The Dictionary of Lost Words

I devoured this one. I loved Esme, Lizzie, Ditte, Gareth, Mabel, and Esme's dad. All of the characters basically. I loved the whole concept of collecting words that were discarded or disregarded because of who used them. I swooned with the proposal and cried when Esme received the notice from the elderly soldier. I'm a sucker for fiction set during the suffragist time period and I loved that the author pointed out that it only benefitted the well off women by way of Lizzie. The only criticism I have is that the voice of Esme remained the same from childhood through to her death. She gained a difference of opinion and had more understanding of world, but her thoughts were formed the same throughout. I get that she had a huge vocabulary for her age as a child, but I would have enjoyed it more if it felt like I was growing with Esme while reading. It's a small criticism compared to all of the things that I loved about this book.