Title: Wildthorn
Author: Jane Eagland
Pages: 352 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
ISBN: 0547370172
Source: Netgalley
Seventeen-year-old Louisa Cosgrove longs to break free from her respectable life as a Victorian doctor’s daughter. But her dreams become a nightmare when Louisa is sent to Wildthorn Hall: labeled a lunatic, deprived of her liberty and even her real name. As she unravels the betrayals that led to her incarceration, she realizes there are many kinds of prison. She must be honest with herself – and others – in order to be set free. And love may be the key…
PURCHASE LINKS: Kindle | Book Depository
REVIEW
Wildthorn is a compelling read from start to finish. I haven’t read any reviews before I picked up this book though I noticed that it gathered mixed ratings from fellow book reviewers. Enough to pique my curiosity that is.
I was always fascinated by the Victorian era. That was the main reason for picking this one up. Plus having a lovely cover of a girl wearing a corset made me more intrigued. Will it be a book with a fantastic story or one of those books that just has the pretty cover? The story is about Lucy (Louisa or Lou) and how she is having trouble with how the society thinks of her; the troubles she encounters with people, in her unconventional way, and the fact that she was locked up at an asylum in spite the fact of not being insane.
The book is indeed dark and creepy, contains a lot of twist and turns (I even suspected every person in the story) and would definitely keep you clueless until you read the final chapters. I had expected a better ending though, I feel that the ending was a little flat and the characters of each story wasn’t build enough to hold the book together. I was certainly drawn to the book because of the character’s will to be herself and her defiance from the norm of society.
Wildthorn is a book suited for Victorian era lovers, a lover of lesbian fiction (that’s a bit of a spoiler), and someone who wants to read about a strong female character.
- this is a repost that was originally published in the former blog -
I have had a copy of this for a long time and I can’t wait to read it now. It sounds like something very interesting and different in the YA world.
Thanks for the great review! I’m glad that you liked the book even if the ending was a little bit of a let down.
Alexa recently posted..Surfacing
I know I read this but I don’t remember that much about it other than that I didn’t love it-I think I had problems with the main character or thought it was a little slow. Thanks for reminding me about this one!
Bookworm1858 recently posted..Stealing Parker