This was much more adult and serious than I would have thought and I really liked that. Ok, the big setup at the beginning really didn't pay off at the end at all, but if you leave that aside this is a very well done historical novel that can be enjoyed by younger audiences but maybe even more by adults. The characters and their relationships were really engaging and I'm glad the narrative focused more on Carrie's conflict of how to deal with the grown-ups around her than on adventures at the countryside, as a lot of children literature does.