Sixteen-year-old Mattie
Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate
for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace
Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters.
But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers
that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder. Set in
1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's
An American Tragedy, Jennifer Donnelly's astonishing debut novel
effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into
something moving, and real, and wholly original. Includes a reader's
guide and an interview with the author.
I really enjoyed this story, which was basically two stories. One story involves Mattie and the things that she learns and her decision to leave home and go to New York to attend school. She is conflicted since she is the oldest and her mother has died and so that makes her in charge. Also she made a promise to her dying mother that she would take her of her younger sisters. The story also involves Grace, whom we never really meet because her body is found at the beginning of the book. We get to know her through letters that she gave Mattie to burn right before she died. It was interesting to get a glimpse of what life was like back then and how hard it was for women to speak their minds. In the end we learn more about Mattie and we also learn the events that lead to the death of Grace. It was a quick read and worth reading.
The book for February is Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Weyr
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