Rating: 
Summary: CAPTIVATING!
Review: Late one night walking home, I stopped to look at what was in the windows of a little bookstore in my neighbourhood, and was immediately drawn to this book - just by its cover!! 'They' always say to never judge a book by its cover, but this was a definite exception! It really is very striking. I had to know more and got my hands on a copy the very next day. I just finished The Dress Lodger and loved it. So rich in characters and detail. Harsh and gritty as some turns, soft and sentimental in others. I just couldn't put it down. A book I have told many people about and one I want to urge people to read! Thanks!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read!!
Review: I won't go into details of the story line. This book was great!!! I found myself still thinking about the story and characters for many days after I had finished reading it! I love historical fiction, especially based on England because you have all the makings of a tragedy being of the working class!! The truely interesting twist in all of it is the cholera that is spreading throughout all of England. This isn't just a story about prostitution in the 19th century...there is so much more going on in this book!!I keep thinking of the quote on the first page of chapter one. "Grave: a place where the dead go to await the coming of the medical student"!! Fabulous! If you enjoy historical fiction you will enjoy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: The contagion of poverty and despair
Review: Sheri Holman skillfully uses her considerable talent to expose the ugly face of grinding poverty. A cholera epidemic is spreading rapidly in 18th Century England, the first of many such plagues. Preying primarily on the poor, the authorities are unable to isolate the cause. A central and most poignant character is Gustine, a potter's apprentice by day and a "Dress Lodger" by night. A Dress Lodger is a young woman hired by a slum landlord, chosen from his boarding house patrons, to wear a dress purchased by him second-hand. Her job is to make nightly rounds selling her favors as a woman of quality, albeit a prostitute. The concept in itself is dehumanizing, but for Gustine, this costume allows her to pretend to be untouched by the men who roughly use her body. Unwedded, Gustine works two jobs, day and night, in order to provide for her baby, born with his tiny heart almost exposed on his chest. Everything she does is for the care of this helpless infant; he is all she loves in the world. An aged woman assigned by the landlord to watch over the dress, doggedly follows Gustine's every evening, walking the streets like her shadow. During one evening's excursion, Gustine happens upon a doctor, Henry Chiver, searching for corpses for his anatomy students to dissect, in effect a grave robber. But Gustine believes that Chiver is pure of heart, perhaps the very man to save her baby; but Doctor Chiver demands full possession of Gustine's child, something she is unwilling to concede. Holman wields her plotlines masterfully toward inevitable resolution, the shocking choices made by the desperate characters, victims of poverty and their own human nature. This is never a pretty story, rather quite a difficult read, but the author challenges the reader for courage enough to face reality as fearlessly as she presents her truth.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most memorable books I've read
Review: This was simply a fascinating story of life in early 19th century England. Miss Holman conveys some little-known but historically documented facts about the cruel circumstances of life for the working poor during in the early 1800's. How serendipitous it was to find at the end of the story five or six pages in which Miss Holman describes her idea for the story, how she conducted her research, and what she wanted the reader to take away from the story.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Historical Novel
Review: It is quite obvious that Ms. Holman extensively researched her subject(s) in preparation for writing this superb historical novel. From readings and interest of my own on epidemic and pandemic medical horrors sustained since recorded time, one can instantly feel the painstaking effort on the writer's part. The only times I had to put down the book was when I felt I might surely gag from the imagined smells and atmospheres created by Holman's words. That is how real the world of Gustine and the other players became to me. I eagerly await Ms. Holman's next book and have just begun The Stolen Tongue, with complete respect for the author in hopes that I will be equally rewarded with her writing.
Rating:
Summary: transcendent fiction at its best
Review: An utterly absorbing, utterly timeless work by a fascinating young writer. The novel is both epic and heartfelt, well-researched and emotional. One of the best novels of the year. I am recommending this to all my friends in reading groups. I won't soon forget this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and difficult
Review: Queen Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837, and I think most conceptions of "Victorian" fiction reflect the latter part of her reign, so I wouldn't describe this story as "Victorian." I would expect 1831 to feel different from Sherlock Holmes & Charles Dickens' London. Even though I'm sure the author did research, it never felt natural, and I keep feeling like I should check up on the facts. At the same time, I would like historical fiction to explain better, if that's what it sets out to do, whether by footnotes, or better narrative. Having just finished two novels by Anthony Trollope, where characters resonate amazingly with human experience common to all times, I found the Dress Lodger's characters two-dimensional and stereotypical. There are definitely some interesting and different circumstances for some characters, but still they didn't evoke much sympathy in me. Finally, the language was florid, pretentious, and difficult. Many sentences, I had to read multiple times to see if I could wring any meaning out of them. By page 100 or so, I was thinking "Hey, I don't like this book," but I forced myself to finish it. Though it got better, I didn't feel rewarded at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the faint hearted--but a great read!!
Review: Incredibly written book about the unusual liaison (is "cooperation" a better word?) between a prostitute and a physician in the 19th century--the latter of which are not so highly regarded as they are today! This plus a uniting theme of cholera affliction runs throughout the book. The author uses person in a very unusual way that I don't recall ever seeing before. The reader is often addressed as "you" and you sort of take on an initial identity. But then you find you are a whole class of certain people--amazing and effective IMHO.
Rating:
Summary: A Victorian Marvel
Review: A truly interesting and transfixing read. For those or you out there who are devotees of the Victorian era, I highly recommend this novel. The story starts out on a very strange and disturbing note and I was tempted to put it down and chalk it up to just another tale of the macabre by an author wrongly and misleadingly touting her story as a period piece on social mores, attitudes, and behavior that did not bear credence. However, after reading the first 50 pages, I discovered to the contrary that I was wrong in that assumption because I became throughly engrossed in Gustine's story and was convinced that the author was not merely writing a gothic shocker but was very much in command of the period in which she was writing about. The practice of Medicine in this period is thoroughly engrossing and mesmerizing and its impact on the people who were a part of its evolution into its present state, provides reminders of the contributions and sacrifices the lower social classes of this period unknowingly gave to allow for the advancement of modern Medicine. Ms. Holmans depiction of life in the early 19th century is full of historical content and is extremly well written without being romanticized. Ms. Holman has developed a very strong female character who is in charge of her life in the face of very adverse economic and social conditions true to historical form. Gustine is not a tragic figure in the mode of Victor Hugo's "Fantine" but one comparable to higher elevations of heroines in literature such as those drawn by Jane Austin and Boris Pasternak. This is a character who comes to grips with her past, present, and future and uses the worst of her condition to perserve. The level to which Gustine rises above her social rank is a testimony to life and love in the face of extreme adversity.
Rating: 
Summary: "I Like Mike"
Review: Mike the Ferret was one of the few likable characters in this book. While many of the others were interesting, such as the Eye, Mag Scurr, Fos, Whilky Robinson, I was attracted to them as curiosities, as oddities, but believe me, I would never want to spend any time alone with them. The novel begins with a strong narrative line and I found some of the early scenes to be quite compelling. I especially liked the scene where the resourceful Gustine carries away the corpse dubbed "Dick Liss" just minutes before the poor soul's real wife arrives, and the dramatic tension created by the hectoring Robert Cooley in the operating theater while Drs. Clanny and Chivers struggle to save Jack Crawford in the throes of a cholera attack. But in the end, I was disappointed. Perhaps it was due to the development of the Dr. Henry Chivers character. Rather than evolving into the medical hero we are set up to expect from the early pages of the book, he spirals downward into a compulsive graverobber. The Frankenstein-like scene with the townspeople storming Dr. Chiver's house as he prepares to dissect Gustine's unnamed infant boy is macabre and by this point I think the novel is out of control. I was also turned off by gratuitous sex scene when he finally has his way with Gustine in the anatomy lab ("he drives into her sump" ???) -- totally unbelievable with her clothes caked in mud, hair wet with snow, and the baby nearby. And Gustine...our unrelenting heroine, this cross between the Eveready Rabbit and Scarlett O'Hara, is there any obstacle this plucky teenage girl cannot overcome? And what's with the Spoon River narrative convention? The revelation near the end of the novel felt tacked on and too obvious; I could do with out it. Sheri Holman clearly has a gift for creating a vibrant world peopled with strange and unique characters. Though the plot was a bit too episodic for my taste, Ms. Holman is a marvelous story-teller with an inventive imagination.
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