Opal Plumstead

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I give this book a 7/10 because through all its faults it was a good read, and one of Wilson's few enjoyable ones for older readers.

Fourteen-year-old Opal Plumstead is a scholarship girl at a posh school. She hopes to go to university, though her real love is painting. She copes with not fitting in at school (she’s plump and shabbily dressed) because her best friend, Olivia, is on her side. Then tragedy strikes. Her father, an overworked clerk with literary aspirations, is caught forging a cheque and ends up in prison; Olivia is forbidden to see her; and Opal must leave school and go to work at Mrs Roberts’ sweet factory, ‘Fairy Glen’, where she’s bullied. Her life becomes utterly miserable. But their Poor Poor father - I don't think ive ever felt so much empathy before. See I got him - I understood it, why he faked the cheque and wanted everyone to be happy. I understood his dream like state in court and I got is withered frail figure once he finally returned at the end of the story. It broke my heart seeing him how he was at the end, and the relationship between him and Opal slowly fading is such a saddening part of the story. Morgan, he was the perfect boy, almost too perfect but I'm not complaining. He truly was a reflection of Opal; their similar interests and views of the world were weaved together and their intellectual minds blew me away. He was perhaps the only character in this book who was depicted as completely flawless. I'm not sure if it's because we don't get to see him long enough, but his character, to me, was like a symbol of wholly goodness and light. He changed Opal's cynical views of love and he was the only person in Mrs Robert's life worth living for. Now Cassandra, don’t go throwing yourself at any man that makes eyes at you, go for the wealthy ones.” Jacqueline Wilson's historical novels feel so authentic to her brand and so approaching for readers of all ages. I think she's really found a comfort zone, and I'm beyond pleased with the idea of her writing more from this decade!It was so boring and repetitive, and yet it had lots of themes (like family, and Opal's work, and the whole Morgan romance, and the Suffragette movement) as any book should. Mother now worked as a babyminder and Mr Evandale (Daniel) and Cassie had plenty of money with Cassie’s portraits. Morgan and Opal sent millions of letters to each other while away from each other. I swear, all females bar one or two hate our poor young heroine for no real reason and exist to make her life miserable every chance they get. All of the girls working at the sweet factory, Fairy Glen, treat Opal worse than bullies would - they hate her for no reason; they torture and shame her at every opportunity. The only workers at the factory who treat her like a human being are men. Double Act won the prestigious Smarties Medal and the Children’s Book Award as well as being highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. The Story of Tracy Beaker won the 2002 Blue Peter People’s Choice Award. And that's only part of the internalized misogyny in 'Opal Plumstead'. The portrayal of the suffragettes isn't much better.

I'm not going to lie and say it was the best book of the year, or my favourite book or that I was not bitter when first reading the book but it was able to make up for itself at the end and was able to prove a better novel than many of Jacqueline's previous books about similar subjects of rejects, and girls going from poor to rich ('worse' to 'better'), it had romance, tragedy, and happiness. This is when Opal discovers that Mrs Roberts is a member of the Suffragettes. They meet up at a Suffragette committee meeting, where Opal is invited to Mrs Roberts' impressive home. She is then introduced to her teenage son, Morgan, and a relationship blossoms. Could this turn out to be the love of her life? And what will she do when her older sister Cassie runs off with a rich painter? I'm quite different from Opal, but I could really relate to her. I loved that she was wrong sometimes, or that she changed her mind about how she felt about certain things. However, despite -or perhaps because of- her flaws, I found myself really rooting for her. I love that she made the best of the awful situation she was in, even though it wasn't always easy. And where are you off to, missy? Mixing with those dreadful suffragettes again? You're going to get yourself into terrible trouble. All decent folk think those women want horse-whipping. The destruction they've caused! [...] [After Opal explains how they've been tortured and even killed] They bring it on themselves with their silly hysterics." The nerve, the hypocrisy, the self-absorption, the self-delusion. The abuse is plain as day. Opal's own mother loathes her just for existing. What a hate-filled creature, and I don't care that women like her existed in the early 20th century (and still do, to my utter dismay).Mrs Plumstead is evil incarnate, plain and simple. Literally all she cares about is social status and looking good to her neighbours. A desperate delusion since she's as poor as dirt and so is her neighbourhood. She treats Opal like absolute shit and lavishes praise on her prettier, brainless socialite daughter Cassie. She only treats her husband with the barest minimum of humanity when he's making them money. She didn't work before her husband was arrested because she believes that no respectable woman should once she's married and has children. She calls suffragettes " man-hating harridans", and silly and hysterical. She insists that men know best. She forces fourteen-year-old Opal to give up her scholarship for further education to work in the sweet factory - to support the family, but Mummy Dearest never liked the idea of women having an education, so I'm sure this is more of her scheming. Comparing this book to other “memoirs” this one had to the most detail. Like “Katy” written by Jacqueline Wilson. It was more brief in that story, whereas in this book the descriptive language painted a movie in my head the whole time, there were no parts where it got boring.