Since it is October (when did that happen?) I decided to get into the Halloween mood. A combination of history and mystery, What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman was the perfect book to ease myself into the eerie, spooky, spirit.
When Isabelle Stone was 7 years old, her mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Ten years later, Izzy is haunted by her memories and her mother's apparent insanity, particularly while exploring the remains of Willard State Asylum. Amongst the ruins, Izzy and her foster mom discover the luggage of patients who apparently arrived and never left, and Izzy becomes attached the the belongings of a young woman named Clara Cartwright.
In 1929, eighteen year old Clara is sent away by her parents when she rebels against their plans. Struggling to prove her sanity and regain her freedom, Clara is subjected to horrendous treatment, from ice baths to insulin induced comas.
The story rotates between Clara's past and Izzy's present, as Izzy struggles to come to terms with what happened to her mother and find the answers to what happened to Clara. It was horrifying and heartbreaking. The treatment of patients at Willard State was disgusting and barbaric, and it was terrifying to think that the mentally ill were once treated in such a way.
What She Left Behind was dark and unpredictable, eerie and haunting. It leaves you feeling sad, thinking of what could have been.
