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A review by jenpaul13
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
4.0
While girls can be vicious creatures, they can also have brutal things done to them that shatter their lives. In Simone St. James's The Broken Girls, the events and secrets held within the grounds of Idlewild Hall obscure a dark history.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
In a small Vermont town, the Idlewild Hall school housed girls who were deemed to be difficult throughout its history. After the school closed down, the vacant lot of Idlewild housed illicit activities, including a brutal murder. Fiona Sheridan is the sister of the murdered girl who was discovered in the field at Idlewild, who as a journalist begins writing about the school upon learning that an anonymous benefactor is renovating the school. When a body is found on the school grounds during the renovation, Fiona digs deeper into the school's past and her sister's murder, unearthing corruption as she tries to get clarity and closure for the girl who was found as well as for herself.
An enjoyably atmospheric and haunting story of ghosts, corruption, and the secrets buried within us all, this narrative is well-written as it slowly builds suspense. Oscillating back and forth in time between current-day Fiona and the quartet of girls at Idlewild in 1950, the dual narratives converge in a satisfying, if far too rapid and coincidental, manner in the culmination of the novel's plot; however, I found that I was far more enthralled by the stories of the girls in 1950 and less captivated by Fiona's foolhardy investigation into Idlewild's history and her mishandled relationship with her boyfriend.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
In a small Vermont town, the Idlewild Hall school housed girls who were deemed to be difficult throughout its history. After the school closed down, the vacant lot of Idlewild housed illicit activities, including a brutal murder. Fiona Sheridan is the sister of the murdered girl who was discovered in the field at Idlewild, who as a journalist begins writing about the school upon learning that an anonymous benefactor is renovating the school. When a body is found on the school grounds during the renovation, Fiona digs deeper into the school's past and her sister's murder, unearthing corruption as she tries to get clarity and closure for the girl who was found as well as for herself.
An enjoyably atmospheric and haunting story of ghosts, corruption, and the secrets buried within us all, this narrative is well-written as it slowly builds suspense. Oscillating back and forth in time between current-day Fiona and the quartet of girls at Idlewild in 1950, the dual narratives converge in a satisfying, if far too rapid and coincidental, manner in the culmination of the novel's plot; however, I found that I was far more enthralled by the stories of the girls in 1950 and less captivated by Fiona's foolhardy investigation into Idlewild's history and her mishandled relationship with her boyfriend.