At the Sign of the Sugared Plum by Mary Hooper

Title: At the Sign of the Sugared Plum

Author: Mary Hooper

Series: Sign of the Sugared Plum #1

Genre: Historical

Summary: This book is set at the time of the London Great Plague epidemic, and a girl called Hannah is moving to London to help her sister run her sweetmeat shop, called ‘The Sugared Plum’. However, her sister, Sarah, is not nearly as welcoming as Hannah had expected her to be; instead, she shouted at her for coming in the first place because the plague was spreading and it wasn’t a safe place to be. As the plague takes hold of the city, Hannah and Sarah struggle to get by without catching it themselves; this proves very difficult as time goes on though, as each of their friends, neighbours and others around them seem to be  rapidly dropping dead, one by one. All hope is lost for the two sisters, until something miraculous happens which means they can escape the misery of London.

What Was Good About It: The book was written very well, and was very interesting from cover to cover. I really enjoyed how the book was based on a true story, and so I learned a lot about London during the plague and found the book very informative. The 1st person perspective this story is told from makes it seem very real, and so I could really get into the book.

What Wasn’t So Good: I can’t really think of anything, other than if people don’t like reading slightly gory books then I wouldn’t recommend them read this book.

Rating: *****

Further Reading Suggestions

Petals in the Ashes by Mary Hooper
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

Review by Giselle Ayoub, 8JU