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wendoxford's review against another edition
2.0
Focusing on how women were condemned to asylums (and ECT treatment) for ... not releasing name of man who had impregnated her, post natal depression, wanting to work, not value marriage etc. The research and story trajectory is great, but for me the protagonists, despite their vivid lives, were one dimensional.
neilgsewell's review against another edition
4.0
Good read
Good book, keeping you interested til the end. Interlinked story, just how I like my stories. Easy to get into and keep reading.
Good book, keeping you interested til the end. Interlinked story, just how I like my stories. Easy to get into and keep reading.
thebooktrail88's review against another edition
4.0
Visit the locations in the novel
An old mental hospital whose ghosts still linger years after the doors have closed. And one woman who grew up in the shadow of the hospital, who now lives in the renovated flats there, thanks to her husband. She wants to be close to her mother who is ill, but she never expected to be inside these walls or back in this town.
This is not a ghost story but there are plenty of them floating about in the walls and in the minds of the characters. An old mental hospital comes with its associated faint screams, moans and tragic stories anyway, so to live in renovated flats there, from someone who feels the ghosts of the past anyway..
The novel was one of foreboding and dread throughout and it made for a compelling read. It’s a novel which builds and builds and creeps up on you making you feel really uneasy and unsettled. I read this over Halloween and during the dark nights and boy did that ramp things up!
What was particularly gripping – apart from the plot and the characters of course – was the level of insight and information about the way mental hospitals used to work and how mental health was viewed years ago. Quite recently when you think about it, and that is scary in itself.
There were lots of Erin Kelly moments – one where you want to high five the woman for writing. And little snippets of information such as why we use the phrase ‘She’s going round the bend” to suggest madness, and why Stone Mothers is the clever title it is.
There’s not really any locations in TheBookTrail sense although the fictional mental hospital is more than enough to make you feel immersed in this place.
black_girl_reading's review against another edition
3.0
Okay, this thriller nearly killed me with boredom for well over half of the book and then suddenly picked up so extraordinarily with such a sympathetic character perspective and a compelling story about the harrowing lives of women and girls locked away in the asylums, or stone mothers, of yore, that I couldn’t put the book down. The book has multiple narrators, and tells multiple timelines and the majority of the book is unfortunately about a middle class woman who escaped her rural poor upbringing into a respectable career but has A TERRIBLE SECRET that she shares with her mess of an ex boyfriend, and suddenly their lives are thrown back together and OH THE SECRET. This could have been much more quickly and compellingly told, and honestly I wouldn’t have led with it. Then when the secret is finally, blessedly revealed, the story shifts perspective to an MP who is also in on the scandal and whose entire life has been shaped by patriarchy, oppressive respectability, and her time in the asylum as a patient. This is the meat of the story. If this whole book had been her story I’d buy you all a copy. Honestly, I loved it, and suddenly I loved ebooks again, and I tore through the last bit of the book. There’s another perspectival changes at the end and a whole crescendo that I’m neither here nor there about, but thrillers gotta thrill I guess, but I’m not so mad at the book, that I would say was middling overall, because the middle of the book was truly the meat of the sandwich, the cream in the oreo, etc etc. It wasn’t a nail biter, but through my profound plodding stubbornness, we got there in the end. Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC , opinions are my own.
zombeesknees's review against another edition
5.0
Full review can be found here: https://www.criminalelement.com/book-review-stone-mothers-erin-kelly/
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
‘The Victorians used to call their mental hospitals stone mothers…’
Marianne thought that she’d left the past behind, together with her family and her boyfriend Jesse, when she left Nusstead at the age of seventeen. Thirty years later, her mother, now suffering from dementia and who still lives in Nusstead, needs her help. The Nazareth Mental Hospital in Nusstead has been converted into accommodation as the Park Royal Manor, and Marianne’s husband Sam has bought a flat there for Marianne to use. Marianne is horrified, but she can’t tell her husband why. Jesse still lives in Nusstead, and he has never forgiven Marianne for leaving. Will he carry through on his threat to expose the truth? What will happen if Marianne’s husband and daughter learn the truth?
But Marianne and Jesse aren’t the only people with secrets.
‘I wrecked four lives because I couldn’t stand to see my boyfriend cry.’
The story opens in the present, with Marianne becoming overwhelmed by her fear of the past once she learns about the flat Sam has bought. The first part of the story is set in 2018, the second part in 1988, with the third part taking place in 1958. While it took me a while to get into this story, I kept reading keen to find out the truth. I’d like to think that mental health treatment has improved significantly since 1958, and perhaps it has. But the stigma remains, making fiction like this (sadly) believable.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Marianne thought that she’d left the past behind, together with her family and her boyfriend Jesse, when she left Nusstead at the age of seventeen. Thirty years later, her mother, now suffering from dementia and who still lives in Nusstead, needs her help. The Nazareth Mental Hospital in Nusstead has been converted into accommodation as the Park Royal Manor, and Marianne’s husband Sam has bought a flat there for Marianne to use. Marianne is horrified, but she can’t tell her husband why. Jesse still lives in Nusstead, and he has never forgiven Marianne for leaving. Will he carry through on his threat to expose the truth? What will happen if Marianne’s husband and daughter learn the truth?
But Marianne and Jesse aren’t the only people with secrets.
‘I wrecked four lives because I couldn’t stand to see my boyfriend cry.’
The story opens in the present, with Marianne becoming overwhelmed by her fear of the past once she learns about the flat Sam has bought. The first part of the story is set in 2018, the second part in 1988, with the third part taking place in 1958. While it took me a while to get into this story, I kept reading keen to find out the truth. I’d like to think that mental health treatment has improved significantly since 1958, and perhaps it has. But the stigma remains, making fiction like this (sadly) believable.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
leelah's review against another edition
2.0
With a number of books under her belt, most of which I read, I know what I can expect from Erin Kelly: great writing that will occasionally straddle into literary territory, deep, layered characterization that will stay long with me and mystery with resolution I will either really hate
or really like. There is also one other thing about Kelly's books: she will throw in random, interesting, most unexpected and fascinating facts about subject I didn't even know I would find interesting. Total eclipse chasers? Post-war Brighton? It doesn't matter which, I was equally spell-binned and wanted to know more. There is so much research put into something that is there merely to enrich the mystery and characterization, and I love how she does it. So, can you imagine how excited I was to see Erin Kelly will tackle the subject of asylums and mental health treatment in earlier times? I was salivating just thinking about it.
Unfortunately... it ended up the only thing remotely interested about it. Everything else was, sorry to say, just boring. I disliked the mystery, it has the characters I was never invested in and like the second season of American Horror Story, theme of asylum just made me think it would be a story more interesting, crazy and mind-blowing than the one I got. The only thing I'd remember from this reading experience?
Everything else... was simply not as good, not as strong and, most of all, somewhat contradictory to the theme that was accentuated throughout the story, but I'll get back to that last one in a bit.
The story is told in 3 different time periods from the point of view of 3 female characters:
- first part is told from Marianne's pov in 2018. Here is where we find out that Marianne is moved back to her hometown to take care of her ill mother, that she and her husband have money and that he bought her the Nazareth estate, old mental hospital and surrounding land. She is not very happy about it because this was the place where she and her ex boyfriend Jesse spent a lot of time and where something very bad happened involving Jesse and council woman Helen Greenlaw and that Jesse is on the verge of ruining Marianne's life by spilling the beans.
-second part is told again from Marianne's pov, but set 30 years back, in 1988. It follows the relationship of young Marriane and Jesse, her realization she wants more from life culminating with the terrible event that tied Marianne, Jesse and Helen Greenlaw for life.
-Third part is set 30 years back from previous part, in 1958. It's told from Helen's pov and here is where we find out just what is it about Nazareth that made Helen so invested in closing it and pursuing the political career of changing the state of mental health in the country. Helen is, by far, the most complex and misunderstood character in the story. She is the perfect example of a person who is nothing like perception of her others have. She is ascribed the thoughts and ideas not even close to what she really thinks. It's more than anything a big signal that assuming the wrong, that creating the psychological picture of someone is something people are guilty no matter the time, place, laws, gender, over and over again. But, of course, this is not that plot line Kelly decided to explore. Helen is reduced to a plot device, completing the puzzle of most boring character, Marianne, her husband and daughter are trying to figure out.
-Fourth part is set directly after first and is told from pov of Honor, Marianne's daughter. She muses about her mother and what connects her to Jesse and Helen Greenlaw. This is where I got quite disappointed about the whole plot and optics the ending provided: if the whole point all that research was trying to convey that women suffered from being called mad, weak and forcibly institutionalized for speaking their own mind in the past, why was Honor, who we are told is very fragile, on medication and suicidal, infantilized to that degree that nobody thinks she can handle finding out what happened 30 years ago? That axis of whole conflict, point of collision three confidantes broke upon was hanged upon fragile mind of a girl who couldn't possibly handle something like that which is their own conclusion, not, let me emphasize, consulting with her doctor first? I just thought that optics were especially wrong taking in consideration Nazareth's dark history of infantlizing women. Of course she proved them wrong, but then, I have to be honest here,the entire mystery, the secret we wanted to know, and the characters were not engaging enough nor well thought through to let me even think about something that would make a better reason or a cause for everything falling apart.
First part was especially boring to read and the latter simply didn't justify my commitment. Hence the rating. Still love Erin Kelly and cherish some of her other books, but this one didn't work for me.
or really like. There is also one other thing about Kelly's books: she will throw in random, interesting, most unexpected and fascinating facts about subject I didn't even know I would find interesting. Total eclipse chasers? Post-war Brighton? It doesn't matter which, I was equally spell-binned and wanted to know more. There is so much research put into something that is there merely to enrich the mystery and characterization, and I love how she does it. So, can you imagine how excited I was to see Erin Kelly will tackle the subject of asylums and mental health treatment in earlier times? I was salivating just thinking about it.
Unfortunately... it ended up the only thing remotely interested about it. Everything else was, sorry to say, just boring. I disliked the mystery, it has the characters I was never invested in and like the second season of American Horror Story, theme of asylum just made me think it would be a story more interesting, crazy and mind-blowing than the one I got. The only thing I'd remember from this reading experience?
‘The Victorians used to call their mental hospitals stone mothers..... They had such faith in architecture back then that they thought the design of the building could literally nurse the sick back to health.
Everything else... was simply not as good, not as strong and, most of all, somewhat contradictory to the theme that was accentuated throughout the story, but I'll get back to that last one in a bit.
The story is told in 3 different time periods from the point of view of 3 female characters:
- first part is told from Marianne's pov in 2018. Here is where we find out that Marianne is moved back to her hometown to take care of her ill mother, that she and her husband have money and that he bought her the Nazareth estate, old mental hospital and surrounding land. She is not very happy about it because this was the place where she and her ex boyfriend Jesse spent a lot of time and where something very bad happened involving Jesse and council woman Helen Greenlaw and that Jesse is on the verge of ruining Marianne's life by spilling the beans.
-second part is told again from Marianne's pov, but set 30 years back, in 1988. It follows the relationship of young Marriane and Jesse, her realization she wants more from life culminating with the terrible event that tied Marianne, Jesse and Helen Greenlaw for life.
-Third part is set 30 years back from previous part, in 1958. It's told from Helen's pov and here is where we find out just what is it about Nazareth that made Helen so invested in closing it and pursuing the political career of changing the state of mental health in the country. Helen is, by far, the most complex and misunderstood character in the story. She is the perfect example of a person who is nothing like perception of her others have. She is ascribed the thoughts and ideas not even close to what she really thinks. It's more than anything a big signal that assuming the wrong, that creating the psychological picture of someone is something people are guilty no matter the time, place, laws, gender, over and over again. But, of course, this is not that plot line Kelly decided to explore. Helen is reduced to a plot device, completing the puzzle of most boring character, Marianne, her husband and daughter are trying to figure out.
-Fourth part is set directly after first and is told from pov of Honor, Marianne's daughter. She muses about her mother and what connects her to Jesse and Helen Greenlaw. This is where I got quite disappointed about the whole plot and optics the ending provided: if the whole point all that research was trying to convey that women suffered from being called mad, weak and forcibly institutionalized for speaking their own mind in the past, why was Honor, who we are told is very fragile, on medication and suicidal, infantilized to that degree that nobody thinks she can handle finding out what happened 30 years ago? That axis of whole conflict, point of collision three confidantes broke upon was hanged upon fragile mind of a girl who couldn't possibly handle something like that which is their own conclusion, not, let me emphasize, consulting with her doctor first? I just thought that optics were especially wrong taking in consideration Nazareth's dark history of infantlizing women. Of course she proved them wrong, but then, I have to be honest here,the entire mystery, the secret we wanted to know, and the characters were not engaging enough nor well thought through to let me even think about something that would make a better reason or a cause for everything falling apart.
First part was especially boring to read and the latter simply didn't justify my commitment. Hence the rating. Still love Erin Kelly and cherish some of her other books, but this one didn't work for me.
powerlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
Initial Review:
I had a hard time getting into this book. It's well written, but I had some difficulty connecting with the characters until about two-thirds of the way through the book, when we got to experience the point of view of a fascinating character...
Full Review:
Marianne left her hometown a long time ago, only returning for brief visits with her family. But when her husband buys a surprise gift--a condo in a refurbished mental institution--she’s forced to come back and face her past. A past that involves the once abandoned insane asylum and a decades-old secret that's clawing its way back into the light...
The book begins with a very fast-paced, intense scene that’s wrought with tension. It’s not at all characteristic of the rest of the book, which is very slow and drawn out. The novel opens with Marianne returning to her hometown outside of London to live in a condominium her husband bought (without consulting her, despite the fact that they can barely afford it). The condominium is in a renovated mental institution that stood abandoned during Marianne’s teenage years.
Unfortunately I can’t go into detail on the best parts of the plot, because they took place two thirds of the way through the book. I will say that the book is divided up into parts, and one of the later parts deals with the asylum historically, talking about themes of feminism and mental illness that were engaging, fascinating, and, quite frankly, horrifying.
At one point I realized I'm too much of a millennial to truly relate to Marianne, which hasn't happened to me in other, similar books about forty-year-olds with teenaged children. She’s a mother of a young woman, Honor, who suffers from depression. I’m not a parent, but while I can’t relate to her, but I can definitely understand the struggles she’s going through. But when she posts embarrassing comments on her daughter’s professional photography Instagram account, I cringed so hard that I dropped the book.
The decisions she makes are embarrassing. She abandoned her boyfriend years ago (mild spoiler alert), yet when she returns to visit she plays like she’s the victim (spoiler alert: she isn’t).
I related much more to Helen Greenlaw, and not just because we share the same first name. At first she comes across as cold and psychopathic, but there are interesting revelations about her character as the novel progresses. I can’t say more without revealing critical plot points.
Stone Mothers deals with the fascinating themes of motherhood and mental illness. Kelly expertly draws parallels in several of the characters, which is one of the most memorable parts of this novel.
A highlight of the book is the setting. The Victorian mental institution is so well described that it felt like I was there. The descriptions are palpable, and it feels like the institution is a character in and of itself.
While Stone Mothers is slow paced, there are several good twists that kept the pages turning. This book is recommended to anyone who is looking for an atmospheric psychological suspense.
*Thank you to Minotaur books and Goodreads for the ARC for review*
This review appeared first on https://powerlibrarian.wordpress.com/
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My 2019 Reading Challenge
I had a hard time getting into this book. It's well written, but I had some difficulty connecting with the characters until about two-thirds of the way through the book, when we got to experience the point of view of a fascinating character...
Full Review:
Synopsis
Marianne left her hometown a long time ago, only returning for brief visits with her family. But when her husband buys a surprise gift--a condo in a refurbished mental institution--she’s forced to come back and face her past. A past that involves the once abandoned insane asylum and a decades-old secret that's clawing its way back into the light...
Plot
The book begins with a very fast-paced, intense scene that’s wrought with tension. It’s not at all characteristic of the rest of the book, which is very slow and drawn out. The novel opens with Marianne returning to her hometown outside of London to live in a condominium her husband bought (without consulting her, despite the fact that they can barely afford it). The condominium is in a renovated mental institution that stood abandoned during Marianne’s teenage years.
Unfortunately I can’t go into detail on the best parts of the plot, because they took place two thirds of the way through the book. I will say that the book is divided up into parts, and one of the later parts deals with the asylum historically, talking about themes of feminism and mental illness that were engaging, fascinating, and, quite frankly, horrifying.
Characters
At one point I realized I'm too much of a millennial to truly relate to Marianne, which hasn't happened to me in other, similar books about forty-year-olds with teenaged children. She’s a mother of a young woman, Honor, who suffers from depression. I’m not a parent, but while I can’t relate to her, but I can definitely understand the struggles she’s going through. But when she posts embarrassing comments on her daughter’s professional photography Instagram account, I cringed so hard that I dropped the book.
The decisions she makes are embarrassing. She abandoned her boyfriend years ago (mild spoiler alert), yet when she returns to visit she plays like she’s the victim (spoiler alert: she isn’t).
I related much more to Helen Greenlaw, and not just because we share the same first name. At first she comes across as cold and psychopathic, but there are interesting revelations about her character as the novel progresses. I can’t say more without revealing critical plot points.
Stone Mothers deals with the fascinating themes of motherhood and mental illness. Kelly expertly draws parallels in several of the characters, which is one of the most memorable parts of this novel.
Setting
A highlight of the book is the setting. The Victorian mental institution is so well described that it felt like I was there. The descriptions are palpable, and it feels like the institution is a character in and of itself.
While Stone Mothers is slow paced, there are several good twists that kept the pages turning. This book is recommended to anyone who is looking for an atmospheric psychological suspense.
*Thank you to Minotaur books and Goodreads for the ARC for review*
This review appeared first on https://powerlibrarian.wordpress.com/
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My 2019 Reading Challenge
cf831's review against another edition
1.0
This is definitely the worst book I've ever read. Boring storyline, entitled men, I should've given up earlier instead of wasting time finishing it.
steph1rothwell's review against another edition
5.0
When I started Stone Mothers I wasn’t sure what to expect. Erin Kelly always manages to give the reader something different. What I got was a novel based around an asylum in Suffolk. It was one of those books that could have been set anywhere. The old asylums/hospitals were in many towns and their closures would have had the same impact that the closure of Nazareth had on the local community.
It takes a while to get to the horror of what happened in the asylum. The novel was one I struggled to put down at times but this part I was incapable of tearing myself away. Even the name is enough to send shivers down your spine. More so, because I had strong feelings that much of it was based on the truth. This is hard reading, it makes your blood go cold but it’s mesmerising. It’s something that I will be thinking about for some time.And, when you think about it, it’s not that long ago that people were treated this way.
It’s only a small part, other parts renew your trust in family and loved ones. It shows you not to be critical without knowing all the facts. Like I did, I admit that I was quick to pass judgement on certain characters and acts committed.
There is something that should stop me having a book from 2019 in my top ten books from 2018 but it’s hard to miss this one out. It is a book I need to buy for family members, because they told me tales from what they saw from working in a hospital that used to be an asylum.
I can not recommend this book enough. It’s a fantastic story but there is also so much to learn from it.
It takes a while to get to the horror of what happened in the asylum. The novel was one I struggled to put down at times but this part I was incapable of tearing myself away. Even the name is enough to send shivers down your spine. More so, because I had strong feelings that much of it was based on the truth. This is hard reading, it makes your blood go cold but it’s mesmerising. It’s something that I will be thinking about for some time.And, when you think about it, it’s not that long ago that people were treated this way.
It’s only a small part, other parts renew your trust in family and loved ones. It shows you not to be critical without knowing all the facts. Like I did, I admit that I was quick to pass judgement on certain characters and acts committed.
There is something that should stop me having a book from 2019 in my top ten books from 2018 but it’s hard to miss this one out. It is a book I need to buy for family members, because they told me tales from what they saw from working in a hospital that used to be an asylum.
I can not recommend this book enough. It’s a fantastic story but there is also so much to learn from it.