all a sham). It passed the test of making me want to read to the end. A few things bothered me, though. The biggest was that I was unsatisfied by the ending. I wanted Schlitz to be daring and find a way that Maud could live with Muffet, rather
—Katrina
All Maud wants is to be adopted and to have a real family again. When the elderly Hawthorne sisters take her home, Maud is overjoyed. She has nice clothes, good food, and indoor plumbing. What Maud doesn’t have is any friends—she’s not allowed to go to school or see visitors. Maud is a secret, and when she finds out why, she has some very tough decisions to make about what’s important.This was a very moving story about the compelling need for love and a home, versus doing what is right. At the same time, we get a good dose of spirituality and mediums and ghosts. It was wonderfully spooky without being scary.I loved the way Maud's friendship developed with Muffet, the Hawthorne's deaf servant. I also liked the way that Maud really struggled with her decisions about what to do-- she didn't always want to do the right thing, and how Schlitz handles this conflict makes Maud so much more real and likeable.It was getting a lot of well-deserved Newberry buzz and even though it didn't win and wasn't honored, you should still check it out
—Jennie
A historical children's book set in the 19th-century with just a bit of stuff not mundane.It opens on Maud being punished by being locked in the lavatory of the orphanage. She is singing defiantly, and the voice of a strange woman asks after her. She is let out by a Miss Hyacinth Hawthorne, and brought to the office where Miss Judith Hawthorne is waiting: the women she knew were coming to the orphanage to adopt a girl a few years younger than her -- but Hyacinth thinks she's perfect and sweeps off with her.On the train, they tell her she has to be a secret, and hide in their house, so that no one knows she's there.At their house, she has new clothes, and all she can eat for meals, and books and education, but she starts to learn things about them, and their third sister. For one they are not so rich as they look.What weaves onward from their involves making a crocodile out of sand, Maud's taking a train journey alone, a carousal, a drowned little girl, a man who wants permission to remarry, a glockenspiel, a deaf maidservant and the difference between lower-class and upper-class letters, the jetty at the shore, and much more in a dramatic tale.
—Mary Catelli
