Hello, unsettlingly relevant book. This feels even more relevant now than it did three years ago when it was published.
[frustrated sigh]
This definitely felt like a debut (some small pacing issues, and a plot choice that detracted from the tension of the story, etc.) but the subject matter was so fascinating, and the lives of these women so clearly on the page emotionally carried the book and made it extremely compelling, despite its flaws.
We are following three women in three different time periods: Evelyn, a young woman whose fiancé has died and left her unexpectedly pregnant who is forced to go into a home for unwed mothers and give up her baby; Nancy, who learns that she was forcibly removed from her own mother and forced into adoption, shortly before becoming pregnant herself and joining Evelyn (now a doctor) in working for The Jane Network; and Angela, going through fertility struggles, who finds a letter from Nancy’s now deceased mother, confessing that Nancy was adopted and she kept it from her. The stories do come together in the end, but the real meat and enjoyment here was seeing these tough, strong, vulnerable women deal with their bodies and their choices not being their own, forced to give up children, working against a system that endangers people. It’s also very much about motherhood. (Angela’s story was more of a frame than anything else—Evelyn and Nancy carry the book.)
I did want to talk briefly about the ending of the book, so don’t click through to the spoiler tags unless you want to be fully spoiled. The ending is the main reason this isn’t getting a higher rating. SPOILERS We find out at the end that Evelyn isn’t really Evelyn; the real Evelyn killed herself at St. Agnes’s after being told her baby, who she had been forced to relinquish, had died (this was a lie meant to “make her feel better” and “learn to let go”. Evelyn’s friend Maggie takes her identity, and therefore we learn that Nancy is actually Evelyn’s daughter, or at least the Evelyn we have been reading about who became a doctor and underground abortion provider. They reunite in the end). The reason I want to talk about this is that the author went for making this a reveal and a “twist” rather than what I think would have been the smarter, more effective thing, in letting the reader know all of this from the beginning. Instead of feeling cheesed off at the end that the book was hiding things from us (this isn’t a thriller!) we could have been experiencing the tension of knowing something the characters do not, and anticipating their inevitable reunion. I just think it cheapened that whole storyline END SPOILERS.
That one big complaint aside, I’m really happy with the time I spent on this book. Historical fiction isn’t normally a genre I’m all that interested in, unless it’s combined with other genres, but this was well worth my time.