Kate Hannigan's Girl by Catherine Cookson

 I loved Catherine Cookson as a teenager. I can see why, because I think that her breathless style of melodrama appealed more to teenagers, especially teenagers in those days. She's still pleasant reading, but I can take her or leave her today.

The story involves Annie, a young, idealistic and very Catholic girl, who gets a shock when Cathleen tells her that she is illegitimate. Previously, Annie was happy to be away from the Fifteen Streets, a poor and deprived area, living a privileged life with her beautiful mother and kind and wealthy step-father. Annie feels a connection with Terence, her poorer neighbour, who wins a scholarship to Oxford, but she is only a child at the beginning of the book. Once she grows up, however, and Cathleen finds out that Terence is attracted to her, the battle starts. In fact, the malevolent and envious Cathleen cuts a swathe through almost everyone's lives in their small circle. There is a lot of the Madonna/ whore syndrome here, as pure Annie has to 'save' Terence from the dreadful Cathleen. She is certainly a real bitch, but her characterization is not exactly subtle!

I found the discussions about Catholicism in the novel interesting. Although Catherine Cookson tried to be fair, and there is actually a nice priest in the novel, she seemed pretty anti-Catholic at the end of the book, when she mentioned 'fear and superstition'. It was understandable that she was anti-Catholic, considering her experiences, but this got on my nerves because it reminded me of the things that my parents used to say at times.

This was a sequel, and I found some of the relationships confusing. I am also interested in how Kate got out of the Fifteen Streets, and why she lost her faith, so I will read the first book, which was actually Catherine Cookson's first novel.

This has been on the shelves for a while, but I am not sure whether I bought it this year, or last year. However, I am going to count it amongst Rose City Reader's TBR 23 for '23 Challenge.