Matchstick Girl--A Fairy Tale Retelling Set In 19th Century Russia

Matchstick Girl by Suzanne Hocking was chosen as a Book of the Month by the Goodreads group Read Women.  It was chosen as an LGBT book.  The protagonist might be considered bisexual, but I didn't perceive this novel as being about her sexuality.  It could have taken place in any number of cities, but it's a retelling of "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Anderson that's set in 19th century St. Petersburg in Russia.  I purchased this book on Amazon and this is my review.

                                 

This is a retelling of "The Little Match Girl" because the protagonist, Yelena, was sold by her father to a brothel when she was five years old.  Taras, the brothel keeper, then sent her out to the street to sell matches. Taras was a pretty sleazy and abusive individual, but at least he thought a five year old was too young for prostitution.

The Match Girl metaphor is extended throughout the novel by Yelena's identification with actually being a matchstick and her association with fire.

Later in the book, Yelena got a couple of Tarot readings from a fortune teller who becomes a minor character.   As someone who has studied the Tarot and its history, my main problem with these readings is that all the cards seemed to have illustrations unique to them.  The first fully illustrated deck appeared in 1910.  Tarot cards were originally playing cards.  The majority of the deck are numbered cards in four suits which show their connection to playing cards.  Before 1910, these numbered cards usually had the symbol of the suit repeated in the number the card represented.  For example, the Three of Swords would display three swords, but nothing else.  These numbered cards were often interpreted using numerology which is the very ancient idea that numbers have associations. This is the second historical novel I've reviewed in which there was a Tarot reading before 1910 with a fully pictorial deck.  See my review of  The Peddler of Wisdom here.

Although I mostly admired Yelena for her determined efforts to establish a better life for herself and her chosen family , I was annoyed by some of Yelena's behavior -- particularly when she picked on a very vulnerable girl in order to be accepted by a mean girl and her friends.  This reminded me of the worst aspects of  many YA novels.

 The prose in Matchstick Girl was high quality, but there were long sections of this novel that didn't engage me.  I would have preferred this book to have been pared down to a novella.  Perhaps it would have made a stronger statement about social injustice at a shorter length.  I expected more of  Matchstick Girl than I got.  So I have to say that it was disappointing.