I enjoyed this so much; I wish I experienced it as a child! 
It is the kind of book that lets you dream and romanticize life despite the hardship and brings out the enduring nature of imagination and innocent perception. We all need more of that. My grandmother would have loved to share this story with me. It is perfectly similar to some of the style of stories she shared with me when I was young before she passed, and I hope she experienced this book as well. Some of the content is very dark, especially for children who may know what their experiences are like firsthand. Still, I think even having known touches of Sarah's experiences, it is beautiful nonetheless. I was much like her as a girl, and though I felt that I could not share my imagination or perspective very closely with that of Sarah, as Sarah does through the book, it is beautiful and reminded me of myself in a very different time. It is a lovely gift all around to read this book. 

The racism is the biggest ugh of it for me, followed by the classism.
 

I like Sara as a character, she is genuin kind, but also a little weird in the way of a child that grew up without peers of equal footing, and I like how it shows that kindness is something you have to chose and that sometimes its hard. I do not like the way everyone else is made to be lesser so she can shine, I cried for the other girls, and Saras story is sad, but it has this, this is wrong cause it happens to her a rich person, the happy end literally has Becky becoming her servent instead. 

 

It's complicated for me to rate this one. The obvious racism, classism, fat-shaming was jarring. It's also different than the much-beloved (by me at least) 1995 movie.

Ram Dass has very little agency, Captain Crewe is very much dead and there is a new character that becomes Sara's guardian by the end.

I did like Sara, though. I liked seeing her efforts to be kind and fair, even when her circumstances were dire and downright depressing. 

The narrator of the audiobook was just ok. Her voice for Miss Minchin was spot on, but everyone else sounded very similar at times.