TBR of the Week: How Smoke Got Out of the Chimneys, by DeAnna Knippling

Good day, lovely people! It is I, the panda with the complex of reading 73498385 books at the same time. Despite having 6 books on my TBR at Goodreads, somehow it seemed a wonderful idea to add one more, that I started last evening: How Smoke Got Out of the Chimneys, by DeAnna Knippling!

London, England. 1840.

Gangs of four- and five-year-old orphans are being used as “apprentice” chimney sweeps–they’re the only ones who can fit down the narrow chimneys, taking brushes and baskets down with them into upper-class Victorian homes to scrape out the creosote.

It’s good for ’em, don’tcher know?

Caroline, a.k.a. the infamous Smoke, is one of the older orphans, who help lift and lower the smaller ones, handle the customers, and keep the gang runner, Hasty Wallace, from flying off the handle. But rumor is, it’s time to shuffle the sixteen-year-old orphan off to other business ventures. Ones with mattresses. Lots of mattresses. If it were up to Hasty (and it is), Caroline will disappear into a brothel in Whitechapel…or a ditch. Honestly, he doesn’t care which.

It’s time for Caroline to get out of the chimney business. And maybe it’s time that Hasty Wallace learned a thing or two about orphans…

Well, this is a short story – 31 pages! – and talks about one of the ‘dead’ professions of the 19^th century: chimney cleaners! I mean, people still clean their chimneys at least I hope they do?, but I find it fascinating to read more about common professions of the past that got extinct or positively changed after the rise of the technologies. I’m sure I’ll learn valuable things on this book and I’m hoping for a glimpse on the life of those suffering children covered in ashes 24/7 ❤ They were heroes, I’m telling you!

I have received my copy from DeAnna herself in exchange for an honest review – thank you once again! – but I would have picked it up anyway, as it sounds exactly like my kind of story =D

Hmm, I guess that’s it? What are you guys currently reading?? You know, besides this post – THANKS FOR READING THE POST! ❤ #crazypanda #putyourpandaselftogether

UPDATE: you can now read my review for this book here!

With love,