Author: Jean E. Pendziwol
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2017
Genre(s): historical fiction, contemporary fiction
Part of a Series: No
Rating:
Why I read it: Once Upon a Book Club suggestion
Summary: Morgan is a troubled teen living in the foster care system. After falling for the wrong boy, she ends up having to do community service at a local nursing home. There she meets Elizabeth Livingston, a woman gone blind in her old age who can still see the person Morgan can be. She enlists Morgan' to help her read her father’s old journals from when he was the lighthouse keeper on Porphyry Island in Lake Michigan.
Through the journals and Elizabeth’s own memories, a tale of life on an isolated island spent with her parents, her brothers and her twin sister Emily is told. What also unfolds is a mystery about why Elizabeth and Emily ended up fleeing the island and became estranged with their only surviving brother. And it also unravels a mystery that had plagued Elizabeth for years—her own true identity.
Review: This is an intriguing read that blends history and mystery very well. Pendziwol paints a great picture of life on the island, growing up surrounded by water and isolated from most people except during the warmer months.
Once again, I’ll deal with the weak part first so we can get it out of the way. And the weakest part is Morgan, one of our narrators as the book is written in first person. The problem is that Morgan really isn’t a character. I’m sure Ms. Pendziwol intended for her to be one but in the end, she’s just a plot device. She’s just a reason for Elizabeth to tell us her story. Morgan was almost a character. She has a convincing backstory and seems to have an arc from rebellious teen to one who seems to be finding her way in the world. However that conclusion was never really realized. What did she want? What were her hopes and dreams? She had so much potential but now I wonder if she was needed at all. The story wouldn’t lose anything if she were cut out, which is sad.
Honestly, Elizabeth—our other narrator—could’ve just told the whole story. Some other random minor character could’ve helped her read the journals and piece together the clues, further rendering Morgan relatively pointless.
Had Elizabeth been our narrator, I feel we probably would’ve learned more about her life with her sister Emily. But I also guess the story Pendziwol was completed at that point.
The other characters that populate Elizabeth’s past are more well-defined, though Elizabeth and Emily shine the most. Each are intriguing and the reader wants to know more about them and their lives together. Emily has a connection to the earth and seems almost ethereal, like a fairy. And Elizabeth is the only one who realizes how special she is and sees that her life has meaning when everyone else has dismissed her. Their relationship and bond is beautiful and drives this story more than any other love story in the book. And that is what draws the reader in and keeps us invested.
Bottom line: A lovely story about the bond between two sisters set in the early twentieth century.
Sex: Mentions of both consensual and non-consensual. Nothing graphic though.
Moonlight Musing
Would living on an isolated island be your idea of heaven or hell?
No comments:
Post a Comment