Maggie: A Girl on the Streets is a realistic portrayal of New York City in the late 1800s. I appreciated that the author chose to keep it as real as possible. The dialogue was annoying and hard to read sometimes but it was necessary. Yes, New York is where anybody important is, but its also where everyone else is, including the poor and working class. As for the characters, I felt that none of them felt like the protagonist. Jimmie, Maggie, Mary, and Pete all felt like side characters. They each had their parts in which they were allowed to shine and struggle but it seemed like the real main character was the city itself.
Personally, I felt that Maggie: A Girl of the Streets was a reminder that the city is always going to be this crazy. It doesn’t matter if it’s the 1800’s or 2015. There will be fights, there will be love stories and there will be loss. There will always be dreams worth chasing, families worth leaving, all for the hope of something better.
