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A review by acetokki99
The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange
5.0
I just want to say that I LOVE when houses have names! What better place for our protagonist dealing with the loss of her brother and the PTSD that wraps around her with every thought of him, the separation from her mother whom is being kept prisoner in her room, her father that moves away and the pressure to care for her infant sister, than a home named Hope House?
This book is filled with literary delights as the author knits in these stories we all know to connect us to the characters. The mystery was such a pleasant surprise that kept me guessing - at some point I came to the conclusion that Henry could communicate with the dead, then later I was convinced that she herself was dead. The addition of the asylum worked really well and gave a sort of "Shutter Island" feel to the story around her mother that added so much to the story. Moth and Robert were fantastic spirit guides! Oh! There is also the most perfect villain- so easy to hate and be scared of!
The story deals with grief and loss, some of the hardest things to live through and heal with. Though I believe Henry was much to young to have been doing so much on her own, she was an incredibly strong character that was set on saving her family. I smiled and cried, laughing between the moments of heart grinding solitude that made it hard to breathe. Those moments where the author shared bits of Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel really bound the story together in a way that pushed into something personal. We all have histories with these stories and the connections they have in our own lives.
All in all, this book was NOTHING that I expected it to be. I picked it up because it was pretty and I thought it would be a little sweet book to read outside on a warm summers day. Instead I was met with something that pulled on all the strings that attach me to who I am.
I absolutely loved it!
This book is filled with literary delights as the author knits in these stories we all know to connect us to the characters. The mystery was such a pleasant surprise that kept me guessing - at some point I came to the conclusion that Henry could communicate with the dead, then later I was convinced that she herself was dead. The addition of the asylum worked really well and gave a sort of "Shutter Island" feel to the story around her mother that added so much to the story. Moth and Robert were fantastic spirit guides! Oh! There is also the most perfect villain- so easy to hate and be scared of!
The story deals with grief and loss, some of the hardest things to live through and heal with. Though I believe Henry was much to young to have been doing so much on her own, she was an incredibly strong character that was set on saving her family. I smiled and cried, laughing between the moments of heart grinding solitude that made it hard to breathe. Those moments where the author shared bits of Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel really bound the story together in a way that pushed into something personal. We all have histories with these stories and the connections they have in our own lives.
All in all, this book was NOTHING that I expected it to be. I picked it up because it was pretty and I thought it would be a little sweet book to read outside on a warm summers day. Instead I was met with something that pulled on all the strings that attach me to who I am.
I absolutely loved it!