A review by chelseacounsell
The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

4.0

A mostly sweet story about a very down on her luck orphan who finds work assisting a midwife. The narrative was mostly cozy and the cat character as well as Alyce, were sweet, but this doesn’t have as happy or fairytale sweet an ending as Julie Andrews’ Mandy or the stage play Annie. Our protagonist is kind, intelligent, and hardworking to a fault. She is a child who has done nothing wrong and yet bears all manner of wretched cruelty from society. Is it set in medieval times, sure, and some of the historical uses of herbs etc in the text are quite interesting, but I didn’t love the child protagonist getting hit in the face so frequently by everyone with more power than her. I also did not like the ending where she goes back to the midwife who consistently beats her and treats her like trash. I’m sure she could’ve found another midwife in another village who would’ve supported her more. Her connections in the last act that she made at the inn could’ve helped her as well. She doesn’t need to go back to an abusive relationship to follow her passion.