Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The best part of this book is the cover, which had no relevance to the story. The author used a potentially interesting plot device involving research into the personal possessions of long-dead patients in a state mental hospital. The two main protagonists are young women on the verge of adulthood, separated by time and circumstances, but with some tragedies in common. (Spoilers ahead.) The plot is developed in alternating chapters as their individual tales unfold. Here come the spoilers. Initially, the stories were gripping, although the reader is required to overlook amateurish use/misuse of language. The writer uses too many adjectives and adverbs, cliches galore, and some of the worst metaphors I've ever read. When Izzy, the young woman in the present-day plot, faces the death of her estranged mother, we are treated to this bizarre simile: " . . . her organs felt like they were swelling, looking for an escape, like an overheated boiler ready to burst." Izzy and her long-dead counterpart, Clara, are both prone to physical reactions to strong emotion. They vomit, faint, their stomach muscles twist and pull, and their "bowels turn to water." I kept expecting that they would clutch the draperies or have the vapors. Secondary characters are poorly-developed stock personalities common to young-adult novels. (Here I'm echoing other reviewers who couldn't believe this book was written for adults.) In Izzy's story, there was the popular mean girl and her protective, cute-but-dim boyfriend, as well as a single kind girl, who was also shunned by the in-crowd. Clara had rich but cold parents, and a darkly handsome Italian boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks, taken straight from the old paperback bodice-rippers.The compulsory sinister asylum director was present, as well as a standard assortment of staff and patients. I'll leave the unsavory-past aspects the girls have in common for other intrepid readers. Suffice to say they are as unimaginative as the rest of the book. Wiseman did enough research on past mistreatment of mental patients--or problematic family members--to insert a few horrific details, although here again the narrative gives way to florid melodrama. Clara and Izzy were appealing enough to warrant my finishing the book, which was assigned in my book club. But by the end, I recalled a quote from the great Flannery O'Connor, who said something to the effect that there's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. That's the case here, with promising material ruined by poor writing and editing.