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A review by honnari_hannya
The Illness Lesson by Clare Beams
2.0
I swear I'm going to start writing more coherent reviews.
While I wanted to love this, it didn't really do much for me in terms of the story itself. The entire plot is basically given away by the blurb on goodreads/the flap copy. And if you know even a little bit about the historical treatment of "hysteria" for women, then you already guessed the long and short of whatever else happens in this book.
Even without the dead giveaway of the plot, it also felt like it was moving far too slow. I tend to enjoy slow, atmospheric pace, which this novel definitely has. The schoolhouse, the birds, the widow, the repression—the markings of a good gothic—but it doesn't really deliver on the promise of darkness and sinister intentions. And I don't even count the doctor, who is a really awful man, because he only appeared about 80% into the book, did some horrible things and then left without much ado.
I do have to praise Beams on successfully building up Caroline and the readers' sense of dread. However, the fact that the breaking point happened when most of the book was already done didn't leave much time for us (both the reader and Caroline) to sit with the truth we have to confront. I felt rushed towards an ending just as I was starting to feel it coming.
At the same time, this book also should have ended about a chapter and a half earlier. I didn't really see the point of the chapter on Boston. It felt like too neat a bow to close out a story like this, and it felt almost phoned in to meet a certain wordcount (at best) or a "happy" ending for Caroline (at worst).
I think I definitely would still pick up another book from Beams, because her writing is gorgeous and she just has a very compelling style. But this was not it.
Summary: The novel opens with Caroline and her father, Samuel, thrilled about the appearance of a bird that has only ever been seen once before called the Trilling Heart. Samuel and his student/apprentice, David, take it as a sign of good fortune and set about making plans for their great enterprise—opening a school for girls and teach them in the same way boys are taught, in order to prove women's minds can be enlightened and that they can be an equal match to their future husbands.
However, things go awry when they welcome their first class of eight girls, and a strange and inexplicable illness begins to fester amongst them—that eventually leads Caroline, Samuel, and David to confront their long-held secrets, resentments, and repressed desires.
While I wanted to love this, it didn't really do much for me in terms of the story itself. The entire plot is basically given away by the blurb on goodreads/the flap copy. And if you know even a little bit about the historical treatment of "hysteria" for women, then you already guessed the long and short of whatever else happens in this book.
Even without the dead giveaway of the plot, it also felt like it was moving far too slow. I tend to enjoy slow, atmospheric pace, which this novel definitely has. The schoolhouse, the birds, the widow, the repression—the markings of a good gothic—but it doesn't really deliver on the promise of darkness and sinister intentions. And I don't even count the doctor, who is a really awful man, because he only appeared about 80% into the book, did some horrible things and then left without much ado.
I do have to praise Beams on successfully building up Caroline and the readers' sense of dread. However, the fact that the breaking point happened when most of the book was already done didn't leave much time for us (both the reader and Caroline) to sit with the truth we have to confront. I felt rushed towards an ending just as I was starting to feel it coming.
At the same time, this book also should have ended about a chapter and a half earlier. I didn't really see the point of the chapter on Boston. It felt like too neat a bow to close out a story like this, and it felt almost phoned in to meet a certain wordcount (at best) or a "happy" ending for Caroline (at worst).
I think I definitely would still pick up another book from Beams, because her writing is gorgeous and she just has a very compelling style. But this was not it.