Review 465: Falling Angels

Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This historical novel takes place in London during the first years of the 1900's, when class and decorum played a strong role in a way that is not quite so important these days. Society dictated women particularly, and this book focuses on the women of two families: Coleman and Waterhouse.

The two girls Maude and Lavinia meet on the day Queen Victoria dies, when they both visit their family gravesite in the cemetery. Their graves are next to each other, the two girls are fast friends. Then the Waterhouse family moves in next door, so they become close. The mothers though do not like each other. Kitty Coleman is bright and doesn’t seem to fit into her societal role very well, while Gertrude Waterhouse seems to thrive in it.

The cemetery ends up playing a big part in the book, and in the latter portion the women’s suffrage movement as Kitty becomes enlivened when she joins that cause.

The story is told in alternating first person point of view with many different characters, although focused mainly on the women. Time moves quickly through the book, and the date marker was very helpful.

I bought the book many years ago and perhaps it was due to the historical aspect of the women’s suffrage movement, but the details of that were somewhat minimal overall. I found the book well written, decent story, but it wasn't anything that wowed me.