Page 5 of 5
There are currently 35 member reviews
for Sold on a Monday
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Molly K. (San Jose, CA)
Fake News
This "happily ever after" book started with an enticing premise. What happened when children were sold for survival during the great depression? (Parenthetically, children were sometimes relinquished for adoption, but rarely for cash.)
An unforgivable error occurred when two children, sister and brother, were pictured on a poster with a "for sale" sign. Finding these children and returning them to their mother took many turns, including squabbling newspaper reporters, unwed motherhood, child abuse, family separation, the mob, father-son reconciliation, a night time raid, and predictable romance.
A lot going on, huh! For me, this book quickly dissolves into a soap opera with too many extraneous side stories and no real depth into the lives of those who faced unthinkable choices during this period.
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Pau J. (Bath, ME)
1930 -- it's tough to be a kid
"Sold on a Monday" is based on an early 1930's photograph. McMorris moved the story along quickly & believably. I wasn't sure if the book wanted to be historical fiction or mystery; it seemed like half of both. The book would benefit from more details of 1930's life, in order to saturate the reader in the environment of the novel.
Geraldine's illness was confusing, after we found out she didn't die of tuberculosis. It matters, since she didn't die, but it was glossed over. She also seemed like a very different person when we met her later in the book.
I would have liked the link to the 2013 article mentioned in the author's note if it's available on the web.
[Pau - we are checking with the author and will post the link if available.]
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Jackie W. (Bellevue, WA)
Sold On A Monday
The cover photo on Kristina McMorris' book caused me to dive right in, immediately interested in this compelling child and title. Days later I was still struggling to become interested in the story line. It felt sluggish. Halfway through the book, however, I was finally engaged and hopping from one complication to the next. I feel the characters and sub-plots are not fully developed.....Lily's emotional guilt not fully understood, the relationship between Ellis and his father never developed, then resolved in a paragraph, the mafia figure thrown in as an element of danger........too many side stories and thin characters. Finally, while the sale of children from poor families during the Depression is believable, can two journalists really engage in such spy-like behavior?
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Rita C. (Lake Forest, CA)
Historical fiction? Suspense? Romance novel?
I really didn't care much for this book based on any classification. Divided into three parts, each part did move more quickly as I read on, but I had a hard time getting past part I. The whole story seemed to wander around a lot, with loose ends that were never really explained, and with a rather trite ending. I found it to be a rather unbelievable romance novel instead of historical fiction. I thought it would have been much so better if it had focused solely on the subject matter of children being sold during the depression, and had not tried to pull in all the other unnecessary storylines that, to me, weakened the main plot line.
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Catharine L. (Petoskey, MI)
Keep your interest
I would rate this 3.5. The story itself was a page turner - the idea taken from an actual photograph of four children next to a sign "4 children for sale". I never connected with the characters - more action and less emotion. The strained lifelong relationship between Ellis and his dad was resolved in one paragraph. There were multiple subplots - the orphanage, the Gantry's, the death of Victoria, the gangster Max Trevino - all very interesting - but nothing in depth. Conclusion: Great read for a book club to simply enjoy the story.
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Joy E. (Rockville, MD)
Sold on a Monday
Sold on a Monday has a good premise—down-on-her luck mother puts her children up for sale. Who was she? Why did she need to do it? Who would buy someone else's children? Ah, the makings of a good tale of the anguish and poverty of the Depression.
But wait, what about these aspiring journalists and their woes—a son trying to impress his father, an unwed mother with a supportive family? The story takes a while to get going. And suddenly we are in the midst of a detective story—who was the mysterious man who bought the children, where did the mother go, what do mobsters have to do with this? So many threads, not all fully developed. There are certainly interesting, attention-getting twists here. A stronger writer might have used all this material to better effect.
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Sarajane D. (Seabrook Island, SC)
Disappointing
As I tend enjoy well developed literature and historical fiction, I eagerly anticipated reading "Sold on a Monday". I assumed the book would be a meaningful exploration of the economic and social conditions during the Great Depression that caused desperation in many families. The potential of the title was never fulfilled. Instead the author provided what seemed to be a screenplay outline, without any character development or believable storyline. It reminded me of a televised serial drama with numerous and ludicrous plot twists thrown in to hold one's interest for 60 minutes.
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