I've had this book for 2 years and decided to finally read it. I really enjoyed it until the end. It just ends with so many questions unanswered. There is another book but it is parallel to this one, not a conclusion. Seeing as it was written several years ago, my guess is that it will forever remain incomplete.Delilah (eventually Juiletta) is a young girl living in Italy in 1905. Her mother is a whore (hey that's what they were called…this book stayed true to the times and was so un PC). Her mother is out gathering gifts for Delilah's birthday when a client of her mothers stops by and rapes her. She kills him with a stiletto and the mother get the girls 'father' to help dispose of the body. They hatch a plan to come to America, unfortunately the mom dies on the voyage. The man becomes her lover/husband, who knows if her actual father.They move to Chicago and things go along nicely until the baby is born. He tells her their son died but she believes he killed him…but maybe he didn't. She leaves him and meets Liberty, a Madame. She becomes one of her girls and eventually her understudy.She with the help of other starts her one business. A lot of the book is about that and her student Carlo, whom she loves but let's him go.And then it's just over, which I hate. I need some type of ending but all in all it was a pretty interesting story. I picked this book up looking for something a little different, and after reading the first few pages, I had to check that it was indeed fiction. Giacoletto writes with such authority that as you follow the characters from the sordid and filthy streets of Genoa, Italy, then on to New York and finally to Chicago, you'd swear this is heavily researched non-fiction - or that the author was there. A marvellous read, I thoroughly recommend it.
What do You think about Chicago's Headmistress (2012)?
For a freebie it was a nice read. I would've paid money for it.
—ashabeggs
It would have gotten 4 stars but the ending stinks.
—doctorwhoandparamore
Good book - a little off the beaten path.
—ayeshha
