Sara StockbridgeAnmeldelser

Kind of an odd novel.....the actual storytelling was a bit flat, with plenty of detail in some areas but no details at all in others, so I couldn't really get to enjoying it, because I either wanted to know more than I was being told, or was being told things that made no sense to me. Possibly worth a borrow if you have interest in urban Victorian life.

Rose es una joven pitonisa gitana, algo que en la Inglaterra del siglo XIX no abre precisamente muchas puertas. Pero Rose es astuta y tiene tablas, y gracias a ello se convierte en la chica de confianza de Lady Quayle, una dama de la alta sociedad que llega a solicitar sus servicios varias veces por semana. En una de las fiestas que la pudiente señora organiza, Rose lee en la mano de Emily, una muchacha amiga de la familia, las trágicas palabras "una muerte terrible y violenta". Y aunque Rose sabe perfectamente que la adivinación es un arma de doble filo, se entremete en las vidas de Emily y de Tabitha, hija de Lady Quayle. A medida que pasan los días y se cumplen las profecías, Rose se dará cuenta de que las predicciones pueden tener varias lecturas distintas... algunas de las cuales es preferible no conocer.

Kind of an odd novel.....the actual storytelling was a bit flat, with plenty of detail in some areas but no details at all in others, so I couldn't really get to enjoying it, because I either wanted to know more than I was being told, or was being told things that made no sense to me. Possibly worth a borrow if you have interest in urban Victorian life.

I got this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers. It took me a while to get around to reviewing it, however, because it took some time to read it... and even then, I ended up not finishing it. Whether it's a bad time for me to be reading this particular book, or whether it's because I'm on a paranormal kick (and this is not a paranormal), or whether it's because of the odd present/past tense style of writing, I just couldn't get into it.

The basic premise was good, or at least what I saw of it. (I'm not sure how much more depth is in the 2/3rds of the book I didn't read.) I like the way the Victorian era is portrayed. From the research I've done, it seems quite feasible. I also like the way the characters are written, mostly. They are believable and likeable. (I actually kept reading as long as I did because of the characters.)

My biggest problem was the way it was written. Some sentences are in present tense and others are in past tense and there seems to be no rhyme or reason for which is used. This drives me ABSOLUTELY CRAZY.

Someone who is less picky about tense and who prefers historical fiction to paranormals might enjoy this book much more than I did. However, I won't be returning to this book as it was not written for people with my personal preferences.

The author
Sara Stockbridge (born Sarah Jane Stockbridge on 14 November 1965 in Woking, Surrey, England)is an English model, actress and author who achieved a certain level of high fashion notoriety in the mid to late 1980s as the muse of designer Vivenne Westwood. She has a son and a daughter from previous relationships. Currently she resides in London where she keeps busy with her band Rooster.

The synopsis
Whitechapel, 1888. Grace Hammer and her children live comfortably in Bell Lane, their home a little oasis in the squalor of London’s East End. They make their living picking the pockets of wealthy strangers foolish enough to venture there. But Grace’s history is about to catch up with her. Out in the countryside Mr. Blunt rocks in his chair, vowing furious retribution. He has never forgotten his scarlet treasure, or the coquettish young woman who stole it from him.

The review
I saw this book in the bookstore and read the synopsis. I was really enthusiastic, Oliver Twist and Jack the Ripper in one book and a female protagonist. As soon as I found an excuse to stuff it in a challenge I grabbed it.
So I will start with the characters. The author managed to clearly personalize the characters. Grace is a very strong willed woman. She is trying to survive with her children in a way that she thinks is acceptable. She did not learn her daughter to steal for example. She also spending the money for entertainment for her children and food and clothes for them all. The children all have clear characters too though one action of Jake kind of surprised me, I did not see that one coming.
Mr. Blunt stars out as a scary little man but grows out to be an evil spirit fed by hate for Grace, you really get shivers down your spine the way he is described. Same with some other characters.
The story is a different thing though. I had a struggle reading it. The one sentence is written from the POV from Grace and the next sentence is written about her. It jumps up and down like that and it really takes a bit to get into it. As soon as you pick up a pace it will get easier to go trough it but every time you have to get in it again. This was irritating me enough that I considered giving the book only two stars. Still the story itself was entertaining enough. The atmosphere was clear and the characters where good. So three stars. But be careful if you want to pick up this book, read the first pages in the bookstore and see if you can deal with that style cause if you can not it will disappoint you.

Whitechapel, 1888. Grace Hammer and her children live comfortably in Bell Lane, their home a little oasis in the squalor of London's East End. They make their living picking the pockets of wealthy strangers foolish enough to venture there. But Grace's history is about to catch up with her. Out in the countryside Mr. Blunt rocks in his chair, vowing furious retribution. He has never forgotten his scarlet treasure, or the coquettish young woman who stole it from him.

My Thoughts:

I had previously read ‘Cross my Palm’ by Sara Stockbridge and really enjoyed it, enough to give it 5 stars. So when I managed to get a copy of ‘Hammer’ I couldn’t wait to read it. I couldn’t believe that both books were by the same author.

‘Hammer’ could have been so much more. Set in Whitechapel in 1888, time of jack the Ripper, whose crimes are lightly touched on, and with the criminal underworld, this book had so much going for it. The book did just not hit the mark. I felt the writing was clunky and didn’t really flow. There could have been a lot more atmosphere in the book to make the reader feel that they were in Whitechapel.

I also felt at times that I was getting quite bored with the book and I was just plodding along with it, and towards the end I was skipping pages, and this is my pet hate.

I am glad that I read ‘Cross my Palm’ first and would highly recommend it. Had ‘Hammer’ have been my first encounter with Sara Stockbridge then it may well have been my last.

'You must cross my palm with silver first, my pretty miss.'

1860s, London. The capital's high society ladies like nothing more than to while away an evening at a private supper party, drinking sweet wine, sharing confidences - and having their fortunes read. But palm-reading is a perilous business: the lines of the left hand can unlock secrets and reveal futures best kept hidden.

When fortune-teller Miss Rose is called to entertain Lady Quayle and her guests at Portland Place, she sees in the palm of shy, cautious Emily a future she is forced to keep to herself. 'A quiet life, my dear' is what she tells the girl. But she spies two little crosses that spell something quite different - fearful, violent death.

As Rose's predictions start coming true, her own fortunes become embroiled in the suspect fates of others and the future suddenly seems a dark and dangerous place. With a plucky heroine and a rollicking story, Sara Stockbridge's second novel is a cauldron of subterfuge and mysticism.

My Thoughts:

This book is fantastic !

I have always had a strong interest in gypsies and my husbands nan is a gypsy and lived in painted wagon so anything connected to gypsies is right up my street. I only saw this book by chance when looking on fantastic fiction so I was soon off to my local library.

Firstly if you want a book about the gypsy way of life then this book isn’t for you. The story is about a young girl, Tabith Quayle who is forced in to a society that she doesn’t really want. When she falls for a gypsy she plots with her friend to runaway. The other main character is Rose who is a gypsy and she reads palms and gets involved with the Quayles.

I just couldn’t put this book down. It has everything in it for me, a love story, a mystery, gypsies and fortune telling. The book was so easy to read and I found I was flying through the pages. The book was a pleasure to read from start to finish and I really cannot find anything negative to say about it.

The subtitle of Sara Stockbridge's novel, Grace Hammer, is "A novel of the Victorian underworld," and so it is; set, in fact, in Whitechapel during Jack the Ripper's reign of terror there. Yet his depradations are mentioned only in passing in this book, which concerns Grace Hammer, a woman in her mid-30s who makes her way in the world by picking pockets and other forms of theft; she has four children, three boys who are also adept at the family trade, and a 5-year-old daughter whom she intends to shield from the family's life of crime. They are a close-knit family and do well together, but an unfortunate part of Grace's past is about to reappear and upset all their lives: some 15 years earlier, Grace had stolen a rare necklace from another thief, Mr. Blunt, and one of Mr. Blunt's associates has just seen Grace in her neighbourhood in London.... I really enjoyed this to-me new take on the Victorian underworld, particularly because the story is told with quite a bit of humour and also because Grace herself is such an engaging character. I don't know anything about the author, other than that the jacket bio says she was Vivienne Westwood's "muse" at one time, but I would be quite happy to read more from her, particularly more about Grace Hammer! There are some rather gruesome scenes here and there in the novel, which might be upsetting to the squeamish; otherwise, though, highly recommended!

I was less than impressed with this book, which makes me very sad because it had the potential for great fun. A strong, female lead, the Victorian time-period and London as the perfect setting.. everything should have added up to a fantastic little story about pickpockets and knaves.

I think the combination of Stockbridge’s writing as well as the lack-luster character and world building really just turned me off on the story and I had to force myself to finish it. I kept hoping at 50, 75, 100 pages in that it’d pick up, that there would be a big climax that would make it all worth while, but instead the story just sort of limped along and felt so disjointed that I felt lost most of the time.

This is one I was sad I didn’t take off the TBR list without bothering to read it. I remember vaguely thinking about how much fun this would be – I’m glad I waited to read it rather than be even more disappointed then than I am today.

Not a highbrow read, but richly detailed and great characters. This book stinks of the Victorian slums, in the best possible way.

What can I say about a book that is seriously lacking? There was no character development, and the suspense that one expects to find is dull. Our heroine in this story, Grace Hammer, NEVER meets with ill fortune during the course of the actual story, save for a page or two that details ONE event that occurred. There is no true climax as Grace never faces the one person threatening her life the most. The climax that one expects to find after all the build-up never happens and we are just let down gently. The only reason I even finished this book is because it was so short and I wanted to give it a chance.

Set in 1888 Whitechapel, Grace Hammer, a single mother of four children and a thief by profession, discovers that her distant past has come to haunt her in London and she races to protect her family from this threat.

Overall, I found this to be a cute historical romp. Yes, cute isn't the first descriptive term that comes to mind considering the book is billed as "a novel of the Victorian underworld', but cute it is. How else can you describe a story where the family makes a comfortable living picking pockets and minor thieving - so comfortable that when the youngest child Daisy want a new dress for the upcoming Bank Holiday, the family makes a day trip to the West End to purchase the new dress, purchases for the boys, including a cricket bat, and a visit to a tea house for a bit to eat? The Victorian underworld is still present - Jack the Ripper makes a few cameo appearances and the neighborhood is full of opportunists looking for their next cash flow, but I can see why they describe the book as being reminiscent of Dicken's Oliver Twist.

Do people get bludgeoned to death in the book? Yes. Chopped up into body parts? Yes. Is there skulduggery afoot? Yes. Is it cute? Yes. This is a fun Victorian romp but if you are looking for dirt, grit and the desperate, clamorous struggle for survival in its raw form, this book is not for you.

Grace Hammer is a successful single mother of four; she and her three sons run a family business in Victorian London’s East End, and while their neighborhood is a bit grim, they are more than able to make ends meet and lead contented lives. Unfortunately, the family trade is pickpocketing, and while the Hammers live comfortably now, one of Grace’s first and most extravagant thefts is about to come back to haunt them.

Seventeen years ago, she stole an enormous ruby necklace from Mr. Blunt, a fearsome and heartless thief. And while Blunt has never been able to track her down, he’s never forgotten Grace, and dreams at night of slitting her throat.

This fast-paced and suspenseful historical novel certainly relies on plenty of clichés, but it is an absolute treat. Grace hammer in particular is a delightfully resourceful character, and the peripheral villains are deliciously evil, like characters out of Dickens. This atmospheric thriller is a wonderful guilty pleasure, much like a stolen ruby necklace. Readers who enojy it, or those who are looking for something similar (and better!), would do well to read Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

½

Grace Hammer is a young mother living and raising her children in the seamiest section of London, in the time of Jack the Ripper (whose efforts appear in the book, though he is never named). She is a good mother but not good citizen, teaching her youngsters to ply the thieving trade she uses herself to survive. Grace is likable but distant, and her children are by turns adorable and, by today's standards, deplorably misguided.

This is a story about a womon whose past catches up with her, at a time when she and her family are vulnerable. Her world is populated by a somewhat confusing array of characters, all of whom share both good and bad (but mostly bad) character traits. Mr Blunt, a vicious man from whom she stole many years earlier, searches for her with a taste for revenge which is, by turns, both mad and a bit comical. On the way, he unwittingly makes Grace the subject of pursit by several other local terrors, who search her out assuming she has some sort of treasure. The resulting chase leaves Grace and her children with a life changed, hopefully for the better (the ending is unclear on this).

Like other reviewers, I at times had some difficulty with the writing style. However I found the writing added more to the authenticity of the story than it detracted. I was pleased that the book did not try to sugarcoat the horrible conditions in East Side London in the 1880s. I would have liked a bit more depth around the characters, yet it seemed to me that the author may have intended to sketch them instead of defining them, as that was what life would have been like at that time and that place. I also would have liked more explanation in the end - what did Jack do? Did Grace's family get what she wanted for them?

Very unique and original book. Overall an enoyable read!

I have had a hard time getting this review done because I had a hard time finishing this book. The idea was very appealing, and I had high hopes when I picked it up the first time. Grace Hammer is not a bad book, and there were interesting details about the period scattered here and there. The book just did not grab me at any point.

Jewel thieves. The victims of Jack the Ripper make cameo appearances.

I originally put this book down after the first few pages. The style of writing put me off a bit. I am glad I picked it up again, because the story eventually lured me in. It was a good story with the potential to be great. I wish the book had been fleshed out more. It was very rushed. The relationships should have been explored more. The fate of the boyfriend was just plain confusing. I didn't understand if he deserved what happened.

I gave this book three stars, because it was a great idea and effort.

I hate to say it....but I wanted to put this book down not too long after I began it. I have a very hard time not being able to read a book from beginning to end so even if I don't "get into it" I keep on reading. I kept reading Grace Hammer: A Novel of the Victorian Underworld mostly because I had high hopes for it. It sounded like a fantastic book. I love "period" literature and historical fiction, but I just couldn't get into this one. I didn't feel like I was transported into this author's world and I had a hard time connecting and caring about the characters.

Wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but I didn't find it worth reading more than once----if you can last that long.

Kind of an odd novel.....the actual storytelling was a bit flat, with plenty of detail in some areas but no details at all in others, so I couldn't really get to enjoying it, because I either wanted to know more than I was being told, or was being told things that made no sense to me. Possibly worth a borrow if you have interest in urban Victorian life.

This is the first time I really put off a review because until Grace Hammer I have been lucky enough to at least like something about my ER books to give them an average rating. How unfortunate that such a great premise wasn't fully realized. I was really looking forward to reading this book based on the synopsis. First what I did find positive, I did enjoy the pluck of the main character, Grace, I love a character with attitude and I did find Grace fun. Also, I enjoyed that authors discription of setting. Although I also found the book poorly researched compared to other Victorian era novels I have read, it wasn't enough to bother me.
What I didn't like about the book was that there were too many characters that were poorly developed and never came together. Also, the mystery of Grace's boyfriend should have begun to be fleshed out earlier in the story and not forced into the second half of the book. It was also difficult to get started and I had to force myself to actually finish it.½

The novel was all right. It wasn't drawn together well enough though. The author gave many asides about the futures and feelings of incredibly minor characters, which felt unnecessary. There wasn't enough time put into developing the core storyline and characters more, and I had no clue that Grace's love interest secret was supposed to be, or that he even had one, until the end of the novel. I get the feeling that I only knew that Grace's story was the most important because she was the title character and her story was connected to the others. It didn't feel suspenseful enough.

What an enjoyable read! Sure, it's no classic, but if you're looking for a good, intriguing story that won't bog you down with a heavy style, this is a great bet. It was a little confusing in the beginning, but I haven't read many books in this genre. It piqued my interest immediately with such interesting characters - Grace is so easy to cheer for, despite her perhaps less than respectable career. And then there's Mr. Blunt who is equally easy to despise. But not all the characters are cut and dry. I was really shocked with how one of them turned out. I may want to read the book again to see if I can find that loose string. I would be thrilled to see Grace turn up in another novel.

Based on the publisher description I thought this would be an exciting book to read. However, no matter how many times I tried I could not get interested in this book. The characters and writing was flat. The writing is also quite poor. Either the sentences seem like they were written by a beginning writer, very short or they end up seeming like a run-on paragraph. Luckily the book is short so you don't have to struggle to finish it. By the end though I really didn't care what happened to the characters. It sounded like it had so much promise in the description, it just didn't seem to live up to it.

Pickpocketing. Urban filth: cold, grey grimy. Poverty, crime and mortality. Dickens. Rain and horses and fashion. Yep, Victorian London. Sara Stockbridge's novel recounts all of its requisite stereotypes--emphasizing the east-end, grimmer ones--without adding much to consider. "Grace Hammer" is a sometimes mystery, sometimes crime story, sometimes quasi-historical vignette that, while it has a collection of endearing impressions, doesn't seem to have much to say.

There's something about Sara Stockbridge's treatment of Victorian London that feels vaguely, but jarringly, anachronistic. Although she frames her characters in situations that are at least conceivably plausible, there is a taint of the modern in their actions and motives. Her characters are wont to spew random lists of London localities almost as if in proof that Stockbridge did her geographical homework. There is a lot of boot-strapping and self-education, enough that it strains credulity. Perhaps it is because contemporary novels didn't tend to have tender scenes of children playing and motherly emotion, but the tone lapsed into an unguarded sentimentality that again betrayed it as more modern than its subjects.

Protagonist Grace Hammer is poor, raised in the country. She runs away in adolescence and becomes an immediately skilled thief and pickpocket, at which point she immediately encounters an evil man who she double-crosses and, well, you can see the direction the plot is going to go: said evil, ugly man (all of the "bad guys" in Stockbridge's novel are ugly and smelly) will obsessively pursue Grace for the rest of her flighty life.

Stockbridge's treatment of alcoholism and prostitution has merit, and was obviously executed with some academic care. But there was something so self-conscious in her style that it almost encourages one to seek out mistakes. At one point, she has her characters (Grace and her apparently-perfect young daughter, Daisy) riding a Ferris-Wheel-style amusement ride. The novel is set in 1888, and, as far as I know, the world's first Ferris Wheel was unveiled at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Finding such faults seems finicky, but the detail of Stockbridge's historical interjections seem to encourage nitpicking.

Less concrete inaccuracies can be found, too: At one point, it is explained that Grace cannot fathom an honest career, when, after try her hand at being a maid for a couple of weeks, she quit, finding that her "mistress was an imperious bitch who never uttered a please or thank-you." It is implausible, in 19th Century Britain, to expect such even-handedness out of the gentry--they were not friends with their servants. Behavior was proscribed and rigid; the reality was that there was not a lot of room for cheerful pleases and thank-yous.

In fact, one finds oneself noticing these imperfections in part because the characters are not engrossing. Grace, besides being "plucky" and a self-starter, is not particularly compelling. The antagonists are like monsters from fairy tales: utterly without merit, hideous and noisome. Grace's daughter Daisy is especially insipid: she is described as beautiful and princess-like, though she does display some courage toward the climax of the story.

The story is a fine one if one is reading for entertainment, and is relatively straightforward and quick. But the somewhat jumpy sentence structure, the show-off historical anecdotes (in particular, the Jack the Ripper side arc that is so ploddingly and begrudgingly executed as to feel infuriating), and the charisma-free characters just don't take the reader anywhere.½

This is not a good book.
The characters are lifeless and dull. We never really get to know them because they are boring in every way. I didnt really get the jist of this book and if I had not said Id review it I would never had read it. Once I reached near the end I was skimming it just so the pain would end!!!
Even when we hit the drama in the book it falls flat.....Id say SKIP it!! It's relatively short at 277 pages and a fairly quick read.