The Journal of Dora Damage

Well, the book that had the dubious honour of being the first book fully read in 2009 is "The Journal of Dora Damage". I picked this up on a whim, because everyone knows that I am a sucker for a) saucy period fiction, and b) a book with a corset on the cover. The big gamble was that in paperback it set me back 17 bones. Urgh. "Well," I thought to myself, "It better be good". And it was, at least for those willing to forgive a few flaws and just enjoy a decent story.

The strength of the book lied primarily in the first half to two-thirds. At the start, the descriptions of the poverty, lifestyle and period are quite good, and you can smell the fog and stench that was Victorian London. That, combined with the empathetic stress that I felt as a reader to Dora's desperate financial situation was fantastic. When she takes on that first commission, I could completely picture the process that the book went through. Another strong point was Dora's relationships with her daughter Lucinda, her housekeeper Pansy and the Lady Knightly. Belinda Sterling seemed to have a good voice when writing relationships with women. Unfortunately, her male characters were more lacking. They seemed more caricatures than believable human beings, especially Diprose and Knightly.

The book seems to stumble around midpoint for two reasons. The first is the introduction of the former slave, Din. For me, he added nothing to the story of any great value. The whole abolitionist subplot could have been removed without any sort of damage to the narrative at all. The romance seemed to come out of nowhere as I didn't really find anything at all remarkable about Din. He was a pretty flat character. I was much more interested in Jack, and when he got dropped three quarters of the way through, I missed him.

In my opinion, the biggest disappointment was the climax. The majority of the book was an atmospheric and grabbing story, but it seemed to drop away to farce. The whole kidnapping and tattooing bit was on the bad side of ridiculous, and the whole affair got resolved pretty easily and quickly. Finally, in the epilogue everyone lived completely happily ever after. Now, I forgive a lot of things in a book. I will suspend my disbelief, I can accept the crazy bits, but I hate it when the big finish is wrapped up too efficiently. It is, to me, a let down. I love a big finish, and it can make or break a book. When there is more of a peter out than a big bang, I get so frustrated.

All of that said, I enjoyed this book (although perhaps not to the tune of $17). I give "The Journal of Dora Damage" 3.5 naughty Victorian books out of 5. Next up...the 3rd in the teen "Blue Bloods" series, "Revelations". My embarrassing teen book habit strikes again...