March Read: The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

 

I'm always fascinated by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, so I immediately grabbed this historical novel by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang. It did not disappoint, and was exactly the kind of historical novel I enjoy. 

This is the story of four women: Nellie, Suling, Gemma, and Alice, who all connect in San Francisco days before the great earthquake. Gemma has arrived from New York as part of the chorus of an opera--she's got an amazing voice, but migraines which have kept her from climbing to the top in the opera world. She's hoping to connect with Nellie; they are friends who keep in touch no matter what. Suling is a young Chinese woman living in Chinatown with an astonishing embroidery talent. Unfortunately, she's days away from an arranged marriage she wants to escape. Alice is a scientist who specializes in botany, and she's living in the same boarding house as Nellie. 

Through interesting connections, the women all find themselves uncovering a terrible crime just as the earthquake destroys San Francisco, putting them all in danger not only from the catastrophe unfolding, but a very dangerous and deadly man who's willing to kill to keep his secrets. 

I can't give anything away, because it would spoil a few reveals and connections that are much more fun to uncover as you read. There's nothing downright shocking, but just a good story that grabbed my attention and I couldn't put it down. What was most interesting was how each woman fought against sexism and the barriers they faced even with obvious and immense talents. I especially loved getting a peek inside each career: opera, embroidery, painting, and botany. 

This is a novel about perseverance, talent, revenge, and healing from traumatic events. It's also a glimpse inside the world of 1906, on the cusp of immense change. There are author notes about San Francisco, the characters, and how they wrote the novel together at the end, which round out the novel. 

Rating: 5/6 for an entertaining novel set just before and after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906--but also a few other places around the world, too. Four strong women facing a deadly enemy and their quest for revenge. 

Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio. 

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest

March Read: The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman

I had this novel on my TBR list because I've got a reading group meeting Tuesday to discuss it for our September read. It's a novel I've seen many times on the shelves at my local B&N; I even stocked it on paperback tables, but never wanted to read it. This was my opportunity to do so--and wow, this is not a novel for the faint of heart. 

Told in two voices: Clara, a young upper class woman in 1929, and Izzy, a young teen  in contemporary times living with her foster parents. Clara Cartwright is in love with Bruno, a handsome immigrant who came to America to start a new life. Her father, a total asshole (sorry, but he is just horrible!) and her unfeeling mother insist she marry someone that matches her station. When she says no, her father has the police take her to an insane asylum, saying she's crazy. And from there, Clara's life takes just one horrible spiral down after another. At first, she's in a somewhat nice place, but still held against her will and not allowed any communication with Bruno. The stock market crash of 1929 creates a money shortage for her father, who writes her to tell her she has to go to another place: The Willard Asylum, which is state run. He can't afford to keep her at her current place and keep his home. Like I said, a complete unfeeling asshole. Her mother isn't any better, letting her only daughter be carted away under the claim that she's unstable. No one will believe Clara that she's perfectly sane, and her father is just mad at her for not marrying who he wants her to marry. Her pleas fall on deaf ears, and she's seen as willful and yes, mentally unstable. 

Izzy's foster parents are involved in a museum project that is collecting and studying patient suitcases found in the basement of the now defunct Willard Asylum. Izzy isn't interested in stepping foot on the grounds of the asylum; her mother is in jail for killing her father, and is considered "insane". It hits a bit too close to home for Izzy, who still doesn't understand why her mother shot her father ten years before. 

One of the trunks that they open is Clara's, and it's immediate that this is not the typical patient at Willard. Expensive dresses, postcards from Paris, a photograph of a young woman and man, both gorgeous. A journal that abruptly stops after a passage stating that Clara is going to Willard. Izzy becomes fascinated with Clara, and wants to know what happens to her. 

As the novel moves back and forth between Clara and Izzy, we experience all the horrible pain Clara goes through as time goes by and she can't get out of Willard. So much happens to her, such cruelty, that it was sometimes hard to read. And to make matters worse, it was happening to hundreds of people at Willard, too. The treatment of the mentally insane was just horrific and inhumane. So many people put in asylums who were perfectly normal, but either angered their spouse/parent, or were depressed, or fell on hard times. Nowadays they would be given counseling and medicine; and those women who spoke up? They'd be running companies and changing the world. 

I don't want to give more of the story away, because a lot happens to Clara--big things--and it's important that you find them out as you read, and as Izzy discovers bits of Clara's life. Izzy's situation involves self-harm and bullying from fellow students, but I found her and Clara both to be incredibly tough young ladies who fought to be heard and understood. Would Izzy be the one who would finally free Clara's voice?

It's a pretty good novel, but some of it may make you uncomfortable.The brutal treatment of patients considered insane, and especially the women, is hard to take. The feelings of despair and hopelessness Clara experience are just heartbreaking.You just wish so much for her to have a happy ending. 

Rating: 4/6 for a novel that will keep you up at night reading. Clara is a character you won't soon forget. Izzy is a strong young woman who, while trying to figure out her own life, decides she must uncover Clara's story and deliver justice denied to Clara sixty years before. 

Available in paperback ebook, and audio. 

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Aw heck.  I really wanted to like this teen novel, but it fell short of my expectations.

Asylum by Madeleine Roux is similar in look to Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children (which if you haven't read, please do now!).  But unfortunately, the story was a bit jumbled and not compelling enough for me to be super excited over this novel.

Asylum takes place at a college in New Hampshire that just happens to have an old asylum on the premises.  The New Hampshire College is tucked away in a small town and hosts a summer program for high school students to participate in classes and potentially become future students at the college.  It's a beautiful place, but it is surrounded by the evil that took place at Brookline, the asylum, over fifty years before.

Enter Dan Crawford.  He's sixteen, adopted, and is eager to have a fun summer exploring his interests at the summer program.  He soon meets Abby and Jordan, two other students who click with Dan.  Dan's roommate, Felix, shows Dan a few pictures he found in the basement of Brookline:  photos of a man with his eyes scratched out, and pictures of patients.  They are disturbing, and soon Dan is drawn into investigating the basement of Brookline--which is strictly off limits to the students.  Because the regular dorms are undergoing a renovation, the summer school students are housed in Brookline on the upper floors.  It's a bit of a creepy idea, and I'm not sure an actual college would ever do that.  But it keeps Dan, Abby, and Jordan in close proximity to danger.  

Strange notes, texts on Dan's phone, and nightmares begin plaguing all three kids.  What is going on at Brookline?  And is Dan simply crazy, or is the warden haunting him?  

It's all there to be a good novel.  Unfortunately, the action doesn't really move much at all until the last 50 pages.  The photos in the books are interesting, but don't really add too much to the storyline.  And so many questions are left unanswered that it's obvious a sequel is required to answer them.  Which leaves me dissatisfied.  Lots of strings left untied that just left me losing interest.  

Rating:  4/10 for a great idea, but a weak story.  

Available in hardcover and e-book.

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest

Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall

I've been returning to the South again in my reading lately.  But, the book I'm reading now is about time travel and England, so I've moved pretty far beyond the South after this novel.  I'm sure I'll be visiting the South again soon.

But--Blue Asylum is definitely not a typical Civil War-Era type of novel.  It explores a problem many women faced in the 1800's:  not agreeing with their husbands, and being accused of insanity.  Off they are sent to asylums, often not ever seeing freedom again.  

Iris Dunleavy has been sent to Sanibel Island (off the coast of Florida) to an asylum (the best, most expensive one around) because she is not the biddable wife her husband wants.  She's been set before a judge, convicted of insanity, and sent away.  All in the midst of the Civil War; her husband is a Virginia plantation owner who is truly cruel and mean.  What Iris did to stroke his anger is slowly revealed throughout the novel--but she is by no means insane.  If anyone is, it's her husband.  

On Sanibel Island, there is a cast of characters:  Dr. Cowell, the man in charge;  his young son Wendell who is the only child on the island; and Ambrose Weller; a Rebel soldier suffering moments of intense PTSD.  Ambrose is an honorable man; quietly playing chess--he's different from the rest of the inmates who are clearly quite insane.  Iris is determined to leave the island, but Dr. Cowell refuses to believe her story--his blindness masks a growing attraction to this patient who is quite unlike anyone else on the island.  

Wendell is a 12 year old boy who has spent most of his life on the island.  He runs around, fishes, collects shells, and tries very hard to move past an infatuation with a previous patient that ended in tragedy.  He is a bit lost and trying to find his place on the island.  

Iris and Ambrose soon connect and begin to play checkers every day, telling each other their tales, slowly revealing what brought them to Sanibel Island.  They are falling in love, and even though Iris is married, they hope to escape and be together.  Can Iris save Ambrose from his war demons?  Can Iris ever be believed, or will her husband win again?  

I've read some reviews where people said this book was just too depressing.  It is sad.  It reveals the horrors of war and slavery; and making choices that can haunt a person until they are driven mad. Can we ever be at peace with our past?  I'll just say that Ambrose will tear your heart out.  

Add this to your list if you like Southern fiction.  It reminded me a bit of The Rebel Wife --a twist on the usual Civil War fiction.  It also would be a great book group title.  

Rating:  7/10 for Iris and Ambrose and their haunting tales; a subject that it not explored much in modern fiction, and a beautiful setting on Sanibel Island.

Available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book.

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest

Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall