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amac_reads 's review for:
The Girls with No Names
by Serena Burdick
This story largely follows Effie Tildon, a young girl from a wealthy family in New York during the 1910s. Effie has a heart condition that causes those around her to treat her with care, but despite this, she and her sister love to explore and get into mischief. Not far from their home is the House of Mercy, a religious establishment where young girls are rescued and reformed after breaking social norms (in reality it's a prison). Effie is afraid it's only a matter of time before her rebellious older sister gets sent there. When her older sister disappears, Effie fears the worst and takes matters into her own hands in an attempt to find her sister.
The story is told from multiple POVs - Effie's, her mother's, and a girl named Mable. At first I disliked this, but as the stories begin to come together, it was the perfect way for the author to fill in the gaps of Effie's story. It wasn't difficult to keep track of the different voices, and it didn't detract from the work. While Mable did some pretty horrible things, the author included her history in a way that made her a sympathetic character despite her actions.
The author did an excellent job at researching the setting and bringing it to life. Mable's voice was the most relatable and relevant for this setting. While Effie's and her mother's stories allowed the reader more insight into a different social class during this time, their portions of the story were relatively slow. It did take a while for the story to really grab my attention; it wasn't until approximately a quarter through the book that I became fully engaged.
I would have liked more details about the House of Mercy and life within its confines. Very little of the story actually occurs within its walls, and those parts are mostly about the characters rather than details about the setting (which isn't a completely negative thing). That being said, the author did an excellent job at balancing the exposition with dialogue to create a flowing, descriptive, and engaging story.
Overall, this was an interesting historical read that shed some light on asylums and gender/social inequalities in New York during the early twentieth century.
TW - some scenes of sexual violence
The story is told from multiple POVs - Effie's, her mother's, and a girl named Mable. At first I disliked this, but as the stories begin to come together, it was the perfect way for the author to fill in the gaps of Effie's story. It wasn't difficult to keep track of the different voices, and it didn't detract from the work. While Mable did some pretty horrible things, the author included her history in a way that made her a sympathetic character despite her actions.
The author did an excellent job at researching the setting and bringing it to life. Mable's voice was the most relatable and relevant for this setting. While Effie's and her mother's stories allowed the reader more insight into a different social class during this time, their portions of the story were relatively slow. It did take a while for the story to really grab my attention; it wasn't until approximately a quarter through the book that I became fully engaged.
I would have liked more details about the House of Mercy and life within its confines. Very little of the story actually occurs within its walls, and those parts are mostly about the characters rather than details about the setting (which isn't a completely negative thing). That being said, the author did an excellent job at balancing the exposition with dialogue to create a flowing, descriptive, and engaging story.
Overall, this was an interesting historical read that shed some light on asylums and gender/social inequalities in New York during the early twentieth century.
TW - some scenes of sexual violence