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tifflesy 's review for:
The Book of Guilt
by Catherine Chidgey
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
I received an ARC for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey is an absolutely heartbreaking story about a group of children raised on the outskirts of the English Countryside where they are raised by three women. One woman records their dreams and gives them medicine. One woman teaches them, and one woman keeps an eye on them as they sleep. All the women mark down the children's misdeeds in what is known as The Book of Guilt. The children are told that if they follow all the rules and listen, they'll be sent to an amazing place where all of their dreams will come true. All of this seems innocent enough, however, as the story continues, several red flags appear.
The way the author brings out the characteristics and mannerisms of each child makes the revelations even more devastating. The manner in which these poor individuals were treated by the townspeople was outright disgusting, even after several years had gone by when the grave injustice was somewhat rectified.
Sadly, I was able to envision everything that had happened because it was very close to other horrific events in history. Even now, some human beings are considered lesser due to their backgrounds; and while that isn't exactly the same as what happened here, it is still quite abominable to know that if this were happened today, there would be staunch supporters of it because they would view it as something necessary because they don't believe that everyone is equal.
As heart-wrenching as the plot was, The Book of Guilt was well-written as well as enlightening about how certain things in history were able to occur without too much public knowledge.
Thank you to Net Galley and the author for the ARC.
The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey is an absolutely heartbreaking story about a group of children raised on the outskirts of the English Countryside where they are raised by three women. One woman records their dreams and gives them medicine. One woman teaches them, and one woman keeps an eye on them as they sleep. All the women mark down the children's misdeeds in what is known as The Book of Guilt. The children are told that if they follow all the rules and listen, they'll be sent to an amazing place where all of their dreams will come true. All of this seems innocent enough, however, as the story continues, several red flags appear.
The way the author brings out the characteristics and mannerisms of each child makes the revelations even more devastating. The manner in which these poor individuals were treated by the townspeople was outright disgusting, even after several years had gone by when the grave injustice was somewhat rectified.
Sadly, I was able to envision everything that had happened because it was very close to other horrific events in history. Even now, some human beings are considered lesser due to their backgrounds; and while that isn't exactly the same as what happened here, it is still quite abominable to know that if this were happened today, there would be staunch supporters of it because they would view it as something necessary because they don't believe that everyone is equal.
As heart-wrenching as the plot was, The Book of Guilt was well-written as well as enlightening about how certain things in history were able to occur without too much public knowledge.
Thank you to Net Galley and the author for the ARC.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Rape