Delusions of Madness by Kimberly K. Taylor; Harrowing Historical Fiction About The Reality of Mental Asylums and Mistreatment of Women

Delusions of Madness by Kimberly K. Taylor; Harrowing Historical Fiction About The Reality of Mental Asylums and Mistreatment of Women

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: Delusions of Madness by Kimberly K. Taylor is about as skin crawling, creepy, harrowing, and anxiety inducing as any Supernatural Horror book or movie. The most disturbing part of this Historical Fiction nightmare is that it is true. It depicts the lives of patients, especially women in a 19th century mental asylum and it does not skimp on any of the details. Even if you don't have dementophobia (fear of insanity-which I do), you might still have nightmares.

Proper 19th century Ohio wife and mother, Cassie Alexander is institutionalized by her husband, Jed who reports that she has gone insane. She hasn't. She and Jed are having marital problems and he is having an affair and needs to get rid of the competition before he can move onto the Second Mrs. Alexander. He convinces a judge that she needs to be institutionalized, so she is sent to a mental asylum.

When Cassie arrives, she finds a filthy degrading place filled with suffering patients, practices that damage them even more, and a sadistic or indifferent staff that tortures and abuses those under their alleged care. It doesn't take Cassie long to figure out that mental asylums are not there to treat people or help them recover. They are places to put people to forget about them.

Mental asylums have become an important topic in the past year with President Trump insisting that immigrants “from prisons and mental asylums” are being sent to the US, probably confusing mental asylums (institutions for the treatment and care of the mentally ill) with asylum seekers (people fleeing persecution, war, or violence and applying for legal recognition as refugees to another country but whose claims are still pending). Last year he signed an executive order aimed at reducing homelessness and severe mental illness by encouraging the expansion of involuntary, long-term commitment into psychiatric care including reducing community health services and bringing back long-term mental institutions and insane asylums.

It's important to remember that the treatment at such centers wasn't always the best and to understand the history of how people were treated back in the day, to recognize the mistreatment for what it was, prevent such abuse from repeating itself, and remember that there are resources that can be contacted if such abuse does happen now.

Taylor pulls no punches in her descriptions of the horrid conditions that Cassie and the other inmates/prisoners suffer through. We are treated to drafty mildewed walls, filthy floors with rancid odors and waste that is barely cleaned, uncomfortable and filthy beds, rats and other vermin that inhabit some of the rooms, and the sounds of tortured sobbing and screaming. It is not a pleasant place to say the least, said Ms. Obvious.

Then there is the staff who make Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest look like Florence Nightingale. They beat and physically torture the patients and purposely use dehumanizing language to bring them down to their lowest basest level.

Dr. Gooding, the asylum's primary physician, sexually assaults the patients. One of the patients ends up pregnant and he arranges for her to have an illegal, painful, and potentially destructive abortion. Matron Harrow, the asylum director is adept at manipulating and mentally abusing her charges. She has a particular vendetta against Cassie because there is a personal link between her and Cassie's erstwhile husband. She saves the worst punishments for her.

The asylum patients are subjected to various torturous punishments disguised as treatment from the moment they enter. They are branded upon entry. If one steps out of line as Cassie does, they are sedated and deprived of food and water. They are subjected to torture disguised as treatment like dunking their heads in ice cold water, throwing them in solitary confinement, or strapping them to a chair and spinning it around to the point of disorienting them.

 There are also early forms of electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomies practiced by people who do not know what they are doing.All of these are means to break a patient's spirits and remove their free will. If they are constantly monitored, ridiculed, tortured, beaten, and dehumanized, they will consent to anything.

The dehumanization is revealed in various ways in the book. Some are left screaming. Others sit in fetal positions crying. Many just lie inert, no longer giving a damn. One woman whose child has died holds nothing but air in her hands under the delusion that her baby is with her. The sad part is if help and reform comes to the asylum, these women will be too far gone to appreciate it.

In some ways, the asylum is representative of the patriarchy. Women’s sanity is determined by husbands, male family members, judges, doctors, and attendants who make medical decisions for them. Women who help the system like matrons, nurses, and Conservative women can only seize power by siding with men and condemning women who don't fit the program. The results are the women are silenced, isolated, deprived of any agency, and left utterly dependent and complacent to whatever abuse they receive.

Just like other facets of the patriarchy, it takes women to challenge it and reveal what is wrong. While most of the female patients are left dependent and animalistic by the abuse, ironically it strengthens Cassie. She argues with staff when she or others are abused. She stands up for and defends those who can no longer speak or reason for themselves. She still recognizes their humanity. She covertly takes notes on her situation and tries to send hidden messages to authority figures so something legal and permanent can be done to stop it. She's not the only one.

The book is set around the same time that Nellie Bly wrote her famous Ten Days in a Mad House expose in which she faked mental illness symptoms to be institutionalized and was sent to Bellevue Hospital and later Blackwell Island. She took notes of the poor treatment and abuse and compiled them into her book which was such a sensation that reforms in mental institutions began almost immediately. Bly and her book even get a shout out in this book as Cassie and her fellow inmates now have someone speaking out for them and telling the truth. 

Cassie in the book and Bly in real life forced the public to see that the mentally ill, particularly mentally ill and institutionalized women are people with names, histories, and identities. They challenged the people in charge and on the outside to recognize their humanity and change and reform the institutions accordingly.

 

The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs; This Woman's Roads Lead From Rome to Etruria

 

The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs; This Woman's Roads Lead From Rome to Etruria 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I admit that as much as I am fascinated by Greco-Roman Mythology and am a huge History and Historical Fiction fan, I actually don't know a lot about Etruscans. I knew that they originated in Etruria and were the early settlers of what would become Rome. They were led by a city-state system. 

They obtained wealth and power through mineral resources, agriculture, and maritime trade with Greece and Carthage. They influenced much of Roman culture. They went into decline after the Etruscan kings were overthrown, conquered by Rome, and the Etruscans absorbed into the Roman Republic/Empire with their culture and language merging with Rome’s. 

Most of the time history treats the Etruscans as a footnote between the fall of Ancient Greece and the rise of Rome. However they were a people with a distinct history and culture. The Etruscans left their own mark in history and The Historical Fiction novel, The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs shows that.

In 406, Caecilia, a young Roman patrician/plebian woman, is arranged to marry Val Mastarna, an Etruscan nobleman as part of a treaty. At first she is unhappy and determined to remain true to her Roman ideals but slowly adjusts and feels accepted in this new world. 

She even comes to care about Masterna, his adopted son, Tarchon, her handmaid/friend Cytheris, and another friend, courtesan Erene. She is caught between the world that she came from and the one in which she loves.

This book is strong in setting and character. The Etruscan setting including time and place is awash with details. It uses the Historical Fiction trope of a newcomer from one society seeing another for the first time and contrasting the societies. It's predictable but in this case works very well.

Caecillia was born and raised in a Roman society where everyone knew their place and position. Caecillia comes from a plebian, lower class, father and patrician, ruling aristocratic mother which Roman society considers her half-caste. While moving from one status to another is possible, there are limitations to what a plebian or their children can be permitted to achieve.

Because of this outsider status, Caecillia’s father raised her beyond the expectations of a proper Roman girl. Instead of just learning basic reading, managing the household, and domestic home care, he raised her to discuss politics, philosophy, leadership, and to read dense literature. What a boy of her status would learn. She becomes quite an intelligent young woman but has nowhere to use it.

After her father dies, Caecillia loses the only encouragement that she has. In the home of her aunt and uncle is where she truly learns that her status as a Roman woman is nonexistent. She is told to wear pale colored linens and to practice homecare. She learns that her authority and status only ends within the household. 

She is to remain housebound while any future Roman husband would fight in battles, head city-states, and manage multiple lands. They can participate in ritualistic games and gatherings while she cannot even look upon them. Her upbringing from her aunt and uncle is rigid, conservative, and uncompromising. After a long time, she is conditioned to accept it.

The education that Caecillia’s father gave her disappears because of her lack of use for it, though it does give her a questioning personality and a strong will. After many years, Caecilia is conditioned to know and accept her place. The potential that she might have had disappears within the required Roman gender roles.

Caecilia is isolated by her stern parental figures only to have her cousin, Marcus, and a family friend, Drusius to confide in. If not for a strange change in circumstances, Caecilia might have remained an upper class desperate Roman housewife. Instead, she is arranged to marry Masterna without her consent. 

It is worth mentioning that this book is set long before Rome would become the Empire which spread throughout the western world. It was still several small unstructured and disorganized city-states that were constantly battling each other. Caecilia’s family lives on the outside of the central government closer to the Etruscans in nearby Veii than they do to other Roman city-states. They are constantly fighting so any form of peace is imperative. 

That is what is the center of Caecilia and Masterna’s arranged marriage. For the Roman and Etruscan city-states to form an alliance with and strengthen their bonds to maintain peace and potentially defend themselves from other larger city-states and enemies.

When Caecilia enters Veii, it’s like she is in a completely different world. Where she dressed in drab plain outfits, the Etruscans wear bright colors and elaborate jewelry. Where she was raised to suppress her emotions and desires as a stoic Roman wife, the Etruscans, even the women, openly discuss their frank sexuality and have very fluid relationships. 

The most impressive discovery that Caecilia learns is that Etruscan women have authority. Caecilia seeks advice from Masterna’s mother who is very politically influential. Even Erene, a courtesan, has advice to give on how to use her sexuality as a power move. Through these women, Caecilia gains self-actualization in her life and marriage which had been lacking in her Roman upbringing.

Because of this influence, Caecilia is able to gain power and prestige in her marriage. She learns that Masterna had a wife that had died, she allows him to grieve up to a point. When the time is right, she informs him that she is in front of him and while his late wife may still have a place in Masterna’s heart, in his home and in his bed Caecilia comes first. 

Caecillia also delays the conception of a child until she is certain that her place is secure in Veii and that she is accepted among the Etruscans. She is also concerned about Masterna’s past difficulties in producing children. She knows that the presence of a child, especially a son, might alter things in her husband’s favor. 

She takes medicine as contraceptives to delay parenthood as long as needed. Only when Caecilia is secure in her marriage and status,and Masterna’s virility, does the possibility of having a family come into play. 

Caecilia also brokers relationships inside Veii. She treats Erene and Cytheris like women with their own agenciesvand gains empathy with their struggles. She has an older sister-kid brother relationship with Tarchon to the point that she advises him to get out of a very unhealthy toxic relationship with Masterna’s priest brother.

Then there’s Masterna. Their relationship begins very antagonistically as she objects to being forced into marriage like a bargaining chip. He tries to dominate her with his masculinity and authority. She chips into his demeanor to discover the more vulnerable open side of him that grieves for the wife that he had while beginning to care for the wife that he is currently married to. His and Caecilia’s marriage evolves into an equal partnership and potentially a love match.

Caecilia changes in her marriage and becomes a stronger, more confident, more self-aware woman, potential leader, and proud Etruscan.

The Waterway Girls by Milly Adams; The Emotional Cost and Support of ‘Doing Your Bit’ in War Time

 

The Waterway Girls by Milly Adams; The Emotional Cost and Support of ‘Doing Your Bit’ in War Time

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Now we come to one of my favorite patterns: two books reviewed at the same time that take different approaches to the same topic. This time we have Bob Van Laerhoven's The Long Farewell and Milly Adams’ The Waterway Girls. Both are Historical Fiction WWII novels which involve regular people getting involved in ways that aren't on the direct battlefield and forces them into facing personal and political situations that change them. The differences between them lie in tone and theme.

The Long Farewell is a journey into the heart of darkness as Hermann Becht, the young protagonist, leaves his toxic home life to become a spy investigating concentration camps. He recognizes the inhumanity around him and the shadow reaches within his own soul.

The Waterway Girls recognizes darkness including war, deaths of loved ones, poverty, domestic violence, child abuse, and misogyny. But it does all of this with the nostalgia filter that speaks of courage, sacrifice, and doing one's bit to uphold those fighting and especially the community left behind. I don't want to say that it's lighter toned but it does make individual contributions a central focus and moves the historical context from something that people are still faced with these days into something that was direct products of its time. 

Polly Holmes has recently lost her twin brother and her fiance is also off fighting. Polly decides that she wants to help on the home front. She uses her training on boats to become a waterway girl. These were women who transported cargo from one place to another. Polly sails from London to Manchester but she doesn't travel alone. She travels with Bet Burrows, the sturdy lead and Verity Clement, an upper class woman with a severe attitude problem and buried secrets. The three women navigate their way through an unusual, detailed, and sometimes harsh environment, face disagreements with each other, and focus on their own issues.

The Waterway Girls is the type of novel that blends the political and the personal. One way that Adams does this is by focusing on the setting. The time is marked by great change where many men fought in the war and others had to do their bit to support them like taking jobs, organizing air raid defense and shelters, joining home guard defense, gathering supplies, organizing entertainment, building gardens, hosting evacuees and many other ways. 

However the book doesn't just focus on the war. It focuses on waterfront life. The various riverside towns and their people are brilliantly described but thankfully without making them cloying or overly sentimental. The book captures the duties, terminology, and socio-cultural lives of the people whose lives revolve around the river in which they live near.

The book also explores personal conflicts inhabited by the people involved. We see extreme poverty which causes many to resort to crime and violence to pay the bills. There is a subplot about an abusive man who threatens his family, particularly his young son who bonds with the protagonists.

The main characters are affected by the war and exposure to river life. Bet, Polly, and Verity are three of many people whose lives are irrevocably changed by fighting the war on the home front.

Because of this change, many previous lines are erased. Women gain physical strength, persevere despite stress, and gain agency. Bet is very knowledgeable about seamanship and is able to pursue these interests without being sidelined by male employers. She is able to command a boat and guide its crew to become the person that she always wanted to be.

Polly also gains independence and strength through her work. She turns her grief into action as she works to deliver cargo. Her interest in boating and waterfront life comes to practical use. Polly also uses her loss to empathetically bond with many of the people that she encounters. Polly is someone who turned her tragedy into triumph.

By far the strongest character development is found in Verity. She comes from an upper class background which causes her to be initially sheltered and set apart from her colleagues. Her argumentative standoffish nature cost them one crew member before Polly’s arrival. Just as Polly has to learn independence, and Bet has to learn leadership, Verity has to learn how to be part of a team.

The Waterway Girls gives plenty of insights over how WWII was fought on the home front and how it changed the people who lived through it.

Shut Me Up in Prose by Maithy Vu; The Women's Mind in Short Story Form

 Shut Me Up in Prose by Maithy Vu; The Women's Mind in Short Story Form

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Shut Me Up in Prose by Mathy Vu is an anthology that brilliantly explores the struggles that women face including love, family, careers, appearance, gender identity, sexuality, relationships, emotions, mental health, fear, identity struggles, self-reflection, and authenticity. It uses various styles and genres from Thrillers, Mysteries, Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, and Contemporary Fiction to explore the wide tapestry of the female experience. It truly says a lot about women and uses many unique and colorful voices to say it. 

“Little Liability”

The Narrator ruminates about her close friend, Marion who she first met as a child and helped her through a difficult past. Now she’s afraid that Marion’s influence is going too far particularly with her new relationship.

It’s pretty easy to guess the twist but the story is less concerned with who Marion actually is than how much influence that she has on the Narrator’s. She alternates between admiration and disgust at Marion and her behavior.

The Narrator recalls times when Marion protected her from her abusive father, or when she encouraged her to pursue her art passion. However she also had a negative influence on the Narrator by interfering with her relationship then encouraging the Narrator to engage in self-harm and other toxic behaviors during the explosive aftermath. 

A new relationship makes The Narrator’s link to Marion even more questionable and concerning. She tolerated Marion’s existence and even thrived from it when it was just the two of them. Now she is forced to see it through another’s eyes and what was once creative and eccentric is now intrusive and troubling. It makes her unable to socialize with others because she is afraid of Marion’s unpredictability. She wants a stable life and Marion can’t give that to her.

There is another aspect to Marion in the story. Marion is part of The Narrator’s psyche that she tries to repress, tries to fit her into a form and personality, something that can be contained and hidden when she doesn’t want her to appear. What she fails to account for is that The Narrator can’t suppress Marion because she would be suppressing a part of herself. The part that is authentic and alive. She tries to conform to the roles others expect her to but The Narrator can only live a half life without her. 

 It’s worth noting that the short story is written in second person addressing The Narrator as “you.” It involves the Reader saying that we are sometimes filled with the same nervousness and insecurities. We feel split in more than one part and have to play various roles. We have a shadow self that can’t always be hidden inside us. We all have that aspect and have to balance it out with the other side of ourselves. We are Marion, but we are also The Narrator. 

“Gumball on a Sunny Day”

A little girl, Daisie, goes through a typical day. While on her own at a grocery store she meets a boy who puts her in an ambiguously ominous situation.

This story is a tight Thriller that illustrates a reality that females must face every day even as young as childhood. Daisie’s story is a microcosm of those experiences. Her story appears to have a feeling of warmth in childhood nostalgia but it is tinged with adult cynicism. 

 Daisie is self-conscious and preoccupied about her bad posture, stringy hair, and especially her pink braces which embarrass her. Kids make fun of her mistakes and accidents and even when they don’t, Daisie imagines that they are judging her. When her art class is assigned to paint their worst fears, Daisie draws her adult self with braces. 

Through Daisie’s experience, we see the anxieties that start in childhood and never disappear in adulthood. Women especially have these fears about their appearance, weight, manner of dress, behavior, emotions, and thoughts. 

With social media those fears have only multiplied as we are constantly monitored not only by people in our inner circle but everyone in our networks, our platforms, and around the world. Those standards of perfection begin when we are little girls wearing braces, having bad backs, and running fingers through our stringy messy hair. 

There’s another aspect in Daisie’s journey and here’s where the dangerous omens really come into play. Daisie is made to walk home alone when her father neglects to pick her up. The little boy feigns friendship with her by complimenting her, talking about shared interests, then kisses her. 

While sweet on the surface, there is something off about this meeting. The boy is too polite and too forward to someone who should be a complete stranger, especially when he goes in for the kiss. That little thought of “this isn’t right” grows when the boy’s father shows up, offers the girl a ride home, and while in the car the girl is purposely kept from listening to their conversation. 

This is something else that women learn as they age, how dangerous the world can be. Daisie learns that there are many men who will hurt her either by neglect, force, or coercion. In the space of a few pages, she is hurt and abandoned by three men in her life, neglected by her father, manipulated by the boy, and murdered by his father. 

Oddly enough, the boy is also learning from his father how to trap women with compliments, how to isolate and dominate them, then how to dispose of them. This is even shown at the end when the boy and the man find a new target to pursue. It is a vicious cycle of patriarchal abuse that objectifies, controls, and destroys women then moves onto another generation. 

“The Underwater Circus”

The Narrator recounts her time at an underwater circus where she donned a mermaid costume and did water acrobatics for the audience. She recalls several members of the crew and the power struggle between the ringmaster and a former mermaid/seamstress who the other dancers call “Mama.”

This story is a Fantasy allegory about the power struggles between men and women. The Underwater Circus is a bit of wish fulfillment between the performers and the audience. They want to see mermaids, otherworldly creatures so the circus makes that happen. They sell a fantasy that the people buy and particularly the men can ogle over.

The circus is a fantasy that holds everyone under their spell. The mermaids are similar to singers, actresses, models, and influencers who sell an image. That image is to be beautiful, sexy, alluring, seductive, ethereal, and unattainable. Like they come from another world that one can imagine but never approach. 

It’s no coincidence that the performers are dressed as mermaids. In folklore, mermaids are beautiful sea creatures who captivate men while luring them to their deaths. They enchant them by their appearance and sexuality. They are similar to sirens but sirens lure men with their voices not their appearance.

 It’s also often speculated that sirens use their skills to protect their territory to keep men away but men can’t resist. Mermaids seem to have no other motive than to draw men in with their allure playing into their fantasies and expectations. This is revealed in the line (one of the most honest lines in the entire anthology): “When they exist for them, we are called mermaids. When we live for ourselves, they call us sirens.” Both are considered fatal but mermaids are thought of as seductresses and sirens are thought of as monsters. 

This dichotomy of how the male gaze hovers between accepting mermaids but rejecting sirens comes in the exchanges between the Ringmaster and the performers. To him they are to be perfect, ethereal, and inhuman. If they show human frailties like disfiguration, pregnancy, marriage, aging, illness, anger, or defiance, then they are removed. They are products, packages to sell so he can profit off their beauty and the illusion that he creates through them. They can’t show personality, can’t be imperfect, can’t go through regular lifestyle changes, can’t challenge authority, can’t be human. 

There is one character that stands up to the Ringmaster. That is Mama formerly known as Nova the Sea Nymph. She sold the fantasy as well as she started in the circus when she was very young. She became a legend until her age caught up with her and worked behind the scenes. She understands the importance of putting on a show and maintaining the illusion but not at the expense of the performers. She defends them when they are abused, provides comfort when their jobs are threatened, and is a voice of opposition towards their employer. She sees what he does not, that they are women and human beings, not unreal creatures from mythology. 

Mama’s protective nature towards the girls comes forward in a moment when drunken revellers attack the circus in a frantic mob. The fantasy is no longer enough and now these men won’t control their urges. They want the reality and will possess the mermaids to get it. They stop when the women prove to be a powerful force and fight them back, in effect freeing themselves. 

With Mama, they are no longer passive participants. They actively control the narrative, the fantasy that they are selling. Instead of being objects to be ogled and dominated, they inspire girls and their mothers to be confident, strong, and look inward. When they do make themselves up, it’s in front of one another as a private reflection. Their beauty is for themselves, their choices, and their own gaze not others. 

“Sage in Security”

In a future world that is divided by different color cards, The Narrator is offered her dream job in security analysis. Unfortunately, it becomes a nightmarish situation when she wakes up with a different face and everyone assumes that she is someone else. 

There is something Kafkaesque about this story of an office setting that is so dehumanized that they recognize someone not through their appearance but their card identification. It’s pretty on the nose but Science Fiction often turns our daily lives into something harsher and darker than the world that we already live in.

Everyone is separated by color card identification. It’s implied that the color cards determine people’s education, training, careers, and social status. Yellows for example are artists, writers, and other creative professions. There are even different identifications according to shades. While The Narrator is a green and works for a tech company, they are still divided.

 As a Sage, the Narrator is put in a top level security system and is told that there is a hierarchy. Emeralds are on top as the executives. Sages are right under them as security. Limes are in admin/clerical, Viridian are in supplies. Olives do the manual grunt work. People are put in their places and are expected to fit a specific role. Similar to other structured hierarchies like the Brain Waves in Brave New World or the District Numbers in The Hunger Games, the sorting is arbitrary but is an attempt to define a person and fit them into a preselected box. Is it any more arbitrary than minimizing someone's abilities by skin color, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, or gender identity?

The Narrator goes through a transformation as she starts her job. She doesn’t recognize her own face when she looks in the mirror. Her colleagues call her by another name that isn’t hers and her card switches green shades from sage to olive. It is never outright stated why this change occurs. It may be a part of her job that she was never told. During the interview, she is rushed through signing a contract so there could be some amendment that states her identity becomes theirs and through some futuristic technology, they are allowed to change it however they see fit.

There are other possibilities. Since the transformation is not observed by anyone else but her, it could be a manifestation of her own mind. It could be a projection of her nerves brought on by Imposter Syndrome. She is clearly apprehensive at her interview and worried about making a good impression. On her first tour of the place, she second guesses her dress, her reactions, her gestures, and her tone. She has to put up an appearance and wear another face in her workplace relationship. She feels like she doesn’t belong so she thinks of herself as a separate person. This fear could now be real.

The strongest possibility is that the dilemma doesn’t lie in her anxiety about her changed face, but how her co-workers react to it. The answer is they don’t. She is worried that they might call security or freak out but that doesn’t happen. She goes to meetings, gives her reports, meets the bosses, and shares gossip with her colleagues like it’s any given Tuesday. They don’t notice. Granted, she’s a new employee and they might not fully remember her yet, but more than likely they don’t notice her because they are conditioned not to. 

It doesn’t matter who she is personally as long as the work gets done. They don’t even bother to memorize her face or her name so she could be anyone to them. They just see the color card which conforms to their expectations. She is part of an inhuman system that devalues her. Her identity, her personality, her friendships are what makes her human. To society however, The Narrator is just a warm body who could be anybody as long as the work gets done.

“The Daylily Darling”

Aster, a young woman has a strange birth defect of wildflowers growing out of her face. She works in her mother’s theatre where Antoinette, a singer with the same defect, makes her debut. 

This story is very similar to that of the many real life freak show performers of the 19th and 20th century whose oddities made them physically different such as Charles Stratton, Gen. Tom Thumb a Little Person, Chang and Eng Bunker conjoined twins, Robert Wadlow the world’s tallest man, Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man who had neurofibromatosis, and Annie Jones, a singer with extreme hirsutism. They were often limited with their options: forced into hiding and exile by their families, submit to constructive surgeries when it was available, or accept what they had and dramatize it. We see these options revealed in the story. 

Aster was cast aside by her birth family and isolated by her adopted mother. She was home schooled,now hides in the theater, and works behind the scenes. One of her duties significantly is to shine a spotlight on the performers. She brings light to their achievements and successes but hides in the darkness because that’s where her mother prefers her. She is taught to be ashamed of her peculiarity. Incidentally, this concept of human oddities and someone with a disability who works behind the scenes is also featured in another novel that I am reviewing, Addie's Eyes by Tim Landry. Once again two or more books engagingly overlap in subject, style, or theme.

It’s significant that this condition is one in which flowers grow on Aster’s face. Partly because it’s not an actual condition so there is almost something otherworldly, practically fairy-like about it. Her appearance resonates old fears of other creatures that are beyond human understanding and can't be identified, counted, quantified, controlled, and dominated by their standards.

The other reason is because flowers are usually objects of beauty, wildflowers particularly so. Something so universally believed to be beautiful becomes a sign of ugliness and isolation when it’s on someone’s face. 

Flowers signify many deeper emotions so that some believe that certain flowers correspond to different meanings. Daylilies for example are prominent with both Aster and Antoinette. Aster counts them as one of the flowers on her face and Antoinette is called “The Daylily Darling.” 

Daylilies are symbolic of motherhood which Aster has been deprived of by her neglectful birth mother and abusive adopted mother. Antoinette takes a mentor role with her by talking to her and encouraging her to stand out.

The daylilies are also symbols for forgetting worries and anxieties which Antoinette herself practices. Aster is anxious and self-conscious, always wanting to hide. Antoinette not only stands out but she celebrates and dramatizes her difference from other people. She wears clothes that match the flowers on her face. She sings, dances, performs, and banters with the audience. She reasons that people are going to look at her anyway, they might as well pay for the privilege and she can display her talents. Her face may have put them to the door but her talents and personality kept them there. 

They also symbolize flirtatiousness. Antoinette flirts with her audience and with Aster. She helps Aster embrace her beauty rather than run from it. She gives her beautiful gowns, and advises her on how to fix her hair or accent her peculiar face. She becomes hands on in teaching her to dance suggesting the relationship might be physical. It certainly is emotional. 

When Aster emerges fully dressed in a new green gown following Antoinette’s advice, she has changed from an innocent girl to an experienced woman. Let’s just say that her flowers are in full bloom.With Antoinette, Aster sees the type of woman who she could be. One that can come from out of the darkness and shine a light on herself. Flowers need sun and a chance to grow, so Aster is giving herself that chance. Thanks to the solidarity of a woman who showed her how.

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House of Grace by Patricia M. Osborne; Finding Grace and Strength Through Adversity and Change

 House of Grace by Patricia M. Osborne; Finding Grace and Strength Through Adversity and Change

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum in this review but I can't make any promises. Please read at your own discretion. 

One thing that can be said about the life of Grace Granville, the protagonist of Patricia M Osborne’s Historical Fiction novel, House of Grace is that it certainly wasn't dull and conflict free. This is a novel starring a captivating woman and is full of passion, ambition, change, economic rises and falls, love lost and won, triumph and tragedies, and deep emotional pain and joy. 

Grace begins the book as a 16 year old schoolgirl at an affluent boarding school in Brighton. She loves it because she can escape from her abusive, domineering, entitled, and wealthy parents, hang out with her best friend Katy Gilmore, and design and create clothing as she aspires to be a fashion designer. While visiting Katy’s family, she is drawn to Katy's cousin, Jack, a coal miner. After she is unable to continue her education or pursue a career in fashion, Grace considers marrying Jack to her parent's protests, threats to cut her off, and forced courtship with a more prestigious suitable man. To get out of this situation, she makes a reckless decision that draws her away from her parents and into Jack’s arms and life.

The book is divided into two parts and the tone changes dramatically to reflect that shift. The first part is a romantic drama with some lighthearted moments as Grace demonstrates how out of her element that she sometimes is in a middle to working class environment. The second part is more of a family tragedy as Grace is faced with various struggles and heartbreak.

Grace goes through great changes that alter her mindset and test her will. For example, while visiting Katy and Jack’s family, she has a hard time getting used to servants and employers talking to each other on a friendly basis and using first names. She also recognizes some of her own snobbishness after she carelessly mocks Jack and his friend’s old clothing before they are introduced. She is never intentionally cruel but realizes that her sheltered insulated upbringing did not give her much of an opportunity to interact with different people or provide her with the tools to earn a living with little money. 

Grace sees something greater with Katy and Jack’s family than she had with her own. In her past, Grace had a family that withheld affection and parents who treated her and her sister like commodities to be educated and then married off. With the Gilmores, she sees a natural warmth and kindness, a family that she would like to be a part of instead of her own. This culminates in a dramatic moment when Grace is disowned and disinherited by her birth family and she is taken in by the Gilmores. She is now among people who might be inferior to her parents in class and social status, but are superior to them in love and kindness.

One of the strongest themes in this book is change and whether a person can adjust and adapt to them. Adaptability is one of Grace’s strongest gifts. She has to reinvent herself a number of times throughout the book and survive change and hardship. 

In the second half of the book, Grace is at her lowest point emotionally. She suffers a devastating loss that changes her circumstances forever and is faced with a cruel choice. It is a difficult time of intense grief made worse by this heart wrenching choice. However, Grace somehow manages to find her inner strength and resources to not only survive but thrive and succeed. 

House of Grace is the kind of novel that alternates between sadness and happiness. It can make a Reader cry on one page then make them applaud on the next. Like its main character, this book is truly a work of grace. 

All Silence Must Cease (The Peacebringer Series Book 2) by Raymond W. Wilkinson; The Women of Vespa Academy Are Back in a Brave New Bloody World

 

All Silence Must Cease (The Peacebringer Series Book 2) by Raymond W. Wilkinson; The Women of Vespa Academy Are Back in a Brave New Bloody World 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: If there is one trend that has stood out among the books that I am reading this year so far, it's the abundance of sequels. I have read nine sequels so far so many that I am considering making a separate Best of Category just for sequels at the end of the year. It's not just that they are common sequels either. They are sequels to books that were favorites in years past. This year, I read Wallace House of Pain by S.M. Stevens, the follow up to Beautiful and Terrible Things which was my #1 Contemporary Fiction book last year. I also read Merchants of Light and Bone by Erika McCorkle and The Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage by David Neuman the continuations of Merchants of Knowledge and Magic and Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity respectively, both of which were my top favorites from 2022. Not to mention the continuing adventures of The Forge Trilogy in The Shadow Guardians Series by G. Russell Gaynor, The Others by Evette Davis, The Mantis Gland Series by Adam Andrews Johnson, The Everlan Trilogy by Conor Jest, and The Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mysteries by Russ Colchamiro. Well we can also add All Silence Must Cease, the second book in The Peacebringer Series by Raymond W. Wilkinson, the follow up to To End Every War which was my favorite book of 2023.

To End Every War was a unique book in the Epic Fantasy genre in that it wasn't an Epic Fantasy. I mean it was. It was set in an Alternate version of our world in 1902 where Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Centaurs, Selkies, demon-like Abraxas, and Fairies exist alongside Humans and in this case attend university together. There were the usual tropes that can be found in such works: arcane mysteries, magic, strife among various kingdoms, and so on. 

But what set it apart was that the focus was on the characters, a circle of female friends and their conflicts with each other and adjustments to living in a new environment away from home. No epic quests, no good vs. evil battle. Just six women of different species, backgrounds, and personalities learning to live with and like each other, more Feminist than Fantasy. In my previous review, I compared it to “Lord of the Rings meets Mary McCarthy’s The Group” and said that “it's not an Epic Fantasy with an All-Female cast. It's a Woman's Fiction Novel that happens to have a Fantasy setting.” I did not exaggerate.

The second volume is less character driven and more plot driven but no less interesting. Alongside the individual characters and their internal issues within themselves, each other, and their peers, it also puts them into the larger scope of warring communities, secret societies, political backstabbing, and their own roles as future community leaders, influencers, and fighters. 

The women are definitely rife with personal trauma that has affected their lives in Vespa Academy. Esmeralda Vespa, the Human future Duchessa, becomes a central figure in various power struggles. She weighs potential marriages and obtains a very dangerous rival with an unstable prince.

Zabel Lusine, an enigmatic Elf is pregnant and has a secret marriage to another Elf while her husband's guardian is her patron. Her body is also inhabited by a simulacrum, a violent Dark Elf named Shamir.

Viatrix Corna, a scholarly Dwarf finds her image of her family and species called into question. She has to deal with her father having an extramarital affair, her brother being part of a Socialist organization that is planning violence, and her grandfather being a member of a secret society that finances many of the happenings in the other lands.

While Alya Pamoroyan, an Abraxas, is studying in Vespa Academy, her kingdom has been attacked. She is anxious about her parents who are reported missing and her newly married sister, Dina who will soon be right in the thick of things.

Kirsi Takala, a Selkie, is struggling to put a hold on her violent nature, which all Selkies possess (and makes them good but terrifying fighters). She also is trying to solve a mystery involving her mother's time in Vespa and the dark secrets that led to her dismissal and a murder.

Kamila “Kam” Ruszo, a Human/Fairy hybrid is going through physiological changes as her body transforms into a more Fairy-like form. She also learns that her mother is a spy and assassin and has the Royal family in her sight.

The six women's struggles are both external and introspective, mixing the personal and political. There are great moments that collide their private lives with their public and pushes them into a wider circle of influence and change.

One of those moments involves an assassination attempt during a public event. The characters also face various conflicts such as Kam’s with her mother, Viatrix with her father and brother, Kirsi with bullying students, Alya with Dina, Esmeralda with the prince, and Zabel with Shamir during the attempt and its aftermath. These intertwining conflicts change their lives by pushing them onto darker, unsettling, and unstable paths.

The larger big picture events surround the characters but except for some violent moments and allegiances of older friends and family members do not directly involve them. Being peripherally involved might not be the same way as physically involved but it is no less traumatic.

They might be on the edge of the events, but those edges are becoming narrower and they will soon be thrown in.

Right now they have to live with the consequences of other’s actions. They worry about family members being exiled or disappearing. They are disillusioned by family members who walk violent and treacherous paths. Their darker sides become even more present as they give into violence, sadness, and rage. They weigh the changes that will be made to end these conflicts. 

The strengths in both this and the previous book is the tight sisterhood and solidarity that form around the main characters. In this book, we still see that each character is able to put her own worries aside and use her talents to aid the others. Whether it's Viatrix’s scholarly pursuits, Kam’s interest in sneaking in and out of forbidden places, Zabel's intuitive wisdom, Alya's stoic rationality, Kirsi’s obstinate energy, or Esmeralda’s leadership and big picture thinking, these women always find a way to help one another through their various struggles. Which makes the ending all the more questionable, darker, and potentially even more tragic.

As the book ends, each character is recruited by secret organizations, go home to fight in their own way, make advantageous marriages and alliances, and settle into private lives in their kingdoms while becoming involved with the local political scene. In other words, they have to take larger parts in the worlds around them.These changes could mean that they will not only participate in the upcoming conflicts but will be forced into becoming enemies with each other. 

The school motto might be “To End Every War” but war seems to be what is going to happen. The characters have to decide whether they will take part or stick together to find a way around war and end it.

Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thompson Carr; A Pleasant Dining Experience With Lovely Characters on The Side

 Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thompson Carr; A Pleasant Dining Experience With Lovely Characters on The Side

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Jodi Thompson Carr’s Lunch Ladies is a tasty delightful treat that pays tribute to the unsung heroes of every school dining experience, the cafeteria workers. Through their cooking, serving, and cleaning up, they make sure that every kid has at least one hot meal a day. Now with Free Lunch programs being held under scrutiny, their role within academic settings is even more important and should be all the more recognized. This book is a lovely pleasant experience of a few weeks spent exploring the inner lives of various characters, particularly three protagonists who work at the Hanley School District’s lunch department in Hanley, Minnesota.

It's almost time for the 4th of July festivities during the Bicentennial of 1976 and the women of the lunch department are preparing for this event while serving daily meals and dealing with their own problems.

Crystal has an unusual hobby. She scours obituaries mentally matching the recently deceased up with the living, therefore creating couples in her imagination. Her active fantasy life and imagination is a distraction from her conflicts with her aging grandmother and troubled niece.

Coralene is happily married to her husband, Jasper. Her simple life is about to become complicated when her wayward nephew, Tanner moves in.

Sheila lives a life of routine, eating at the same places, watching the same shows, and indulging in her independence and predictability. That predictability goes through a severe change when she reunites with a former acquaintance only to find herself falling in love with him.

Lunch Ladies is one of those types of novels that isn't really about anything. Well no, it's about various things like love, separation, family, and death but the focus is not so much about what happens than who is affected by these circumstances. It's a few months in the lives of these characters as they deal with the various shake ups in their lives. There's enough quirky charm and harsh drama to make the Reader like, even love, these characters as they go through these shake ups.

It's the kind of book that has details that are almost too precious to be ignored like character names for example. Coralene and most of the female members of her family have names that are variations of Cora-Cora, Coralene, Coravelle, DeCora, etc.-I would comment some more but the names “Edsel” and “Jean” are frequent on my mother's side of the family, the Riopelles. 

Crystal’s late mother's name was Pearl and she had a twin sister named Ruby. Crystal's grandmother and niece lucked out by being named Leonora and Darcy respectively. (Too bad, Emerald and Sapphire or Diamond and Amethyst would have been pretty.)

There are three sisters on the Bicentennial parade committee nicknamed, Hi, Lo, and Glad. Sheila catches the attraction of a named Tom Downlane (He joked that he's “Tom who lives Down the Lane.”) One of Crystal's obituary projects is named Roger Squirrel. The names reveal the idiosyncrasies of the characters.

The characters have little traits and quirks that make them stand out and Readers infer and learn who these people are just by their thoughts and mannerisms. Crystal's obituary reading/matchmaking is certainly very strange but leads to much speculation. Perhaps she is a firm believer in life after death and wants some sign that it's possible. Maybe she is obsessed with death and wants to meet it head on. The strongest possibility is that she is in search of a story. 

Crystal is unable to take any type of charge in her life. She works at a hard job with little recognition or pay. Her mother and aunt died. Her grandmother is losing her faculties. She is at odds with her niece, Darcy who calls her out on her lack of attention to the real world around her. Crystal’s only means of escape are inside the little matchmaking fantasies inside her head. They are the only ways that she can connect and truly feel like she contributed something to someone. Inside her head is where she finds freedom and involvement.

While Crystal’s headspace is where she finds comfort, Coralene looks more outward. She wears loud printed pants suits to be seen as more modern, willing to change but still do her job. She is a very central force within her family and community. She is a warm nucleus that draws others in, particularly Tanner.

Tanner has had a difficult life with his neglectful parents. He can be polite and soft spoken but also carries a lot of anger and resentment. This attitude plus his dubious reputation adds some strife into Coralene 's home, life, and marriage. He has never been close to someone who has natural warmth like Coralene so he doesn't know what to do with it, nor does she know how to react to him. However, Coralene and Tanner are both decent enough people that the love is present even when they are at odds.

Sheila is the oldest of the trio and probably the most regretful. She is a former English teacher who had a previous romance but now has a rigid private life. She goes to the same Denny's every day to the point that she befriends Lexi, the young server. She corrects the girl’s grammar, answers her questions about life and love, and gives her anecdotes from her teaching career. That she has a close intergenerational friendship with someone who would normally be a casual acquaintance shows Sheila’s awareness that her independent life comes with strings like loneliness and emotional instincts that are aching to be filled.

Her late in life romance should be a breath of fresh air, a late flaming roar of passion. Instead it unnerves and confuses her, asking more questions than answers. It forces her to confront her feelings of love and mortality. For a woman whose life became rigid routine and living vicariously through acquaintanceship with others, Sheila can't handle the deep emotional chasms, the countering attachments, and rapid disruptions that this relationship brings to her.

The Hanley setting leads a lot to the book’s characterization. It's a small town where everything, even the seemingly most minor issues become big deals. Everyone is involved with the Bicentennial from designing floats, preparing catering services, planning themes. The changes in the lunch department becomes a source of conflict as Sheila wants to survey students and faculty over the food choices and portions. This book shows that line between networking and annoyance where it's nice to have a support system when one needs help but it can also be suffocating because everyone is in everybody's face and in everybody's way. 

Also while Hanley looks idyllic, that might be on the surface. Some characters like the slow pace and friendly neighbors but others are just used to it. Characters like Crystal, Coralene, and Sheila are so used to their routines, hobbies, and mindsets that they don't have any desire to aspire for something different. Why dream of getting away? There are bills to pay, shows to watch, kids to raise, committees to join, lunches to cook, and obituaries to read. Hanley is a comfort zone that they benignly accept. It's not a bad place, just ordinary, regular, typical, nice, and pleasant.

There is an edge to the book that keeps it from being too copying or schmaltzy. That edge is hinted at in some of the character's subplots though not deeply explored until late in the book. Something terrible happens that jolts the characters out of their complacency and personal conflicts. It seems to come unexpectedly though, it was subtly hinted throughout the book.

 This incident forces the characters to come out of those benign comfort zones that they built around themselves, to make great changes, and to reshape their lives. Like many hard times, the characters’ strength and resilience comes through because of the events around them.

Lunch Ladies is filled with memorable characters and a setting that can be sweet and harsh, funny and tear jerking, vulnerable and strong, charming and realistic, beautiful and tragic. It is a delectable feast of great emotion.

Weight of a Woman by Judith Jackson-Pomeroy; Substantial Characters Counter Light Development

 

Weight of a Woman by Judith Jackson-Pomeroy; Substantial Characters Counter Heavy Length 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: There is an old trick or piece of advice with storytelling. It’s “Tell people what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you already told them.” It works well when you are writing short works like a review, a political column, even a short story or a novella. It doesn’t work so well when you are trying to write a longer work like a novel. That’s the biggest problem with Judith Jackson-Pomeroy’s novel Weight of a Woman, a romance with fascinating leads but not enough to do that changes them.

Sara Wolfe is a Women’s Studies college professor and outspoken Feminist. She is a popular teacher and bonds with her students. She is in a long term but open relationship with Tom, another professor and has close friends in Jane, director of the Women’s Resource Center and Marco, an award winning poet. Even though she is well respected at this university, she has her sights set on a Wellesley fellowship. However, her seemingly perfect life hides some disturbing secrets. While attending a concert with her friends, Sara becomes enamored with Seth, a rock singer who is also one of her students. As if a romance with a student wasn’t controversial enough, Seth also has secrets of his own that could jeopardize his career and his relationship with Sara. 

The sad part is Weight of a Woman is actually very good, particularly in terms of characterization. The core romance is between two people who are seriously damaged and are in desperate need of psychiatric care. The type of romance that could strengthen or tear them apart and this book suggests that this s in danger of doing both. 

Sara projects an image of great confidence, wisdom, and integrity who courageously shares her convictions and stands by them. But that image disguises the troubled broken soul underneath. Her relationship with Tom is very toxic and emotionally abusive as Tom condescends her with his misogynistic and homophobic views and chips away at her Feminist views as a means of control. 

She is riddled with insecurities and anxiety that manifests itself as severe Anorexia. She starves herself and degrades her own appearance. In social situations, where she has to be seen eating, she chews her food, but doesn’t swallow. Instead, she empties it out into a napkin.

Sara is also a sexual assault survivor which has given her massive PTSD and trust issues. She can’t trust the men that she’s involved with and often has a hard time trusting herself. She stands as a paragon of Feminist values because they represent the type of woman that she wants to be, not the woman that she actually is.

 Even though Seth expresses his views through his songs and is just as committed to his beliefs as Sara is to hers, he has problems of his own. His music career is at a crossroads and he is torn between staying true to his artistic integrity and signing with a major label to get more money and exposure but selling out. 

Similar to Sara, Seth also has self-destructive tendencies. He has a history of cutting and is addicted to various drugs. Like Sara, he also projects an air of charisma and creative defiance, but his addictions reveal his vulnerabilities. He can't hide the needle marks on his arms or scars on his body just like Sara can't hide her dangerously thin weight.

Sara and Seth are memorable characters, either alone or together. This book is a brilliant character study of this pair.The conflicts are interesting because they expose their frailties and leave them at their most naked, honest, and defenseless. Unfortunately, Sara and Seth are hampered by constant repetition and little changes in their development. 

There are only so many times where we can hear the characters argue about the same things over and over. Marco and Jane arrange various interventions for Sara so often that they are practically scheduled. Sara and Seth confront one another about their addictions but these confrontations appear to have little bearing since they still fall into them. Yes, that happens often in real life where people often don't seek help or have the same issues and this book brilliantly explores that. But at the same time, it also stands as a red flag for why Sara and Seth might not be good for each other. 

Their disagreements about the trajectory towards Seth’s recording career, particularly his selling out, are almost hypocritical on Sara’s part since she too desires to ascend to a higher position with more money. Also they are divided by different views on sexuality which is a huge wedge between them that becomes more prominent the more they argue about it.

The book could benefit from a tighter narrative structure with more character self reflection and evolution. While individually, Seth and Sara are intriguing and could be a compatible happy couple, they could just as easily break up. They already have plenty of emotional baggage and different views on how they see their future. Because of having the same arguments and discussions, they can’t seem to reconcile them. A late complication suggests happiness, but it could just as easily lead to more strife and trouble. 

Because of the little change in character, Pomeroy does them a huge disservice. She gives plenty of good reasons why they need to work on themselves and get some serious psychiatric and emotional help separated or at least as friends. But she doesn’t give us enough good reasons why we should be rooting for them to stay together. 

Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor by Rebecca Rosenberg; Another Gold Standard Historical Women's Fiction By Rosenberg

Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor by Rebecca Rosenberg; Another Gold Standard Historical Women's Fiction By Rosenberg

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

This book is available on Voracious Readers Only 

Spoilers: Rebecca Rosenberg has made a career of writing Historical Fiction novels about fascinating and captivating women whose names might have skipped under modern radars but who left lasting legacies in their time and in ours. Her previous work, The Champagne Widows series, captured Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin and Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Melin Pommery, two Frenchwomen whose business sense, marketing style, and resilience changed the wine industry forever. 

This time Rosenberg takes her writing talents to the United States and gives us probably her most captivating, controversial, and outstanding protagonist yet in Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor. Elizabeth McCourt “Baby Doe” Tabor (1854-1935) was an interesting figure in Colorado history. A socialite, entrepreneur, and miner, Baby Doe managed to inspire controversy because of her willingness to work alongside the male miners and her scandalous second marriage to businessman and eventual Senator, Horace Tabor. 

Gold Digger covers a lot of ground in Baby Doe’s life from her first marriage to Harvey Doe, their move from Wisconsin to Colorado, the opening and backbreaking work at the mines particularly the Does’s Central City gold mine and Tabor’s Leadville Matchless silver mine, the controversies surrounding her divorce from Doe and marriage to Tabor, the rise of Leadville and Denver as big cities,the birth of her two daughters, Lily and Silver Dollar, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and the Panic of 1893 which wiped out the Tabor’s fortunes. It’s a tough life going from rags to riches back to rags again especially in the mining towns which became thriving metropolises but still had a lot of toes in the Old West Frontier Town “only the strong survive kill or be killed” mentality. 

Baby Doe is written as someone with a lot of strength, spirit, and independence. This is particularly noticeable when she works at the mine. She dresses in trousers and shirts and works with a pickaxe alongside the men (this incident is where the nickname, Baby Doe was coined).

 Despite many local women and Harvey’s objections, she continues to work. She is not someone who is afraid to get messy and do the hard supposedly unladylike work. These actions show her as resilient and more capable than many of the men around her, particularly her feckless first husband and emotional second husband.

That independent spirit is also revealed in Baby Doe’s stormy love life. When she learns that Harvey is spending time with prostitutes, she isn't afraid to chuck him out and file for divorce.

At times, Baby Doe acts very impulsively without thinking of the long term consequences. Her carelessness manifests itself during her affair with Harvey Tabor since it begins while he is married to his first wife, Augusta. Baby Doe is controversial enough as a divorcee but having an extramarital affair is enough to make her the subject of scorn and render her unacceptable to the growing Denver high society. 

Their affair culminates in Tabor's divorce and his and Baby Doe’s marriage but it does cause some long term ramifications during Tabor's run for Senate. Their financial difficulties are also augmented by Tabor’s former wife and estranged son who refuse to give them much needed aid because of the hurt that they still feel over Tabor and Baby Doe's actions.

Baby Doe’s adaptable nature is present during her second marriage. Once the hard-edged woman in men's clothes that worked in the mines, she transforms into a society matron. Though there are many who are still scandalized by the Tabor's affair and Augusta and her inner circle are quite combative, Baby Doe manages to acquire a good reputation. In the Gilded Age, nothing removes a stain on one's character faster than money and the Tabor’s use their silver mined wealth to their advantage. Baby Doe's fascination with beautiful clothes and the latest fashion make her a style icon. They also make Denver a cultural center by providing funds to open an opera house and host arts events. When she was poor, Baby Doe lived hard and tough. When she was rich, Baby Doe lived ostentatiously and provocatively. Either way, she was someone who left quite an unforgettable impression on those who knew her.

Rosenberg’s next book, Silver Echoes, is a sequel to Gold Digger. Presumably it is about Baby Doe’s daughter, Silver Dollar, who like her mother before her was pretty wild, had a controversial love life, and left quite an impression. If this book is any indication, both mother and daughter Tabor still have a lot to say and memorable stylish ways of saying them.

 

The Peacock’s Heritage: A Victorian Tale of Love, Loss, and Resilience by Sasha Stephens; An All-Encompassing Historical Fiction Novel of An Irish-American Woman’s Eventful Life

 The Peacock’s Heritage: A Victorian Tale of Love, Loss, and Resilience by Sasha Stephens; An All-Encompassing Historical Fiction Novel of An Irish-American Woman’s Eventful Life

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers:   Sasha Stephen’s The Peacock’s Heritage A Victorian Tale of Love, Loss, and Resilience is one of those Historical Fiction Novels in which you follow the protagonist through several important events and various stages of their lives. 

In this case, said protagonist is Brigid Power McGrath Hayes Lansdowne. The book sees her through poverty, English Rule over the Irish, the Potato Famine, the creation of the Fenian Brotherhood, immigration to England, United States, and the Caribbean, political rebellion, women’s rights, her careers as an accountant, writer, and philanthropist, three marriages, three children, four grandchildren, many close friendships, deaths of friends and family members, and a change in status from poverty to wealth.

We first meet Brigid in the 1830’s as a tenant farmer’s daughter. She endures life with an abusive father, a gentle vulnerable mother, and five noisy siblings. She already shows a resourceful and independent nature. When her father abandons the family, originally periodically and then permanently, Brigid takes care of the household and joins her brothers in gathering peat. She also shows a keen mathematical analytical mind when she manages the family budget (a skillset that proves to be useful in her later career as an accountant and bookkeeper).

Some of the emotionally hardest passages to read are those concerning the Potato Famine and the impact that it has on Ireland, particularly on Brigid’s family. She and her siblings reveal all of the physical and psychological pain that comes from starvation including emaciated bodies, inaction, fever, hallucinations, and weakened immune systems. In one particularly scary moment, one of Brigid’s brothers succumbs to fever while he hallucinates demons attacking him. It is nightmarish as families are forced to eat dirt from the ground, what remains of animals, and fight one another for the few meager scraps that they can get. It takes a strong person to survive such an ordeal but fortunately Brigid is that kind of person.

Brigid’s independence and bad temper shine through when she calls a priest out on his platitudes that speak of lofty thoughts but little practical assistance. She also rails against her father over 

 his relationship with his mistress whom he eventually lives with. Brigid is someone who certainly knows her own mind and isn’t content in taking a submissive subordinate role to anyone.This resourcefulness and independence come in handy when her father arranges a marriage with a much older farmer and she runs away to Dublin where she carves out a life of her own.

In Dublin Brigid begins a bookkeeping career and makes many friends including an interfaith couple, Irish rebels, and various other citizens. One of the most important is Niall McGrath, a banker who is part of the Saor-Eire (Free Ireland) Movement. It is Niall that inspires Brigid to become part of a group that wants Ireland to break free from English rule and become an independent country. For someone who is as independent minded as Brigid, the thought of a life without English rule is quite appealing, especially since she personally saw how wealthy landowners treated people like her family and many of the English laws and backhanded assistance that prolonged the Famine. 

Brigid’s marriages symbolize her ascension and stages in life. Her marriage to Niall is youthful and passionate and is shared between two people who are looking forward to starting their lives. They are in the early stages of their careers and jump headlong into the Rebellion cause by attending protests and demonstrations, eventually moving to England to take an even more active part. They are in a higher place than Brigid was previously, though not yet wealthy. There is almost a careless giddy demeanor that carries over into their marriage as Brigid and Niall become part of the larger world and try to define what concepts like “freedom,” “love,” “sacrifice,” and “independence” really mean. 

Brigid’s second marriage comes from a different place. It is to Finnbar Hayes, a college professor and  leader of Saor-Eire then the Fenian Brotherhood, which is more drawn to violent actions against English oppressors. By the time that she and Finn begin courting, Brigid has experienced loss and is trying to rebuild her life with two small children. Though young, she is more aware of loss and pain and is desperate to hold onto those she loves knowing that she could lose them. There is less recklessness and more caution in her feelings towards Finn. Finn being a leader of the Movement rather than a member like Niall shows awareness of responsibility and larger stakes in his actions. If Niall went down, the Brotherhood would lose a dedicated member but if Finn went down, an entire Movement would fall along with all of the member’s friends, families and sympathetic allies. This involvement widens Brigid’s circle of friends as she empathizes with their plight.

Brigid’s marriage to Finn also changes her status as well. When they emigrate to the United States, Brigid and Finn pursue careers that bring security and respectability. For the first time, Brigid is in a financially secure position and is not only able to care for herself and her family but others as well. Finn obtains a professorship and remains involved with politics and the Fenians while Brigid helps various people by donations and volunteer work such as tutoring and mentoring. She also writes various articles and books that illustrate her views. Both she and Finn now become leaders and spokespeople of their communities as they embrace mid-life. 

Suspense plays a large part of Brigid’s life during her first two marriages. There are many secret meetings between characters that have code names. There are demonstrations and revolutionary acts which result in violence and prison sentences. While Brigid is in England, a young boy becomes her eyes and ears giving her warnings about raids or betrayal. These exchanges remind the Reader that lives hang in the balance and it takes a lot of courage and resilience to take action against an authority that thrives off of economic divide, rigid class distinctions, and imperial ambitions.

Brigid’s early marriages are filled with the tension of people who are caught up in causes that are greater than themselves. Sometimes that involvement requires them to sacrifice much: the chance of marital serenity, time with loved ones, trust of others, and even a long life with the one whom they love.

Brigid’s final marriage to John Lansdowne, a retired sea captain, is borne from loneliness and a desire not for passion or respectability, but for companionship. John is sympathetic to various causes but is not politically involved which is probably a relief for her. Since Brigid had been politically active in her youth and marriages, she is more than willing to embrace the serenity that comes with age. She has the finances to care for herself and those that she is close to and does not have to live with the political tension and financial insecurity that hounded her younger years. 

In response to that security, many of the conflicts in Brigid’s life are more personal particularly when she and John settle in Barbados. She discovers some things about herself and uses that information to continue helping others. She becomes personally involved in the lives of friends and family members by helping them move forward in their paths in life. It becomes just as much their journeys as it is Brigid’s. She is helping them in their early steps when she was forced to navigate hers in Dublin by herself. She wants to be the mother, mentor, and friend that was unavailable to her. 

 In some ways. The Peacock’s Heritage is reminiscent of Captains and the Kings by Taylor Caldwell, which was also about the Irish immigrant experience in the United States and covers an extensive historical period from the Irish Potato Famine to the early 20th Century, however the presentations couldn’t be more different. Captains and the Kings was about a man who claws and connives his way to the top, becomes embittered by his wealth, faltering relationships, and deceitful colleagues, and ends up surrounded by the trappings of his riches but utterly alone. The Peacock’s Heritage is about a woman who is also an Irish immigrant who climbs to the top of high society but instead is enriched by her widening circle of friends and family and becomes more involved with her community that carries over into four countries. It reminds us that true wealth is remembering where you came from and lending a helping hand to those who are going through the same struggles and haven’t reached that point yet. 

Reading a book like The Peacock’s Heritage is a dizzying and at times overwhelming experience. When the book is closed, the Reader is exhausted as they felt that they lived a whole life with Brigid, but they are also glad that they got to know such a fascinating dynamic character during such interesting times.