A Madness So Discrete
by Mindy
McGinnis
A Madness So Discrete is the story of Grace Mae a teenage girl who has been put in an asylum
at the turn of the century because she is pregnant and has responded with
elective mutism. This book starred out
very well. I mean, look at that cover! And the opening scenes were harrowing and so
full of tension that my hands were aching from holding my kindle so hard. I think that it could have been a horrifying
and eye opening examination of the way that we have treated the mentally
historically. And it was for a while.
And then it turns into a murder mystery. Meh.
I could
have done without the “mystery”. Just
figuring out how to function in a world that thinks you are insane would have
been enough. In fact I kind of question
why they even bothered having Grace in the asylum at all. It certainly wasn’t hard to get out. It didn’t
help that I cared absolutely nothing about her detective work with the
doctor. It felt as if he was just
selfishly trying to prove his cleverness and using Grace as this mindless
pawn.
I am not
sure how I feel about Grace. I started
off really empathizing with her but as the book moved on I found her less
and less likable. There were many
times that she was incredible selfish and callous towards others. It is as if
when she is pushed to use her intellect by the doctor that she becomes less
feeling. I am not sure that I like the
implication of that correlation. Even if it isn’t directly expressed. I am also
not sure about her development as a character.
She never seems to change from the first time that she
speaks.
“Grace had learned long ago that the true horrors of this world were
other people.”
One of the
things that I enjoyed most about this book was the fact that there was NO
love interest. The fact that she was
pregnant for the first part of the book with her fathers baby makes this seem
pretty likely. I cannot imagine a scenario
where any sort of romance would have been acceptable.
I also
enjoyed her two roommates. Nell was a
girl with some kind of sexually transmitted disease (they call her syphilitic
but I am not sure. Generalized pox?) She
is basically put in the asylum because she had sex with men. And doesn’t feel bad about it. The horror! She was funny and sharp and her story was so
much more painful because I liked her.
Lizzie the other roommate has an invisible string that floats by her
head and tells her things. Aside from
that she is a typical straight-laced girl of her times. Or so you think. Lizzie shows a lot more flexibility, love
and decency then I had thought she was capable of at first.
I finished
this book but the last 50% was a hard slug and I found myself avoiding
my kindle. It is a shame because I
really liked the writing style and use of mood so I think that there was such
potential for this book to be better. I have heard good things about Not a
Drop to Drink so I will give Mindy McGinnis another
shot.
From
Goodreads:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Tell me what you think!