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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
This was one of those books whose synopsis didn’t grab me, but I decided to read it anyway and ended up loving it. In the late 1960s, Ginny gives birth to a girl with Down’s syndrome. Her husband and father browbeat her into putting the child into an institution, but two years later an expose is published on the shocking abuses and conditions at the institution. Ginny and her best friend, along with Ginny’s six-year-old son in tow, set off to rescue Lucy and end up as fugitives, driving all the way from Massachusetts to Florida to keep Lucy out of the hands of the authorities.
I loved this story. The writing felt a bit stiff and clinical at times, but the story drew me in. Being a momma, I understand that maternal instinct so well.
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dare I say, this was my most anticipated read for 2019? After reading Greenwood’s RUST AND STARDUST last year, I could not wait to see what she had in store for us next.
“Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson's heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her. Under pressure from his powerful family, her husband, Ab, sent Lucy away to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded." Ab tried to convince Ginny it was for the best. That they should grieve for their daughter as though she were dead. That they should try to move on.
.
But two years later, when Ginny's best friend, Marsha, shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth--its squalid hallways filled with neglected children--she knows she can't leave her daughter there. With Ginny's six-year-old son in tow, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets their course on a heart-racing journey across state lines—turning Ginny into a fugitive.”
.
This serious subject, inspired from true events ultimately left me disappointed. I will start off by saying that I’m going to be a harsh critic on this story for personal reasons. Swipe left to see a photo of Bennett and I. Bennett is my beautiful, funny, curious and lovable nephew. He also happens to have Down syndrome. He makes us all better humans, just like Lucy. The world can be so cruel and it infuriates me to no end when people choose to close their eyes and heart to a child like Bennett. If you take away anything from reading this story, I beg you to see how wonderful and valuable each and every child is.
Unfortunately, the story lost me in the middle. It felt like a wild goose chase with random tangents into Ginny’s past. I didn’t quite get the role of the friend and what the author was trying to convey with her choices. I think Greenwood wanted to show hope but I was hoping for miracles and more of a louder statement. I guess we are all still waiting for this even today.
As I said, I really have a lot of mixed feelings. While it’s a sad and probably pretty realistic representation of what took place in the early 70s, I needed more of a focus on Lucy and institutions like Willowridge. This book leaves me scared for all those that still don’t understand and for all the children left behind.
“Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson's heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her. Under pressure from his powerful family, her husband, Ab, sent Lucy away to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded." Ab tried to convince Ginny it was for the best. That they should grieve for their daughter as though she were dead. That they should try to move on.
.
But two years later, when Ginny's best friend, Marsha, shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth--its squalid hallways filled with neglected children--she knows she can't leave her daughter there. With Ginny's six-year-old son in tow, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets their course on a heart-racing journey across state lines—turning Ginny into a fugitive.”
.
This serious subject, inspired from true events ultimately left me disappointed. I will start off by saying that I’m going to be a harsh critic on this story for personal reasons. Swipe left to see a photo of Bennett and I. Bennett is my beautiful, funny, curious and lovable nephew. He also happens to have Down syndrome. He makes us all better humans, just like Lucy. The world can be so cruel and it infuriates me to no end when people choose to close their eyes and heart to a child like Bennett. If you take away anything from reading this story, I beg you to see how wonderful and valuable each and every child is.
Unfortunately, the story lost me in the middle. It felt like a wild goose chase with random tangents into Ginny’s past. I didn’t quite get the role of the friend and what the author was trying to convey with her choices. I think Greenwood wanted to show hope but I was hoping for miracles and more of a louder statement. I guess we are all still waiting for this even today.
As I said, I really have a lot of mixed feelings. While it’s a sad and probably pretty realistic representation of what took place in the early 70s, I needed more of a focus on Lucy and institutions like Willowridge. This book leaves me scared for all those that still don’t understand and for all the children left behind.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was so emotionally uplifting, particularly at the end. I absolutely loved this. The ending was so hopeful and happy that my eyes watered from the togetherness of this family.
3.5 stars
I found Keeping Lucy to be an engrossing story of a mother's fight to save her child from institutional abuse and neglect. Greenwood peppers her story with period details that show a good grasp of life in the early '70s, while keeping the pace quick.
It fell short of being a great read for me because the pace was a little too quick, especially in the last third of the novel. The resolution came too easily and didn't leave me with a sense of the struggles that would undoubtedly lie ahead for the characters. At times the plot felt too engineered; I would have preferred more of a focus on the characters' emotional journey and fewer dramatic twists.
I found Keeping Lucy to be an engrossing story of a mother's fight to save her child from institutional abuse and neglect. Greenwood peppers her story with period details that show a good grasp of life in the early '70s, while keeping the pace quick.
It fell short of being a great read for me because the pace was a little too quick, especially in the last third of the novel. The resolution came too easily and didn't leave me with a sense of the struggles that would undoubtedly lie ahead for the characters. At times the plot felt too engineered; I would have preferred more of a focus on the characters' emotional journey and fewer dramatic twists.
‘Later she would blame the moon.’
Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson and her husband Ab are looking forward to the birth of their second child, a sibling for their four-year-old son, Peyton. But after she recovers from the anaesthesia, Ginny learns that her daughter, for whom she had chosen the name Lucy, was born with Down Syndrome. Her husband’s family have convinced him that Lucy should be sent away to Willowridge, a special school for the ‘feeble-minded’. Ab tries to convince Ginny that this is for the best, both for Lucy and for them as a family. Ginny finds out that she can visit Lucy, after a period, but she can’t drive, and Ab isn’t likely to take her there.
Two years pass. Ginny’s best friend Marsha shows her a series of articles exposing neglect and squalor within Willowridge. Ginny decides, with Marsha’s help, to visit and see for herself. She can sign Lucy out for a period of 48 hours, and she does. What Ginny sees at Willowridge makes her determined to keep Lucy. Ginny, Marsha, six-year-old Peyton and Lucy head off on a journey. But Ginny no longer has any parental rights over Lucy, and once they cross state lines (and especially after Lucy has been away for over 48 hours), Ginny becomes a fugitive.
What will she do?
I couldn’t put this novel down. While I found elements of Marsha and Ginny’s flight a bit difficult to accept, I was completely caught up in Ginny’s plight. Consider, too, that Peyton had never seen his sister and had suddenly to accept a raft of changes in his young life. Both Ginny and Marsha had difficulties to face. Ginny needs to find the strength to negotiate with her husband and father-in-law, while Marsha must consider her own future.
From the author’s note, I understand that this novel had its genesis in events at the Belchertown State School in Massachusetts, which was closed in 1992.
This is the second of Ms Greenwood’s novels I have read, the other was ‘Rust and Stardust’. Both novels deal with difficult issues, both are well worth reading.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson and her husband Ab are looking forward to the birth of their second child, a sibling for their four-year-old son, Peyton. But after she recovers from the anaesthesia, Ginny learns that her daughter, for whom she had chosen the name Lucy, was born with Down Syndrome. Her husband’s family have convinced him that Lucy should be sent away to Willowridge, a special school for the ‘feeble-minded’. Ab tries to convince Ginny that this is for the best, both for Lucy and for them as a family. Ginny finds out that she can visit Lucy, after a period, but she can’t drive, and Ab isn’t likely to take her there.
Two years pass. Ginny’s best friend Marsha shows her a series of articles exposing neglect and squalor within Willowridge. Ginny decides, with Marsha’s help, to visit and see for herself. She can sign Lucy out for a period of 48 hours, and she does. What Ginny sees at Willowridge makes her determined to keep Lucy. Ginny, Marsha, six-year-old Peyton and Lucy head off on a journey. But Ginny no longer has any parental rights over Lucy, and once they cross state lines (and especially after Lucy has been away for over 48 hours), Ginny becomes a fugitive.
What will she do?
I couldn’t put this novel down. While I found elements of Marsha and Ginny’s flight a bit difficult to accept, I was completely caught up in Ginny’s plight. Consider, too, that Peyton had never seen his sister and had suddenly to accept a raft of changes in his young life. Both Ginny and Marsha had difficulties to face. Ginny needs to find the strength to negotiate with her husband and father-in-law, while Marsha must consider her own future.
From the author’s note, I understand that this novel had its genesis in events at the Belchertown State School in Massachusetts, which was closed in 1992.
This is the second of Ms Greenwood’s novels I have read, the other was ‘Rust and Stardust’. Both novels deal with difficult issues, both are well worth reading.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
2.5 stars
Last year, I had read and loved T. Greenwood’s beautifully written novel Rust & Stardust, her fictional retelling of the Sally Horner case. The way that story was written — hauntingly powerful, heartfelt, sincere...a deeply emotional story that shook me to the core and continued to stay with me long after I had finished reading it. Given this background, when I was offered a galley of Greenwood’s next novel Keeping Lucy, I eagerly accepted. After reading the summary and discovering that it would be about a mother forced to send her baby daughter, born with Down Syndrome, away to a special needs school, I expected another deeply emotional, heartfelt story. Going into this book with such high expectations, I’m sorry to say that I ended up sorely disappointed with how this one turned out.
From the writing to the characters to the execution of the story, Keeping Lucy felt completely opposite to what Rust & Stardust had been — to the point that, as I was reading, I couldn’t help shaking my head and wondering whether this could’ve been written by the same author whose previous book I had adored. The story actually started off fine, as the opening chapters did a great job of setting up the story as well as the emotional undertones for the events that I thought were about to unfold — a heart-wrenching story about Lucy, the horrors she endured at that school, and her mother’s fight to get her back. Unfortunately, about a quarter of the way into the story, the plot went completely off the rails and instead of getting to hear Lucy’s emotional story as I expected, it became a “road trip” story of sorts when Ginny (Lucy’s mother) and her best friend Martha decide to drive across the country with the kids in tow. From there, the remainder of the story was pretty much about the various situations that Ginny and Martha get themselves into and how they wind up getting themselves out of them. It felt as though Lucy’s story was placed on the back burner, glossed over and forgotten, only brought back out to the forefront when it was convenient to do so, but still sparingly for the most part, as that “terrible place” and the horrors Lucy must have endured are repeatedly alluded to but rarely addressed directly.
The writing this time around was also off. Whereas with Rust & Stardust, the writing felt lyrical and poetic and there was a strong sense of time and place, I unfortunately didn’t feel any of that with Keeping Lucy. The writing in this one felt a bit all over the place – overly descriptive in some parts, not descriptive enough in others. There was also a lot of what I would classify as “unnecessary descriptions of the mundane” – for example, descriptions along the lines of the following: ‘she got in the car, turned the key in the ignition, pressed one foot on the clutch, the other on the brake, put her hands on the steering wheel, and looked out the windshield in front of her’ (paraphrased and not direct quote from the book!) – which dragged the story down tremendously for me. Instead of the many superfluous descriptions that seemed to be of little significance and did nothing to advance the plot, it would have been better to use that space to actually tell Lucy’s story.
With all that said, what frustrated me the most about this book was actually the characters — specifically the adult characters in the story — most of whom were unlikable. The way Ginny’s character was written especially frustrated me – throughout the time that Ginny and Marsha were on the run, a significant portion of the story consisted of a constant barrage of Ginny’s thoughts as she debated back and forth (often in her own mind) about everything from her decision to run away, to the status of her marriage, to her relationship with her husband’s domineering parents, etc. Oftentimes, Ginny came across as fickle and never quite able to make up her mind about anything, though the most annoying part for me was how her thoughts always seemed to get caught up in an endless loop where she’s wracked with guilt one minute, anger the next minute, then doesn’t know how she feels the minute after that – the pattern seemed to be that she would reflect about all the regrets in her life, how she deliberately chose to stick her head in the sand, to ignore the signs and keep quiet when she should’ve said something, but then she turns around and tries to justify why things happened that way, that perhaps it’s no one’s fault, then realizes she is making excuses, wakes herself up to reality, then tries to push all the thoughts out of her mind completely. I usually don’t mind flawed characters in a story as long as they are written realistically, but when the portrayal goes overboard to the point that it becomes melodrama that detracts from the story itself, that’s when it becomes too much for me -- instead of being able to connect with the character or feel any type of empathy for what they’re going through, I feel annoyed and frustrated instead.
This was a book that I really really wanted to like, but found it extremely hard to do so. With that said, I won’t discount this author yet, as I’ve only read 2 books of hers so far that have fallen on the opposite ends of the spectrum for me. Hopefully Greenwood’s next book will be able to deliver a heartfelt and emotionally resonant story along the lines of Rust & Stardust rather than Keeping Lucy.
Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.
Last year, I had read and loved T. Greenwood’s beautifully written novel Rust & Stardust, her fictional retelling of the Sally Horner case. The way that story was written — hauntingly powerful, heartfelt, sincere...a deeply emotional story that shook me to the core and continued to stay with me long after I had finished reading it. Given this background, when I was offered a galley of Greenwood’s next novel Keeping Lucy, I eagerly accepted. After reading the summary and discovering that it would be about a mother forced to send her baby daughter, born with Down Syndrome, away to a special needs school, I expected another deeply emotional, heartfelt story. Going into this book with such high expectations, I’m sorry to say that I ended up sorely disappointed with how this one turned out.
From the writing to the characters to the execution of the story, Keeping Lucy felt completely opposite to what Rust & Stardust had been — to the point that, as I was reading, I couldn’t help shaking my head and wondering whether this could’ve been written by the same author whose previous book I had adored. The story actually started off fine, as the opening chapters did a great job of setting up the story as well as the emotional undertones for the events that I thought were about to unfold — a heart-wrenching story about Lucy, the horrors she endured at that school, and her mother’s fight to get her back. Unfortunately, about a quarter of the way into the story, the plot went completely off the rails and instead of getting to hear Lucy’s emotional story as I expected, it became a “road trip” story of sorts when Ginny (Lucy’s mother) and her best friend Martha decide to drive across the country with the kids in tow. From there, the remainder of the story was pretty much about the various situations that Ginny and Martha get themselves into and how they wind up getting themselves out of them. It felt as though Lucy’s story was placed on the back burner, glossed over and forgotten, only brought back out to the forefront when it was convenient to do so, but still sparingly for the most part, as that “terrible place” and the horrors Lucy must have endured are repeatedly alluded to but rarely addressed directly.
The writing this time around was also off. Whereas with Rust & Stardust, the writing felt lyrical and poetic and there was a strong sense of time and place, I unfortunately didn’t feel any of that with Keeping Lucy. The writing in this one felt a bit all over the place – overly descriptive in some parts, not descriptive enough in others. There was also a lot of what I would classify as “unnecessary descriptions of the mundane” – for example, descriptions along the lines of the following: ‘she got in the car, turned the key in the ignition, pressed one foot on the clutch, the other on the brake, put her hands on the steering wheel, and looked out the windshield in front of her’ (paraphrased and not direct quote from the book!) – which dragged the story down tremendously for me. Instead of the many superfluous descriptions that seemed to be of little significance and did nothing to advance the plot, it would have been better to use that space to actually tell Lucy’s story.
With all that said, what frustrated me the most about this book was actually the characters — specifically the adult characters in the story — most of whom were unlikable. The way Ginny’s character was written especially frustrated me – throughout the time that Ginny and Marsha were on the run, a significant portion of the story consisted of a constant barrage of Ginny’s thoughts as she debated back and forth (often in her own mind) about everything from her decision to run away, to the status of her marriage, to her relationship with her husband’s domineering parents, etc. Oftentimes, Ginny came across as fickle and never quite able to make up her mind about anything, though the most annoying part for me was how her thoughts always seemed to get caught up in an endless loop where she’s wracked with guilt one minute, anger the next minute, then doesn’t know how she feels the minute after that – the pattern seemed to be that she would reflect about all the regrets in her life, how she deliberately chose to stick her head in the sand, to ignore the signs and keep quiet when she should’ve said something, but then she turns around and tries to justify why things happened that way, that perhaps it’s no one’s fault, then realizes she is making excuses, wakes herself up to reality, then tries to push all the thoughts out of her mind completely. I usually don’t mind flawed characters in a story as long as they are written realistically, but when the portrayal goes overboard to the point that it becomes melodrama that detracts from the story itself, that’s when it becomes too much for me -- instead of being able to connect with the character or feel any type of empathy for what they’re going through, I feel annoyed and frustrated instead.
This was a book that I really really wanted to like, but found it extremely hard to do so. With that said, I won’t discount this author yet, as I’ve only read 2 books of hers so far that have fallen on the opposite ends of the spectrum for me. Hopefully Greenwood’s next book will be able to deliver a heartfelt and emotionally resonant story along the lines of Rust & Stardust rather than Keeping Lucy.
Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
A beautiful, powerful story about a mother that would do anything to maintain custody of her daughter who had been diagnosed with Down syndrome. Story set in the 1960’s-70’s. Wonderfully told, fast moving story, based on a real life experience. Incredible!