What She Left Behind

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman 368 pages

 

For fans of Ellen Marie Wiseman’s “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.”

 

After reading “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” I knew I wanted to read all of Wiseman’s novels. This was the first one of the five that preceded Lost Girls. It also centers upon do mental illness and insane asylums.

 

There are two points so view that tell the story. First is Clara Cartwright’s story from the late 1920s through the early 1930s. The other, Isabelle (Izzy) Stone’s story, is from the mid-to-late 1990s.

 

Clara is caught between two men. First, the man, James, her parents (Henry and Ruth) have chosen for her, and whom she finds dull and distasteful. They insist that she marry him, not for love, but because he is mind-boggling wealthy. The second man is an Italian immigrant with whom Clara falls madly in love, and he with her. When she becomes pregnant with Bruno’s baby, she completely rejects James, but her father sends her to a nervous asylum for girls. After the Crash, and Henry and Ruth lose everything, Clara is admitted to a public asylum that is as bad, if not worse, than the private institution.

 

Image what the living conditions were like in an overcrowded, short-staffed institution. Wiseman’s descriptions were enough to make me gag beside Clara.

 

Fast-forward to the 1990s. Izzy Stone is sent to foster care after her mother brutally murders her father with no apparent motive. Her foster parents work for a local museum and have been assigned to catalog the items that had been left behind in the now-shuttered asylum.

 

Izzy is fascinated by the things they find, but what really intrigues her is a stack of unopened letters and a journal. These items send her on a quest to determine her mother’s act of violence.

 

To me, this novel is almost as wonderful as “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” Comparing the two novels, “What She Left Behind” seems a little predictable. But given that “What She Left Behind,” is only Wiseman’s second novel, I will overlook that part. There were parts that me cringe, and parts where I was cheering on both young women.

 

Therefore, “What She Left Behind,” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Writing Retreat

 

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz 320 pages

 

I go on a writing retreat once a year, so when I saw this title in the library, I had to check it out!

 

For the past year, Alex has had writer’s block. She blames it on her breakup with her girlfriend, Wren. The opening chapters set up how destructive Alex’s life is since the two are no longer together.

 

Ursula, a friend, enters one of her old stories into a writing contest. The Grand Prize is a month-long writer’s retreat led by Alex’s all-time favorite, feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Of course, she gets in, otherwise there would not be a novel. Alex is one of five women invited to the retreat. In addition to working with Roza, the winner will receive a publishing contract and a one-million-dollar reward. There is a lot at stake.

 

The retreat is held at Roza’s upstate New York estate, Blackbriar. Roza is eccentric and the women who care for her and her estate are also eccentric. That leads to a few weird rules and timeframes that seem impossible to meet. Each woman must write 3,000 new words for her novel and submit them to Roza everyday by midnight. If one of the women misses the deadline, she is invited to leave. That is a tough assignment for Alex who has not written a word in over a year.

 

Alex is in a frenzy. Wren is also there, so tensions are high. During the cocktail hour at the beginning of the retreat, Roza tells the group about the people who used to own Blackbriar. This opens a portal to the spirit of Daphne, the house’s former mistress. And that portal provides Alex with her novel.

 

In addition to watching the ladies write, all sorts of weird things begin to happen. The Writing Retreat has all the elements of a great gothic mystery. It also centers on the themes of friendship, creativity, courage and ambition.

 

Th plot is a little over the top for my tastes and too many graphic sex scenes. I’m not a prude, but it got old after a while. I was also disappointed that readers never learn the topics the other women are writing about. I loved the eeriness of Blackbrair and the author’s ability not to foreshadow too many of the happenings.

 

I had to know what happened, but not sure I would recommend this to anyone. Therefore, The Writing Retreat receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Wrong Family

The Wrong Family by Tarryn Fisher   336 pages

I will never look at the opening of my home’s crawl space the same way ever again. Not after this book!

At sixty-seven, Juno’s life is not what she thought it would be.  Now a disgraced therapist, she is homeless and has a record, plus she has a debilitating disease that will probably kill her. However, she feels she’s a good judge of character.

Across the park from where Juno lives, is the large home of the Crouch family: Winnie, Nigel and thirteen-year-old Sam.  They seem to have it all. They are even adding onto a house that is much too big for a family of three.

One day, when the construction guys are having lunch in the park, Juno slips in and looks around. She could be very, very comfy there. She takes a few things. How could anyone with this much miss so little?  And she’s right. No one notices.

As the construction goes on, Juno decides to make the Crouch’s home hers.  Awfully creepy!  The family notices little things that are odd, but never even dream of what is really happening. Juno pokes around in their papers and drawers, until she discovers their secret.  A BIG secret that must be brought to the light.

Two reason that the odd little things distract from their taking full notice is that 1) Winne and Nigel’s marriage is falling apart and 2) Winnie’s brother, Dakota, is losing his battle with alcohol and drugs.

The ending of this tautly written thriller blew me away. I can’t wait until somebody else reads it and we can talk about it!

The Wrong Family receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

The Other Mother

The Other Mother by Carol Goodman  335 pages

Okay. I'm going to do my best to summarize this book, although it's one of those twisty stories, complete with an unreliable (or is she actually reliable) narrator. Daphne Marist, along with her infant daughter Chloe, are starting their lives over. Having used fake credentials and an assumed name, she has secured a live-in position as an archivist to an author who lives next to the grounds of an asylum. As the story continues, we discover that Daphne has tried to be a good mother but from the beginning, has been plagued with self-doubt and dark moods. When she's diagnosed with Post-Partum Mood Disorder, her husband suggests a local mother's group --- where Daphne meets Laurel. Laurel is everything Daphne isn't: smooth, sophisticated, and totally on top of the new mother thing.  Or is she? Anyway, Laurel's daughter is also named Chloe. And as Daphne and Laurel start to mirror each other, the story is off and running . . . in a totally crazy direction. 

It's very difficult most of the time to know if Daphne is telling the truth, if she is who she says she is, if we can believe her version of what happened, etc. This lends a completely off-kilter effect to the story, which, combined with the steadily increasing pace and sense of danger, made for a compelling read.  Aforementioned mental hospital does (of course) come into play here, lending an ominous tone to the story. By the time I was reaching the climax of the story, I wasn't sure who was who or what was what, but I was completely hooked. 

Bitter Orange

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller   320 pages

This beautifully written book takes place (mostly) in an English mansion that's slowly falling apart. Frances Jellico has been sent to research the architecture in the surrounding gardens, a welcome change after years spent caring for her mother. Encountering Cara and Peter, she's enchanted by this couple and how easily they seem to embrace her into friendship. However, as the summer continues, Frances can sense things aren't quite rosy between Cara and Peter. Stories that Cara tells her don't quite add up, either. As Frances becomes more and more entangled in their lives, the boundaries between truth and lies start to waver and blur and a small crime leads to another so terrible that it will change all their lives forever.

Fuller tells this story through Frances' perspective, both in the present where Frances is much older, and then in the past, when it's the hedonistic summer of Cara and Peter. Is Frances a reliable narrator? It's hard to say, which means that no, she may not be a reliable narrator at all. Fuller brings the lush setting to life, so you feel immersed in the summer that the three people shared at this dilapidated place. I found Frances to be a sly storyteller at times, where you can't tell if she's quite giving you the real story or not. Her own perspectives on people and relationships are warped, to be sure.  I'd put this in the category of dark mystery, although it's much more than that, as it's a definite exploration of the human soul.

When the lights go out

When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica    332 pages

When Jessie Sloane's mother dies, after years of illness, Jessie is on her own. She rents an apartment and applies for college, determined to get her life on track. However, when the college informs her that her Social Security number has raised a red flag, Jessie discovers something shocking and realizes she may have no idea who she really is.

As Jessie pursues the truth, she becomes an insomniac, which exacerbates her stress at trying to solve the mystery of who she is. As the days pass with little sleep, Jessie's becomes fatigued and her judgment is blurred. Can she tell the difference between what is real and what she is imagining?

I found this book to be good, but strange and by the time I finished it, I felt unsatisfied. Maybe because by the end of things, I felt as unmoored as Jessie.  This book had a slowly building pace, which was great --- but the twist that came felt completely out of place. Or maybe just too odd?  I like Kubica, but this wasn't my favorite book of hers.

The Substitute

The Substitute by Nicole Lundrigan        399 pages

Warren Botts, PhD, is taking a break from his lab to teach middle-school science. Quiet and lonely, he innocently befriends Amanda, one of his students. However, one morning, Amanda is found dead in his backyard and upon discovering her, Warren flees the scene. As the police start to develop their theory of Warren as a person of interest in the murder, Warren becomes more and more introverted. 

At the same time as all of this is going on, there is a second storyline from an anonymous narrator, a person who seems very intelligent, but who has the markings of a psychopath (or a sociopath. Either way, there's something wrong with this person).  This person's narrative offers insight into events of the past and present, building tension in the story  -- and also making you wonder if this storyline and the storyline of Amanda's murder and Warren's situation, are going to intersect.

I didn't like this book. I kept reading because I was curious, although I skimmed sections. Our anonymous psychopathic/sociopathic narrator is unpleasant and there were instances of animal cruelty, which I do not like to read about. I also didn't like the character of Warren, so I basically kept reading because I was wondering how these two storylines were going to intersect.  I should have just closed the book partway through and gone on to my next book (which turned out to be much better).

My Real Children

My Real Children by Jo Walton, 320 pages

Patricia is nearing the end of her life in a nursing home.  She has a form of dementia, just like her mother did, and she recognizes that she is easily confused about many things.  However, one of the most confusing parts is that she seems to remember living to different lives, simultaneously, one as a wife to Mark, mother of four children, and one with Bee, mother to three different children.  She realizes that it sounds crazy, and doesn’t try to explain to anyone.  There was a definite point in her life when the split happened.  She can’t remember which life is real, or if somehow, both of them are.  This book was fantastic.  Alternating chapters were told from her two different lives and I loved both parts.  This is definitely for people who like realistic fantasy and science fiction.

Blackberry Winter

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio    290 pages

A blackberry winter is a colloquial expression used in the Southern and Midwest sections of North America. It refers to a cold snap in occurs in the later spring when the blackberries are in bloom. To me, it seemed odd then that this story takes place in the state of Washington, and Google was no help in researching if the tasty fruit grows in the Pacific Northwest or not. It’s of little consequence since the title is one of the main reasons I picked up this novel. The other reason is one that always captures my attention: dualing timelines.

In this novel the story vacillates between 1933 and current time. On May 1, 1933, a snowstorm rattled Seattle. In contemporary times, another snowstorm blankets the city on May 2.

In 1933, the Great Depression is strangling America. Vera Ray is lucky. She has a job as a night maid at one of the local hotels. The downside is that she’s forced to leave her three-year-old son, Daniel, home alone.

In present day, Claire Aldridge is a feature writer for the Seattle Herald. Her editor assigns her the task of writing a 6,000 word piece on the blackberry winter in two days. She isn’t thrilled and is wondering where she is going to find enough interesting info to create a piece of that magnitude. Not only is she face with a seemingly impossible task, her marriage is on the verge of collapse.

Digging through the archives, Claire discovers that Vera’s son disappeared without a trace. The only thing she ever found was Daniel’s teddy bear, Max, face down in the snow. There were no reports of is ever being found. Having recently lost a child, Claire is eager to learn what happened to Vera and Daniel. And so the hunt begins.The story weaves back and forth across the decades.

Blackberry Winter isn’t the best written novel I’ve ever read. However, it kept my attention, and I didn’t want to put it down. Jio’s third novel receives 5 out of 5 stars for those reasons.

Beside Myself

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan.  313 pages.

This is a literary psychological thriller about two identical twins, Helen and Ellie, who swap places when they are six years old.  At first, it's a fun game, but when Ellie refuses to swap back, Helen is thrown into a lifelong tailspin.   As their lives sharply veer apart, it's uncertain if the truth will ever be revealed, and at what cost.

I found this book to be disturbing, very much so at times, and yet couldn't stop turning the pages.  I hadn't planned to sit down with it on a Sunday afternoon and read it all, but I just kept gulping down the pages.   You get the story from Helen's viewpoint, which at times becomes skewed, as it becomes apparent that she is suffering from mental illness.   When the twins swap identities for one day, it shouldn't be a big deal.  However, Helen is the favored child, the one who does well in school and whose behavior is always good.   Ellie, the daughter who seems troubled, and always a bit of a mess, obviously relishes the opportunity to play Helen for the day.  When Ellie refuses to reveal their swap to their mother, and their mother (awfully) can't tell the difference between them, Helen is thrown off track.  No one will believe her that she's the real Helen, and Ellie is starting to do such a convincing Helen impression that there's no going back.  Over the years, Helen (called Smudge when we begin the story, with her as an adult reflecting back) unravels, spiraling into dangerous, self-harming behavior as Ellie (or "Hellie" as Helen calls her) seems to be on a successful path.  

However, when Ellie has an accident and lapses into a coma, Helen finally is able to confront the awful truth of what happened.   However, it's unclear if this will really help anything.

I found Helen to be a very compelling character, even though I would read and cringe at the same time.  She gets caught up in an awful kind of life, and her mother is an absolute monster.  As the story progressed, I couldn't be sure what was going to happen next, but I liked that.   The book was strange, and disturbing . . . but I couldn't look away.   Is it a book for everyone?  Definitely not.  But if you're looking for a different kind of psychological thriller, with a potentially unreliable narrator, this is your kind of story.

Bradstreet Gate

 

Bradstreet Gate by Robin Kirman    320 pages

           Bradstreet is one of the streets that borders the Harvard Campus. Harvard plays a major role in this murder mystery, but it never plays a significant part of the story.

I was eager to read this debut novel as it has received several recommendations, such as TIME Magazine Ultimate Summer Read Pick, Amazon’s Best Book of July (2015), and Barnes & Noble Best Book of July (2015).

The story gets off to a great start: The tenth anniversary of the death of Harvard student Julie Patel is rapidly approaching. A Harvard Crimson reporter is looking into Julie’s death, as it has never been satisfactory solved. Reporter Nat Krauss contacts a student from that time, Georgia Calvin Reese. I’m not sure if Georgia knew Julie, but she sure as heck knew the professor who was hinted as the murderer.

After the prologue, the story goes back ten years. Georgia, Charlie, and Alice are friends. They have one thing in common that ties them to Julie---Professor Rufus Storrow. He is supposed to be one of the most mysterious and charismatic instructors on campus. I never saw it.

Georgia has an affair with him, Alice is envious of Georgia, and Charlie is so in love with Georgia his hair hurts. The rest of the book examines the lives and friendships of the three and how Julie’s death affects them.

Kirman’s novel isn’t typical. It’s not a murder mystery where readers can try to figure out who really did. The murder is merely the catalyst for the friends’ lives spiraling out of control. I like that it wasn’t typical. However, the story doesn’t really have an ending…and maybe that’s the point. When a person is tied to a traumatic event, their lives are forever changed.

I give Bradstreet Gate 4 out of 5 stars.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.

In a Dark, Dark Wood

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
310 Pages

"What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware's suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller. Leonora, known to some as Lee and others as Nora, is a reclusive crime writer, unwilling to leave her "nest" of an apartment unless it is absolutely necessary. When a friend she hasn't seen or spoken to in years unexpectedly invites Nora to a weekend away in an eerie glass house deep in the English countryside, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. Forty-eight hours later, she wakes up in a hospital bed injured but alive, with the knowledge that someone is dead. Wondering not "what happened?" but "what have I done?", Nora tries to piece together the events of the past weekend. Working to uncover secrets, reveal motives, and find answers, Nora must revisit parts of herself that she would much rather leave buried where they belong: in the past."

An August Library Reads book this book provides an entertaining mystery although the reader quickly can figure out what is happening.  Yet another book that is invariably compared with Gone Girl or Girl on a Train.

The Little Paris Bookshop

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George   392 pages

The Little Paris Bookshop is quite an unusual bookstore with an equally unusual proprietor. Monsieur Jean Perdu’s bookstore is floating barge along the Seine. Perdu considers himself a literary apothecary.. He can prescribe just the write book to meets the needs of the buyer.

However, there is one person Perdu cannot ease the symptoms of what ails him, no matter what book he selects. That person is himself. He is heartbroken. Twenty-one years ago, his true love, Manon, left him. She sent a letter which he has never opened because he is sure it contains usual lines: “it’s not you, it’s me;” “I’m not ready for the love you have to give;” yada, yada, yada.

But now things are changing in his apartment building. A new tenet has arrived with only the clothes in her back. The building manager asks all the residents for a donation. Perdu has been assigned a table.

Yes he has a table, but that means entering the lavender room he shared with Manon, which has been sealed shut for twenty-one years. Torn between his reluctance to enter the room and his desire to help his new neighbor, Catherine, he wills himself to enter and takes the table across the hall.

Catherine find Manon’s letter and returns it. Faced with its actual presence again, Perdue opens it. Manon’s words shock him to his core; what she says and requests is nothing, nothing, like he imagined.

Perdue decides to go looking for Manon to learn for himself if her words were true. He casts off the lines of his barge and begins the long trek south to Manon’s home. He is joined by his two cats, and at the last second, by another apartment-building neighbor, Max, who is looking to escape his sudden fame and complete writer’s block.

The story of the journey takes up roughly two-thirds of the book. I didn’t care for the slapstick antics that ensued. It didn’t help that an Italian chef, also looking for a long-lost love, joined the merry cast. The slapstick got in the way of the story for me, making the story seem somewhat unbelievable. I also felt lost with all the names of the villages that the characters traveled through, even though the author supplied one. All in all, I really like the first and last fourths of the story. The characters evoked empathy in these sections.

The Shore

The Shore by Sara Taylor  303 pages

 

I’m not sure how to classify Sara Taylor’s debut novel, The Shore. It’s part contemporary fiction, part historical fiction, and part futuristic fiction. Maybe this is one of those times that literary fiction fits the bill. as I was reading, it did remind me of Sherwood Anderson’s classic Winesburg, Ohio.

 

Told in related vignettes, these are the stories of those who live on a remote group of three islands off the coast of Virginia.  At times, the islands have a significant population and at times the population is so low it’s not worth counting. The population makes up three classes of people: the wealthy vacationers, those who work on the mainland, and those who are so poor that those who inhabit the Appalachian Mountains seem rich. However, Taylor focuses her stories on that lowest rung.

 

At the beginning, there is a complicated genealogy chart that became easier to decipher as I read. The first story is about Chloe and Renee. It’s a heartbreaking tale of abuse, poverty, and childhood. Chloe narrates this episode that has a shocking conclusion.

 

After the first narrative, I found it difficult to figure who exactly who was narrating, but usually by the time I read each chapter’s end, I could figure it out. However, (there’s that troublesome word again) in the chapters where the characters did not fit into the family tree, I had no idea who was talking.

 

I will admit that I only read about 10 pages of the last story. It takes place in 2143, and I couldn’t out how the characters fit in; they are not listed on the chart. I don’t feel like I missed anything by passing on the final few pages. 

 

I have mixed feelings about this novel. At times at I LOVED it; at times I HATED it.  That’s why I give The Shore 3 out of 5 stars.

 

 I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

 

Saving Grace

Saving Grace by Jane Green
346 Pages

"Grace and Ted Chapman are widely regarded as the perfect literary power couple. Ted is a successful novelist and Grace, his wife of twenty years, is beautiful, stylish, carefree, and a wonderful homemaker. But what no one sees, what is churning under the surface, is Ted's rages. His mood swings. And the precarious house of cards that their lifestyle is built upon. When Ted's longtime assistant and mainstay leaves, the house of cards begins to crumble and Grace, with dark secrets in her past, is most vulnerable. She finds herself in need of help but with no one to turn to...until the perfect new assistant shows up out of the blue. To the rescue comes Beth, a competent young woman who can handle Ted and has the calm efficiency to weather the storms that threaten to engulf the Chapman household. Soon, though, it's clear to Grace that Beth might be too good to be true. This new interloper might be the biggest threat of all, one that could cost Grace her marriage, her reputation, and even her sanity. With everything at stake and no one to confide in, Grace must find a way to save herself before it is too late."

Jane Green is a good writer and this book had gotten good reviews so I was willing to try it even though it technically falls into "Chick Lit".   However I was disappointed with the main character Grace.  Green couldn't decide whether to make Grace a strong woman character or a weak willed one and this indecision was a major flow in the book.