This is an odd book. It’s extremely depressing. The narrator of the book is a female- and she goes back and forth from her childhood to her early years as an adult. Her mother was abused by her grandmother, and then in turn, she was extremely emotionally abused by her mother. She is placed in an ‘insane asylum’ for years, and when she gets out she has to learn to live among peers/friends and people in general again.
She also has to come to grips with the fact that the way she was treated wasn’t her fault. Her mother was deeply mentally ill- but of course as a child you wouldn’t know this.
The story is solid and the characters are fairly strong. The book is extremely depressing though- but it does stick to a very important theme in life- you should stick with people who make you feel good about yourself, not those who make you feel horribly.
I felt that there could have been so much more added to this novel to make it a bit more interesting. It’s a very good attempt at a book about mental illness and it’s affects, but something falls short of this being a 4 star book. I am glad I read it, and I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind depressing stories.
-Wendi