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A review by acrosstheskyinstars
A Splendid Ruin by Megan Chance
2.0
This novel tells the story of May Kimble, a plucky young woman who’s tragedy has turned into a life she could have only dreamed of. She and her mother live in New York in relative poverty around the turn of the century. When her mother unexpectedly dies, May fears for her future only to have her rich aunt’s family swoop in and move her to live with them in San Francisco. Except nothing is as it seems. May’s mother and her aunt allegedly had a falling out and never spoke to each other before May was born. She’s never met these people. What could go wrong in this scenario?
Without giving away too many spoilers, the plot structure of this book is broken up into three main sections. The first is May’s journey settling into her new rich life. The second section is centered around May coping with time in an asylum. The third section is May’s escape from the asylum and attempt to rectify the wrongs done to her set amongst the backdrop of the 1906 earthquake and fires that destroyed much of the city.
Now on to my thoughts. I love historical fiction, particularly the build up of how the author is going to use a historical event to further their story. Throughout the first two sections of the book, the reader is left anticipating the tragedy to come. And it works! This narrative tension really makes the reader more invested in May’s story.
Overall, I didn’t care for the characters in this story much. My main complaint is that they’re all a bit one dimensional. They can pretty much be summed up in one word:
May- Naive
May’s uncle- conniving
May’s aunt- “crazy”
May’s cousin- flighty
And the list continues.
I really would have loved to see these characters have more nuance to them. There were definitely times May was unbelievable naive, the villains were unbelievably cruel, etc.
Another change I would have loved is to the overall structure. The first part of the book spends too long setting the scene for things that are not to be. The middle section is very short. The final section isn’t long enough. I would have loved to see less attention paid to the first section and more attention paid to May in a post-earthquake trying to rebuild her life.
My biggest complaint in this book was the asylum portion. I know that the history of psychiatric care in the US is appalling. I know that patients were treated cruelly and abused. But it comes off as trauma porn. This section of the book discusses various ways in which the asylum staff are unbelievably cruel and abusive to May, but ultimately it doesn’t matter much for the plot of the book anyway. This abuse doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on May in the final section of the book, when real-life psychiatric and medical abuse leaves long lasting scars on the patients.
Ultimately, I thought the book was interesting and the plot was unique. I think pitching this book to be more about the retribution aspect of the plot from the third section would be better to attract the type of reader who would like this than the “girl stumbles into riches” and has a Cinderella moment aspect of the first section that this book seemed to be pitched as. The weakest section of the book was the middle section that takes place in the asylum. I think the strongest part of this book is the historical backdrop and would recommend it to someone who loves historical fiction and Cinderella stories where the main character has to face many hardships before eventually getting their happy ending.
If you liked this review, check out my blog: https://acrosstheskyinstars818513457....
This book was provided to me by the publisher as an advanced reader copy.
Without giving away too many spoilers, the plot structure of this book is broken up into three main sections. The first is May’s journey settling into her new rich life. The second section is centered around May coping with time in an asylum. The third section is May’s escape from the asylum and attempt to rectify the wrongs done to her set amongst the backdrop of the 1906 earthquake and fires that destroyed much of the city.
Now on to my thoughts. I love historical fiction, particularly the build up of how the author is going to use a historical event to further their story. Throughout the first two sections of the book, the reader is left anticipating the tragedy to come. And it works! This narrative tension really makes the reader more invested in May’s story.
Overall, I didn’t care for the characters in this story much. My main complaint is that they’re all a bit one dimensional. They can pretty much be summed up in one word:
May- Naive
May’s uncle- conniving
May’s aunt- “crazy”
May’s cousin- flighty
And the list continues.
I really would have loved to see these characters have more nuance to them. There were definitely times May was unbelievable naive, the villains were unbelievably cruel, etc.
Another change I would have loved is to the overall structure. The first part of the book spends too long setting the scene for things that are not to be. The middle section is very short. The final section isn’t long enough. I would have loved to see less attention paid to the first section and more attention paid to May in a post-earthquake trying to rebuild her life.
My biggest complaint in this book was the asylum portion. I know that the history of psychiatric care in the US is appalling. I know that patients were treated cruelly and abused. But it comes off as trauma porn. This section of the book discusses various ways in which the asylum staff are unbelievably cruel and abusive to May, but ultimately it doesn’t matter much for the plot of the book anyway. This abuse doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on May in the final section of the book, when real-life psychiatric and medical abuse leaves long lasting scars on the patients.
Ultimately, I thought the book was interesting and the plot was unique. I think pitching this book to be more about the retribution aspect of the plot from the third section would be better to attract the type of reader who would like this than the “girl stumbles into riches” and has a Cinderella moment aspect of the first section that this book seemed to be pitched as. The weakest section of the book was the middle section that takes place in the asylum. I think the strongest part of this book is the historical backdrop and would recommend it to someone who loves historical fiction and Cinderella stories where the main character has to face many hardships before eventually getting their happy ending.
If you liked this review, check out my blog: https://acrosstheskyinstars818513457....
This book was provided to me by the publisher as an advanced reader copy.