The Life She Was Given
Ratings6
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings6
Average rating4.2
From acclaimed author Ellen Marie Wiseman comes a vivid, daring novel about the devastating power of family secrets--beginning in the poignant, lurid world of a Depression-era traveling circus and coming full circle in the transformative 1950s.
On a summer evening in 1931, Lilly Blackwood glimpses circus lights from the grimy window of her attic bedroom. Lilly isn't allowed to explore the meadows around Blackwood Manor. She's never even ventured beyond her narrow room. Momma insists it's for Lilly's own protection, that people would be afraid if they saw her. But on this unforgettable night, Lilly is taken outside for the first time--and sold to the circus sideshow.
More than two decades later, nineteen-year-old Julia Blackwood has inherited her parents' estate and horse farm. For Julia, home was an unhappy place full of strict rules and forbidden rooms, and she hopes that returning might erase those painful memories. Instead, she becomes immersed in a mystery involving a hidden attic room and photos of circus scenes featuring a striking young girl.
At first, The Barlow Brothers' Circus is just another prison for Lilly. But in this rag-tag, sometimes brutal world, Lilly discovers strength, friendship, and a rare affinity for animals. Soon, thanks to elephants Pepper and JoJo and their handler, Cole, Lilly is no longer a sideshow spectacle but the circus's biggest attraction. . .until tragedy and cruelty collide. It will fall to Julia to learn the truth about Lilly's fate and her family's shocking betrayal, and find a way to make Blackwood Manor into a place of healing at last.
Moving between Julia and Lilly's stories, Ellen Marie Wiseman portrays two extraordinary, very different women in a novel that, while tender and heartbreaking, offers moments of joy and indomitable hope.
Reviews with the most likes.
Do you want your heart to break? If so, read this book because that's what it'll do.
Maybe 3.5 stars. The story is powerful and the characters are compelling, but there is so much pain. It made it hard for me to enjoy it entirely. Reading this at a different time might change opinion. I think it is just a case of a great book at the wrong time for me.
tl;dr: Decent, not great, not bad, like a 3.5 I'd say? I'll round it up to 4 because it's not a bad book. One of the book's viewpoints was way more interesting than the other, and you really need a high tolerance for drama and tragedy to get through the last half of the book.
General plot spoilers here:
So we have an albino girl, Lilly, born to an ultra-religious mom and a doormat dad. Ultra-religious mom interprets her albinism as a test from God and sent from the Devil both, so she gets locked in the attic and treated poorly. Eventually, at a young age, her mom drags her out of the house while her dad was away and sells her to a passing circus. Albinism being a novelty, she becomes part of the sideshow freak show, until she becomes old enough to leverage her skills and popularity into a better role. She meets Cole along the way, the two are first friends, then lovers, then married with a baby. Things go poorly for all involved.Julia's viewpoint from the future is also included, an estranged daughter from the same family that sold Lilly to the circus, she inherits the manor after being notified that ultra-religious mom was dead, and also inherits the mystery of who lived in the attic and why her late father has newspaper clippings from the circus. The story is told through a combination of these two viewpoints.
The writing was great, but I think story-wise I preferred Wiseman's The Orphan Collector to this one. The drama here feels incredibly forced and contrived, and I much preferred Lilly's viewpoint to Julia's. Julia felt like she existed as a plot vehicle, which is fine, but I feel like you're supposed to hide those better.
Character/Ending spoilers:
It's also hard to feel anything at all for Lilly's predicament when everyone around her seems to fight all her fights for her. She grows a backbone at the end, and then the end happens. What happened to Cole? No idea.
Still a decent book regardless. Lilly's time at the circus was really interesting to read about (good and bad), I just wish the ending had gone a different way. The tragedy train at the end was particularly unrelenting, and it felt like I was hopping from one bad thing to the next in rapid succession.
