Our Score: ★★★★★★★✩✩✩
GENRE: Psychological Fiction
February 2010
SYNOPSIS:
Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Lennox family is having trouble with its youngest daughter. Esme is outspoken, unconventional, and repeatedly embarrasses them in polite society. Something will have to be done.
Years later, a young woman named Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that she has a great-aunt in a psychiatric unit who is about to be released.
Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox and the one person who should know more, her grandmother Kitty, seems unable to answer Iris's questions. What could Esme have done to warrant a lifetime in an institution? And how is it possible for a person to be so completely erased from a family's history?
(Synopsis taken from Amazon)
REVIEW: (Contains spoilers)
Gemma's Thoughts:
I loved this novel from its easy style of writing that captivates you from the beginning to the shocking ending. In my mind there was no doubt that Esme suffocated her sister Kitty, taking revenge for all the pain and suffering she had been through. After all, Kitty had stolen her son and left her to rot in a psychiatric ward for 60 years. I am not condoning her actions but feel that this is how the author wanted the reader to interpret the ending, maybe I am wrong?
Emma's Thoughts:
Blimey - for me to give a book 8/10 it must be good - and it was! I would never have chosen this book by the look of the cover... some quote about not judging comes to mind... but I loved the character Esme Lennox (although any suffocation of a sister is wrong!) and loved how the book started in the 1930's and jumped to the present day. I was in suspense wanting to know more and what happened to Esme leading her to be locked away and nearly erased from history.
THE SCORES:
Emma: 8
Gemma: 7
Maria: 8
Nic: 8
Pamela: 8
Sandra: 7
Average 7
Let us know your thoughts about this book. We would love to read your reviews and hear what you would score it.
If you enjoyed this book why not try:
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore
The Sugar Girls by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The Secret by Kathryn Hughes
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
Happy reading!