June E. (junie) - reviewed on 5/10/2016 + 630 more book reviews

This Is about 18 year old Clara in 1929 and 17 year old Izzy in present day, told in alternating chapters. It is totally gripping and mind boggling and I found it very hard to put down. It was difficult to read about how parents can commit a child to an insane asylum for falling in love with someone they didn't approve of, and then forgetting about her while she lived her life in a hellhole. They didn't know she was pregnant, gave birth there and had her baby stolen away. Thus is the story about poor Clara, I could barely read about the horrors she endured.

Then there is Izzy, whose insane mother shot her father and she refuses to visit her in prison. she is put in the foster system and finally lives with a family who loves her. Her foster mother works for a museum and is collecting items from trunks left by patients in the now closed State Asylum. When they come across Clara's, her story unravels with a journal found by Izzy and she is obsessed with it. She vows to find Clara's daughter and find out what happened to her mother.

There is a lot more to Izzy's story, but I don't usually write a synopsis of a book in my reviews. I guess I was too engrossed with Clara. I was totally absorbed with this book and whole heartedly recommend it.

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