DEAR CANADA: 1837 Rebellion

This is one of those that is so very Canadian history that Americans know nothing about it, so it should be interesting, but the writing style given to the diary girl is so disjointed that you don't end up really learning much. She writes like a clueless girl who hasn't been told much her entire privileged life, so it's realistic in that way, but as far as historical details go...eh.

This is also one of those that has such a horrible parent that I want to reach into the pages and strangle the bitch. Her mother basically takes a vacation from reality and dumps running the household on her 12-year-old sheltered daughter when the father gets arrested for taking part in this rebellion. The older brother just up and leaves them, too, so fuck him also. When they have to sell their house and move to a small set of rooms, the mother is so obsessed with having a maid that she turns out her own kid. Arabella is thrown into the life of a scullery maid, where she suffers further abuse, because it's okay to dislike the daughter of a rebel, even though she's only 12 and clearly has nothing to do with any of that.

The entire book has the poor girl suffering abuse after abuse and it gets old real fast. Thankfully, things begin to work out for her and that makes the latter part of the book more palatable, but it's still one of the difficult ones to get through.