Ésta es la historia de Moth, hija de una pitonisa y del hombre que le robó el corazón. Es también el puñado de monedas que podían comprar una vida en el Nueva York turbulento y bullicioso de finales del siglo XIX. Es un nombre en una caja de galletas. Es el prostíbulo de la señorita Everett, donde Ada, Alice, Rose y Mae juegan a ser mujeres. Es la doctora Sadie y la esperanza infinita. Es el Palacio de las Ilusiones, un circo de curiosidades donde una niña con un vestido esmeralda y unas alas blancas sueña su último sueño.

This book should have had a different title! Although the Virgin Cure is addressed in the book, it's not what the story is about. It's about a young girl growing up in the slums of NYC in 1871 who ends at a brothel and everything that happens to her in between. It's also about the female doctor in charge of taking care of the girls who live & work in the brothel. The doctor is modeled after the author's great, great grandmother.

I liked the fake(?) newspaper articles sprinkled throughout the book and the sidebar footnotes and detailed descriptions of ladies fashion from old issues of Harper's Bazar.

A lot of reviewers complained about how the author left a lot of loose ends in the story. Somehow I missed those and wasn't bothered by it, I guess. I enjoyed the book very much. It wasn't a great piece of literature, mind you, but it held my interest. I wish I lived in New York so I could run right out and see the Tenement Museum and the site of the Stuyvesant Pear Tree and a Dime Museum and other peculiarities. ( )

Nice vignettes of 1870s New York, strong female characters, a very quick read... ( )

This historical novel takes place in New York City in the late 1800's. The Virgin Cure was a commonly held belief that a man with syphilis could cure himself by having sex with a virgin. Many young girls who had no place to go were caught in the trap of the madame during this time. This historically researched book follows Moth, a twelve year old girl, who is orphaned and homeless and who tries to make a place for herself so she can break free of the slums of the city. Ami McKay researched this time period and used her great, great grandmother, who was a physician, as the model for Dr. Sadie. I was sadly enlightened by this book regarding a dark part of New York City's history. ( )

This is one girl's story of her bleak childhood in the tenements of New York City. Moth is abandoned by her father, and sold by her mother. She's sold to a horrid woman named Mrs. Wentworth, who makes Moth shower her in love and affection and rewards her with bruises and beatings.

After Nestor, Mrs. Wentworth's butler helps her escape, Moth lives as a beggar on the street for a while. Then she's enticed into a brothel by a girl named Mae, who just wants to turn her own profit. Only 12 at the time, Moth is trained, "wooed", and her virginity sold, by Miss Everett.

Dr. Sadie tries to be another option, of rescue for Moth, but she refuses. I don't truly understand why Moth didn't choose this option. She had nothing to prove, and Dr. Sadie genuinely seems to want what's best for her.

The writing and attention to detail in terms of the time period, are great. Historical fiction isn't really my general type of reading material, but McKay does a good job of pulling the reader in to this world.

That being said, I feel like the story was lacking direction. I felt nothing for any of the main characters, and didn't feel shocked or surprised at anything that happened to them. I wasn't emotionally invested in their journey at all.

Moth's journey is supposed to be redemptive, and it is, slightly, but you don't see any real growth. It all wraps up in a neat little bow. ( )