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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have never known much about leprosy, let alone the history of it in the US. It was a sadder book than I expected, although, I'm not sure why I had the expectation that it would be a lighter read. Overall, I found it interesting and informative on a topic I have known little about.
This was such an interesting and devastating story. I can't imagine how hopeless it must have felt for people with leprosy to not only suffer from the disease but to also lose everything in their lives and become isolated from their loved ones. They couldn't even keep their own names because of the shame it would bring their families. The Second Life of Mirielle West does a great job of showing how characters from different backgrounds and situations coped with the realization that their lives would never be the same.
I love reading historical fiction because I get to learn about events from the past that I never realized happened. For some reason when I hear the word Lepers, I picture an island and zombie-like inhabitants. I don’t picture Louisiana in the 1920s! The Second Life of Mirielle West gives us a peak into the lives of everyday Americans who were forced to leave their homes and live in quarantine together. They lose everything…their homes, families, dignity, and civil liberties but not their hope, their resilience or their sense of community. You will fall in love with the characters and finding yourself rooting for them to overcome their disease and get a second chance at life.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Leper colony story. Sometimes these kinds of reads feel like purgatory. The protagonist is not very deep though so it kept it lighter than Molokai.
I like the transformation story but overall a little boring.
This is tough to rate because it covered a topic I’ve never read about before, but the writing and the story fell flat.
This book follows a woman who was diagnosed with leprosy in the 1920s who was forced into isolation in the U.S. leper colony located in Louisiana. The plot and the research by the author to represent actual events was exceptionally interesting. I did a lot of parallel googling as I read. I learned a lot. That was definitely the best part of the book.
Unfortunately, I found the main character to be exceptionally shallow and hard to relate to. I also had a hard time with how the characters communicated to one another. From dialects that were inconsistently written, to incomplete thoughts and conversations. It was difficult to stay engaged with the text.
This book had tremendous potential but failed to deliver for me. While it would make for a great discussion, I guarantee your book club will have a more dynamic, thoughtful take on the situations presented in this book than any of the characters in it had about their own circumstances.
Overall I would recommend this to prolific readers who want a new topic, health nerds who like reading about early treatments, and those who like to learn about something new in a narrative format.
Avoid this if you don’t get to read much - there are far better books out there. Or if you are like me and you get frustrated with characters in books who you think should be doing better.
Overall there is a lot of great potential here that wasn’t realized. I’m glad I read it because the topic was interesting and I enjoyed learning about it.
I read a digital copy of the book. Because I struggled to solidify how any of the characters sounded in my head, I think I would have enjoyed this more had I listened to it.
This book follows a woman who was diagnosed with leprosy in the 1920s who was forced into isolation in the U.S. leper colony located in Louisiana. The plot and the research by the author to represent actual events was exceptionally interesting. I did a lot of parallel googling as I read. I learned a lot. That was definitely the best part of the book.
Unfortunately, I found the main character to be exceptionally shallow and hard to relate to. I also had a hard time with how the characters communicated to one another. From dialects that were inconsistently written, to incomplete thoughts and conversations. It was difficult to stay engaged with the text.
This book had tremendous potential but failed to deliver for me. While it would make for a great discussion, I guarantee your book club will have a more dynamic, thoughtful take on the situations presented in this book than any of the characters in it had about their own circumstances.
Overall I would recommend this to prolific readers who want a new topic, health nerds who like reading about early treatments, and those who like to learn about something new in a narrative format.
Avoid this if you don’t get to read much - there are far better books out there. Or if you are like me and you get frustrated with characters in books who you think should be doing better.
Overall there is a lot of great potential here that wasn’t realized. I’m glad I read it because the topic was interesting and I enjoyed learning about it.
I read a digital copy of the book. Because I struggled to solidify how any of the characters sounded in my head, I think I would have enjoyed this more had I listened to it.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes