This is a story about a girl named Margaret and a lady named Lucy who is xenophobic and a bit of a recluse. Lucy adopts Margaret and tries to raise her to avoid strangers. Margaret inevitably finds a way around her adopted mother's unreasonable restrictions and begins talking to the milk delivery boy. When she goes out to meet him one night she sees a side of him that wasn't there before, and she is persuaded that her mother's fear of strangers is well founded.
The characters in the story are well imagined and interesting. None of them seemed to me to be flat or stock characters. The setting is also well imagined and displayed, especially since it is a bit of an unfamiliar setting. The conflict built really well up to the end of the story, and kept me entertained as I was reading.
There are a few problems that could really improve the story if they were corrected. For one, I wish that we were shown more of Lucy's thoughts and motivations. She seems like a closed book at the moment, and sometimes it makes her actions confusing. Second, there are a few places where Margaret is inconsistently referred to as Marguerite. Also, it is never clear exactly how old Margaret is. If it was revealed, then it would help to place us more firmly in her world. Finally, I thought that the conclusion was hasty and that we didn't get much resolution. I don't know whether to believe Margaret in the last line and assume she has changed her mind to agree with her mother, or to distrust her and assume that she said what she knew would make her mother happy.
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