Offered Books:
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
The Philosopher's Flight by Tom Miller
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Still Me by Jojo Moyes
Selected:
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
Others Purchased:
None - yet
With most books, I prefer either a good ghost story or a good mystery - very few (in my experience) weave the two together in a way that satisfactorily resolves both plot lines. Of the many I have read, I'd say only Bag of Bones by Stephen King managed the feat. But The Broken Girls by Simone St. James comes pretty damn close.
The mystery part concerns the sister of our main protagonist: Fiona Sheridan. Her sister was murdered twenty years prior and Fiona has never felt that the true story came out - even though a man was tried and convicted for the murder. Using the excuse of the restoration of Idlewild Hall, Fiona revisits the area where her sister was murdered and begins to re-investigate the event.
Idlewild Hall is also the setting of the continual flashbacks to 1950: a place where 'troublesome' girls are sent, we follow the budding friendship between four of the girls living there and the lead-up to one of them disappearing.
The ghost story is present in both - predating the 1950 segment by many years - and factors into both storylines, giving the reader three intertwining plots that, thankfully, don't get too confusing. In fact, the way St. James weaves these various plot threads together is one of the standout aspects of the novel, and the main reason it was read in almost a single setting.
The mood of the novel is dark and sad, with little to no moments of levity. Despite this, St. James keeps it from being dour, with enough character development and action to keep the reader engaged despite - for obvious reasons - refusing to 'lighten' the novel as it tackles its subject matter.
I really liked this novel. While one of the three storylines doesn't quite wrap up in a way I found satisfactory, it's a brisk read with more than enough to keep me entertained as I made my way through it. In fact, just writing this review makes me want to go back and reread it! So it is a definite recommend.
4 out of 5
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