Sage Winters, a teenage girl living on Staten Island with her stepdad in 1971, overhears a conversation that sends her world into a tailspin and will forever change the course of her life.  Her mother, who died in a car accident a few years ago, originally told her that her mentally ill, twin sister, Rosemary, died of pneumonia 6 years ago.  She is distraught to find out that her sister was, instead, sent to the Willowbrook State School (an underfunded, understaffed, and inhumane insane asylum disguised as a school).

But, that’s not all.  Rosemary is missing from Willowbrook, and the staff has no idea where she has gone.  Fearing that she was Cropsey’s, Staten Island’s serial killer’s, latest victim, she sneaks away from her already tumultuous life and boards a bus to Willowbrook hoping to find out more information about her sister and fill in the gaps from the past 6 years.

Her trip to Willowbrook is doomed from the start, but things become more complicated when she arrives at the “School” and is instantly mistaken for Rosemary.  Nobody believes her claims to be Sage, and she is forced to become a patient at Willowbrook.

Her worst nightmares would never have prepared her for the horror that is in store for her.

Her quest for knowledge immediately becomes a quest for survival.

When an up and coming reporter (none other than the real Geraldo Rivera) sneaks into Willowbrook and exposes the atrocities happening behind the scenes, Sage sees her chance at freedom.  However, she starts to realize that after what she has experienced, she may never be free again.

Why I read it: Recommendation in online book group

Trigger warnings: Language, mental illness, physical/mental/psychological abuse, rape, murder, captivity

My thoughts (may contain spoilers)

In 1939, Odile Souchet is living in Paris with her parents and twin brother when she is hired to be a librarian at the American Library in Paris.  As she becomes engrossed with the great literary works with which she is surrounded on a daily basis, she becomes friends with an eclectic group of peers ranging from young to old and of varying nationalities.  As the days pass, it becomes increasingly clear that another world war with Germany looms heavily on the horizon.  Almost overnight, Odile’s life begins to change when Hitler’s Nazis take over Paris, and the city once alive with art and romance succumbs to a harsh new reality of rations and the loss of freedom.  As books are banned and the libraries close their doors under Hitler’s directive, the American Library is one of the few kept open during Nazi occupation.  Head librarian, Dorothy Reeder as well as Odile and her friends took on the dangerous task of delivering books to Jews who were banned from the library by the Nazis.  During this tumultuous time, Odile fell in love and made lifelong friendships, but she also witnessed the best and absolute worst of humanity.

Fast forward to Montana, 1983.  Lily is a rising high schooler who has never been able to assimilate into social groups with her peers.  However, she has always been fascinated with her neighbor, Odile, even though the rest of community shuns her because she immigrated to the United States as a “war bride” engaged to one of the small town’s most eligible bachelors.  As Lily interviews Odile for a school assignment, she learns much more about love and friendship than world history.  When tragedy strikes Lily’s family, Odile becomes so much more than a neighbor or the subject of a class project.  The lessons that Lily learns from Odile are invaluable, but it is what Lily learns about Odile that will change her life forever.

Trigger warnings: War, death, physical attack on women, mild sexual content

Why I read it: Recommendation in online book group

My thoughts (may contain spoilers)