2019 Book Review #37: The Life She Was Given

I've discovered an author I had never heard of before and all I can say is "WOW"!  She is excellent..and she's from northern New York State, up near the St Lawrence Seaway.  I haven't been to that area in over 35 years...I had a room-mate in college from up that way and have only been up there 3 times in my life.  This author has touched my soul in many ways with her writing. The plot will stick with me for awhile.  It's sobering.

STORY SUMMARY

It is the summer of 1931, and Lilly Blackwood is just about 10 years old. She sees glimpses of a circus train with all its glowing lights, from her attic bedroom window.  Lilly has never been allowed to roam or play in the meadows of her home, Blackwood Manor.  In fact, she has never been outside the walls of her attic bedroom.  Her Momma says it's for her own good.  Momma says that other people would be afraid of Lilly if they saw her.  She is "different". Momma called her a "monster" and a "sinner".

But...on this hot, summer night, Momma removes Lilly from her bedroom with the lie that her Daddy has bought tickets to the circus and they are seeing a special midnight show and will meet Daddy there.  Daddy has been on a business trip in Pennyslvania.  When Lilly gets to the Barlow Brothers Circus, Momma sells her to Mr Barlow and the sideshow owner, Merrick.  She will now be a "freak" in the Sideshow Circus acts.

When Lilly first is introduced to circus life, it's just another jail for her.  But she soon meets real friends (Glory, Ruby and Rosy, Cole and his dad Hank) and she learns to draw on her  inner strength and friendships.  She also discovers that she has a way with animals....especially the beloved elephants.  She makes friends with one particular momma elephant (Pepper) and her baby boy elephant (JoJo).  Working with Pepper will change Lilly's life.  She is now the circus' biggest star attraction and by the time she is about 17 years old, she marries Cole the elephant handler.  They have a baby girl named Phoebe.  But during this time, tragedy and cruelty come crashing down on the circus.  And life changes.

More than 20 years later, Julia, 19 years old in 1956, has discovered that she has inherited her parents' manor and horse farm.  Her parents have both died.  She was always told by Momma that Daddy died because of her willfulness.  Julia had gone swimming with friends instead of going to church, and it made Daddy get in a car accident while out looking for her.  Daddy was an alcoholic but no one talked about that in those days.  Julia's upbringing was a home of very strict rules and strange religious beliefs which included not going into certain rooms of the house.  Julia ran away from home in her mid-teens and was working as a waitress in the NYC when she received the news about inheriting Blackwood Manor.

Julia hopes that by returning home, she can finally purge herself of painful memories.  But what she walks into is a complete mystery:  it involves an attic bedroom, her Daddy's journal, and some photos of various circus scenes that feature an Albino, young girl.  

Julia will begin to uncover the truth of Lilly and her parents....she learns of a shocking betrayal and of what really happened with Lilly.

Will Julia find a place of healing in Blackwood Manor??  and will the estate actually become a place of healing??

MY THOUGHTS

This book touches on so many painful subjects.  It is truly eye-opening.  I plan on finding all of the other novels the author has written before this one.  There are three other ones.  They all sound great.

This book deals with physical and emotional abuse/child abuse, alcoholism, Albinism, betrayal,  animal abuse.  The underlying theme seems to be the mother-daughter bond/connection. (and lack thereof)  This is powerful.  Julia looks for it in her relationship with the horses.  Lilly looks for it in the relationship between Pepper and her baby JoJo as well as her own relationship with Glory (who is like a mother to her throughout her puberty/teens) and her own baby daughter Phoebe.

This story also deals with circus life, cruelty of elephants/abuse of animals, and abuse of people with special needs.  The author explains some things about this in the back of the book through her questions and answers section, but honestly, the Depression is no excuse for abuse of any kind. Yet, in other ways, abuse continues in today's world, doesn't it? 

This book is fast-paced in that I just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen to Lilly and Julia.  However, it is also a story to be savored. It left a deep impression on me. (my maternal grandmother gave her 10th child to one of my great aunts to take care of while she was getting over an illness in the early 1940s and the great aunt refused to give the baby back...according to my mother. I've never met this aunt although some of my mother's siblings have. It ended up being one of the reasons my maternal grandmother ended up in a mental hospital out in central NY).

I don't want to say too much about this plot because I don't want to ruin it for you if you plan on reading this story.

The characters are so real.  I actually despised Momma throughout the entire story,  and I tried to find some semblance of kindness for her and just couldn't.  It goes against all maternal instincts to sell your child!  Yet I think the author was also trying to point out the desperate times the Depression was in the United States and also the fact that children with special needs or who looked "different) were considered outcasts.  Throw in lack of educational knowledge and old wives tales or weird religious cult philosophies and you can maybe see the author's intent of making Momma desperate in regards to Lilly.  Yet to me, it's just downright abuse.  Momma chose to be abusive.  She wasn't born that way and economic times don't trump maternal instincts.

Momma was clearly mentally ill with a lack of kindness and compassion which goes against Jesus' teachings.  She was "religious" but not Christian by any means!  I can see why Daddy fell into alcoholism.  He couldn't cope with his guilt and with such a controlling wife.

The ending left me reeling. The cruelty and abandonment that Lilly endured...not to mention the physical pain...from the hands of her own parents is downright shocking.  To know that her baby was under her yet not brought to her is unthinkable. 

Julia and Lilly both had an inner strength that Momma and Daddy clearly did not have.  They are the heroes in this book, as is Cole, Hank and Glory.  

The book  goes back and forth between the 1930s and Lilly's story to the next chapter being Julia's story and the 1950s. It's so well done!

There's one section that really stood out to me:

".....he said people who were cold and aggressive were not happy people.  they treated others the way they did because they were unhappy within themselves.  She wasn't sure if she believed him.....after all, she had been unhappy most of her life, and she always tried hard, maybe too hard, to be kind to others.  She had heard the saying that those who hurt others had been hurt themselves.  But she didn't believe that either.  She had been hurt and knew how awful it felt, so she tried not to hurt anyone.  Maybe some people never learned.....she supposed her grandmother didn't know how to love.  That she was born flawed.  It was the only explanation that made sense." (pg 339, The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman, c.2017)

In my opinion this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content)

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest I rate this a 9 (I can't give it a perfect 10 due to so many editing errors!!).