"So are we really that different? The healthy and the ill?" Grace asked."I would argue there is no difference at all," Thornhollow said. "To me the insane are simply people who have chosen not to participate in the world in the same manner as the majority, and there are days I don't wonder if they've got the right of it." "You make it sound as if hardly anyone is insane with a definition as narrow as that." "Quite the opposite, my definition is too broad. I think we're all quite mad. Some of us are just more discreet about it."
When I started reading this book, I didn't know what to expect. The only thing I knew for sure is that it has a great cover and an interesting title and blurb. I was intrigued so when i was downloading Windows 10, I did exactly what they told me to do: to get comfortable for a while so I picked up this ARC, of course. But anyway, back to the actual book!
It starts with Grace Mae who's in an asylum in Boston. People assume that she is mute because she never talks to anyone. The thing is, she learnt that no one was listening to her in the past so she gave up. You quickly find out that she is here because her parents didn't want her while she was pregnant and that she is supposed to go back home afterward.
She understood babies now, and their reluctance to be born. Once hers was forced into the light and taken away, her body would be of no more use.
She isn't treated well, and that is an understatement. Between the lack of food and the constant punishments she has to face, the outcome isn't pretty and it broke my heart as the same time. Then we meet Falsteed. He's a mysterious and complicated man but I got attached to him. She met him in the asylum's darkness and I wish we would have seen more of him in the book. I loved him.
"Who is this Dr. Thornhollow you spoke of?" She aked.
"Him ? He's the sanest of us all."
"Why is that?"
"Because he knows he's insane."
Then we meet Dr. Thornhollow but he definitely isn't your typical doctor. Not at all. He visits the asylum to make the "loud" patients into numb and docile ones. It involves blood and brain surgery. But after meeting Grace, he agrees to help her to get away from the asylum and in exchange she'll work with him in order to catch murderers.
Thornhollow peered into Grace's eyes and shook his head. "How I've found myself the guardian of a young woman, I'm not sure I'll ever know."
He knows she has skills (she has a really good memory and a quick mind) that can be used and he's also interested in teaching her his science.
All the details of her life, caught forever in her mind. Inescapable.
I wasn't sure where the story was headed at first, but in the end, even if there is no romance and that it's not my typical read, it worked for me. I enjoyed reading about Grace's story. I was hooked by this book right from the start, I liked the intrigue and writing even though the pace could be slow at some moments.
***I wanted to thank HarperTeen for letting me read and review this book.***
You can find it on Goodreads: here.
