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katrenia's review against another edition
4.0
I’d rate this a 3.5. A gripping story. One that feels plausible, even though horrible. I did get annoyed by the use of “bump”. I really don’t think that’s how pregnant bellies were described in the fifties, and the use of this modern trendy word was annoying. The audio narrator was good.
tatterededges's review against another edition
2.0
I kind of lost interest in this book at about the 3 quarter mark. It just became too convoluted and far fetched. Ive jotted down some thoughts as they occur to me, sorry this review is going to disjointed.
There were too many characters, too many points of view and too many time jumps, it became confusing.
We already knew the people who died, didn’t just ‘die’, so why the need to go over each and every murder in painstaking detail? And why the fuck did they all hallucinate as they died?
What happened to Fred?
Identical twins who grow up in very different circumstances, where one is well adjusted and the other is a psychopath aren’t going to be interchangeable. This was clichéd and lazy.
Why didn’t Nana just tell Sam the truth from the beginning, then Sam wouldn’t have needed to investigate, Kitty wouldn’t have known and they would have been fine. Nana’s keeping the whole thing secret made no sense.
Rose is in her 60’s and her grandmother who’s only in her 90 is still alive. So was she 15 when she had Ivy? I could be wrong but I think the time lines are borked.
Why was every character associated with St Margeret’s (except Ivy) portrayed as evil? It doesn’t make sense. People do bad things for a variety of reasons, being evil is in reality a rarity, and a total extreme. That an entire herd of evil people would congregate in one place without drawing attention to themselves, is an impossibility. I think this lack of depth of character is what made this book so tiresome for me.
There were too many characters, too many points of view and too many time jumps, it became confusing.
We already knew the people who died, didn’t just ‘die’, so why the need to go over each and every murder in painstaking detail? And why the fuck did they all hallucinate as they died?
What happened to Fred?
Identical twins who grow up in very different circumstances, where one is well adjusted and the other is a psychopath aren’t going to be interchangeable. This was clichéd and lazy.
Why didn’t Nana just tell Sam the truth from the beginning, then Sam wouldn’t have needed to investigate, Kitty wouldn’t have known and they would have been fine. Nana’s keeping the whole thing secret made no sense.
Rose is in her 60’s and her grandmother who’s only in her 90 is still alive. So was she 15 when she had Ivy? I could be wrong but I think the time lines are borked.
Why was every character associated with St Margeret’s (except Ivy) portrayed as evil? It doesn’t make sense. People do bad things for a variety of reasons, being evil is in reality a rarity, and a total extreme. That an entire herd of evil people would congregate in one place without drawing attention to themselves, is an impossibility. I think this lack of depth of character is what made this book so tiresome for me.
lmblonski's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
4.25
ver0n1ca6's review against another edition
5.0
A heart wrenching story but so worth reading. ☹️
“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito in the room.”
“Staying with someone who had seen you at your worst, and thrown it back at you, was soul-destroying.”
“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito in the room.”
“Staying with someone who had seen you at your worst, and thrown it back at you, was soul-destroying.”
jenniamysuzy's review against another edition
4.0
Read this one for book club. The story itself was good (though I will need to re-listen to the end again since Randall was talking to me while the audiobook was playing at the same time). But the story also had me feeling things and I'm not sure this was the greatest book to read while pregnant. 🙃
ashleysilver7's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book, and didn't realize there was a mystery/thriller aspect to it.
"The girl in the letter" is a poor young woman named Ivy who got pregnant out of wedlock in the 1950s in England. Needless to say, it was a hard time for young women and girls who found themselves in "the family way" out of wedlock. Poor Ivy received zero support and was sent to a convent for young mothers, where she was subject to slave labor, general cruelty, and forced to give her baby up for adoption. Years later, the letters she wrote to the baby's father, Alaister, are discovered by a young up and coming journalist named Sam, and she tries to uncover a mystery tied to this convent. The horrors described in Ivy's letters are extremely hard to fathom, and there are definitely some twists. I recommend this novel and look forward to reading more books by this author.
"The girl in the letter" is a poor young woman named Ivy who got pregnant out of wedlock in the 1950s in England. Needless to say, it was a hard time for young women and girls who found themselves in "the family way" out of wedlock. Poor Ivy received zero support and was sent to a convent for young mothers, where she was subject to slave labor, general cruelty, and forced to give her baby up for adoption. Years later, the letters she wrote to the baby's father, Alaister, are discovered by a young up and coming journalist named Sam, and she tries to uncover a mystery tied to this convent. The horrors described in Ivy's letters are extremely hard to fathom, and there are definitely some twists. I recommend this novel and look forward to reading more books by this author.
calandra_hudson's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0