All things are difficult before they are easy.
Crooked Hearts
by Lissa Evans
Genre: Historical Fiction
About: It's WW2 and Vee has her invalid mother, her grown-arsed son and a limping, sullen evacuee to take care of, all while dodging the debt collector and thinking up new schemes to see them through the end of the week. She has ninety-nine problems and Hitler ain't one.
The Good
There isn't a single character in this novel who doesn't fit the description 'crooked heart'. As in life, everyone is a shade of grey and there are as many reasons to love a character as want to shake them silly. Vee and Noel are the main characters and bond over a morally reprehensible scheme cooked up by Vee and expanded on by Noel. Their relationship doesn't have a good beginning, but you'll want to stick around for the end.
The Bad
I loved the character of Mattie (the prologue is just brilliant and every line from her throughout the novel is a real zinger) but it feels a bit strange to meet Mrs Gifford and find her so very similar, if not the same character. Although I understand we're seeing it through Noel's eyes and he's wanting that connection to Mattie, I'm not sure why both these suffragette women needed to be depicted as eccentric, rich old loons. Crazy is how they would have been seen back when they were fighting the good fight, so witnessing them both in their old age be that stereotype is just... sad, really.
The Somewhat Iffy
Parts of the climax seemed a bit far-fetched. Action rushing past so fast I had to go back and re-read, and even then I'm not quite sure what happened to the shadowy figure, or really how likely the money find was, or any of the dangers than blinked by.
Overall
Funny, heart-warming, real human connections in troubled times. The dialogue was great at pulling you back, giving you characters as varied as you'd expect. Class and education sometimes separated them but there's a murkiness there too that adds an extra layer.
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