The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay ✔✔✔✔

Now this one I really enjoyed!  I read The Birth House by the same author, so I snatched this one up when I dropped into the library last week.

The Virgin Cure is set in New York City in 1871, and the narrator is Moth, the daughter of a gypsy and a father who early on deserted the family.  When she is 12, Moth is "sold" to a Mrs. Wentworth  and becomes a lady's maid, which basically means she has to endure regular beatings and humiliations at Mrs. Wentworth's hands.  After fleeing the Wentworth mansion, and failing to find her mother, Moth becomes homeless and then is taken to Miss Everett's home and begins training to become a whore.

The Virgin Cure refers to a myth among men of riches at the time who suffered from syphilis and believed that deflowering a virgin would cure them.  When this happened, the young girl often died a painful death from syphilis herself.

This was a very colorful story - the mansions, vaudeville theatres, the back alleys of New York, the Bowery and all.  It's a good recommendation for our Mother-Daughter theme as well - despite the fact that her mother rarely held her, that she exploited her and finally sold her then disappeared herself - Moth truly loves her mother and stays in a terrible situation simply because she doesn't want to disappoint her mother.