For some reason I just couldn't get caught up in this story. There was something unreal about it and I couldn't "buy" all of the things that were happening. From the very beginning of the book the main character seems not to have an understanding of the difference between herself, a slave, and her mistress. Granted, she was 10, but it seems to me that by that age her parents would have tried to clue her in to the realities of life so that she would be able to handle and survive. Instead they just seemed to let her act and believe that she was different and it was hard and painful when she had to come to terms wiht life as it was. As a "family history" kind of book this book seemed to be infused with too much fantasy about how life was and it was still unbelievable as a novel.