Wildthorn by Jane Eagland (Review)

Wildthorn by Jane Eagland

Age Warning: +15

Published By: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Genre: Historical, Social Issues, Mature YA

Date Released: 9/6/2010

Provided By: Publisher / Netgalley.com

Synopsis:

They strip her naked, of everything-undo her whalebone corset, hook by hook. Locked away in Wildthorn Hall—a madhouse—they take her identity. She is now called Lucy Childs. She has no one; she has nothing. But, she is still seventeen-still Louisa Cosgrove, isn't she? Who has done this unthinkable deed? Louisa must free herself, in more ways than one, and muster up the courage to be her true self, all the while solving her own twisted mystery and falling into an unconventional love . . .

My Review:

When I first picked up this book last year, I thought it was going to be something like Jane Eyre. Wildthorn turned out to be a dark chilling light read that I easily finished last summer. The characters of Lousia and Eliza live through still in my mind, and the ending will shock you in parts if you didn't read close enough. Jane Eagland did a great job personifying the miss treated women of the 1800s who were admitted to Asylums under false names and how they suffered and the characters feelings and emotions were displayed full heartily in Wildthorn.

Lousia, or now Lucy Childs was traveling until she was forced to get out of her carriage and be taken into an asylum. Taken from her rich clothing and forced into a room of insane individuals, the now named Lucy Childs fights for her life as she attempts to escape from a falsified name and free herself from a world she doesn't belong to. When she finds an ally in Eliza a worker of the asylum, Lousia sees hope in her situation and possibly a way out. Through out the book you attempt to uncover the mystery of why Lousia or Lucy is really there, and possibly who she might be developing feelings for and who put her there.

If you have read the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman, you can imagine how that asylum could feel, especially if you weren't crazy. And that's what I want you to imagine, a place with women like the one from Yellow Wallpaper surrounding you when your totally lucid. Talk about having a nightmare, but this was the case for many women in the Victorian Era, and what Jane Eagland pin points exactly in this book. So check out Lousia aka Lucy in her adventures and her attempt to free herself from a prison.

Links:

Author's Site