1910-1913, New York: A world where men hold the upper hand. Values are changing with the turn of the century. Women are still fighting for their rights. A young female can be sent away or imprisoned for nearly any act of defilement or unbecoming behavior.
Told from three different viewpoints, the story begins through the eyes of Effie, a twelve-year-old growing up in a wealthy household but constrained to a strict set of principles and rules. Longing to hold on to their Victorian values, her family pushes her older sister Luella away. Attached to Luella, Effie finds herself in the House of Mercy after searching for her sister. Luella and Effie’s mother, Jeanne, struggles to maintain her composure while her family begins to crumble. Her social status and reputation in society as a lady cause conflict in her priorities as she seeks to mend her family. Mable befriends Effie in the House of Mercy, but can they trust each other? Mable recalls her past in flashbacks which reveal a pattern of betrayal and deceit.
“There are girls who get put away for more, if they’re not reformed”
“Or repentant”
“It’s like prison. You get put away for however long fits the crime. There are girls who’ve been in there for ten years, twenty. Some never get out, but I heard three years was the minimum.”
“That can’t be true.”
“I’m just telling you what I heard”
3.5 out of 5 stars explained: The setting was great, and I found it suitable and well-researched. The start was slow to build, and the story doesn’t begin to climb until 25% (on a Kindle). I highly enjoyed Mable’s chapters. I found her voice and story to be more fitting to the description of the book. Mable was intriguing and enlightening to the era. The other two POV’s, Effie and Jeanne’s, were not as exciting for the reader and sometimes caused the plot progression to be slower. The actual scenes within the confines of the House of Mercy are limited, and I would say are only detailed in about 12-16% of the entire story itself. You will not learn too much about The House of Mercy from reading this novel.
Most of the story focuses on the family dynamics and some gender conflict. I would have liked to have seen more history apart from the setting and a very small appearance from Inez Milholland. The ending was predictable. The very end, the epilogue, was cheesy and cliché for my taste. It’s not a story that I continued to think about it after reading. Overall, I liked it and found it to be an average read that was engaging during various times and moderate at other times. For the above mentioned reasons, I rounded down to 3 stars. Thanks to Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy. Opinions are my own.
A great article about this topic:
House of Mercy
1932, House of Mercy:
