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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Literary repetition is a total pet peeve of mine and this tried my patience!!!
Took a chapter to get into it, but then I couldn’t put it down. The author did a good job of creating a strong, resilient protagonist in Pia while simultaneously making you despise Bernice. So many parallels between this story and that of 2020/Covid.
I struggled with the rating on this book, but I would place it at a 2.5. The book wanted to be many different things. Part historical fiction, part sci-fi, part mystery. There was a enough there to compel me to finish the boob. However, not enough to leave me satisfied. It's almost as of the characters needed to remain flat, but the story more compelling and fast passed or the characters more drawn out with a richer, but slower story. It reads like the editors and publishers did a rush job, because it seemed timely with the early days of the COVID 19 pandemic and they figured it would boost their sales.
A little more than 100 years ago, the most deadly pandemic hit the U.S. and the world. ....the Spanish flu. It's both eye opening and too close for comfort. The story opens at a superspreader event, the Liberty Loans parade of 200,000 attendees in Philadelphia. Within days after the parade, the highly contagious flu wrecks devastation and death throughout the city. Pia Lange, a small girl watches as the city changes with everyone wearing masks and the proliferation of bodies everywhere. After her mother succumbs to the flu, Pia tries to hide her mother's death and protect her twin infant brothers. But she runs out of food and formula and has to venture out. u
Unfortunately she collapses while out and ends up in a hospital and then an orphanage. Hardships define her life in the orphanage and she never gives up the search for her brothers. Wiseman brings the horrors to life with impeccable research but Pia is resilient and the story manages to move past the bleakness and into hope.
Unfortunately she collapses while out and ends up in a hospital and then an orphanage. Hardships define her life in the orphanage and she never gives up the search for her brothers. Wiseman brings the horrors to life with impeccable research but Pia is resilient and the story manages to move past the bleakness and into hope.
To me the book started off slow and there was quite a bit of repetition of "Pia's guilt" but once I was past half way, the story picked up and was hard to put down til it was finished.
What good people do when hit with grief and self-righteousness - ugh.
A story overlaid on top of the 1918 Flu Epidemic in Philadelphia. Inspired me to read The Great Influenza.
A story overlaid on top of the 1918 Flu Epidemic in Philadelphia. Inspired me to read The Great Influenza.
Set in a dark period of American history, this was a thrilling read!
I’m a huge fan of Wiseman’s writing. I bought this book because I couldn’t put down her book, “what she left behind”. This one didn’t disappoint either. I enjoyed it very much.
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes