SuitabookThe Miraculous Sweetmakers
Natasha Hastings
- Reading
- If bereavement or mental-health themes feel personally close, read alongside the child and pause after the opening death. Talk through the supernatural bargain, historical medical beliefs and the characters’ choices as they arise.
- Themes
- Grief and the wish to undo loss: Thomasina feels responsible for her twin Arthur’s death and is offered the possibility of bringing him back. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Women’s work and historical authority: Anne dreams of opening an apothecary, while Thomasina helps run the family sweet business in seventeenth-century London. The book presents this favourably.
- Mental illness and historical treatment: Thomasina’s mother becomes withdrawn after Arthur’s death, and neighbours consider locking her away because of views about female mental illness. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Be aware of a twin’s death early in the story, intense guilt and grief, a mother’s severe withdrawal, a supernatural resurrection bargain, threats to characters’ lives and historical mistreatment of mental illness.