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carlaabra's review
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Meh. Predictable. The writing isn’t terrible but it (unfortunately) would be right at home in a YA novel, simplistic. Plot is interesting on its face but there’s a lot of boring, small events that happen in between. They’re meant to set up tension but fell flat for me, I had to skim to get through it. Characters have maybe 2 facets to them and side characters especially fall into stereotypes; none save the main character grow. But Charlotte was so stupid and naive to begin with that it’s near impossible for her to NOT change by the end. “I’ll just waltz into an asylum - pretending to be crazy - and grab my sister, with my only fallback being telling them I’m not crazy ”?? Bizarre. The subplot romance you can see coming from a mile away, as well as its resolution and the HEA. Also a lot of the “female empowerment” felt forced. You can tell a story about that without having it seem contrived, but the book’s constant and often explicit harping on it ruined the theme for me. And to some degree it felt inappropriate for the time period - imposing our current values of feminism on these late 1800s women as if they could contemplate having the same freedoms. Some did, sure, but to make these radical-for-the-time ideas seem like the inevitable conclusion that women realized given enough wisdom/experience didn’t sit right with me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Violence, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Domestic abuse
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