teen audio fiction (9 hrs) - a teen ghost watches a teen in an orphanage (has a dad/stepmom so not really parentless) in 1940s Chicago.

I enjoyed Ruby's Bone Gap several years ago and was hesitant about a WWII-era historical fiction, but this book shares the same beautifully dreamy storytelling with a good dose of suspense and intrigue.

A bit longer and more involved than I would like from an audiobook (my attention span fares better with print books sometimes), but I did enjoy the storytelling--lots of mini-fairytales/ghost stories spun within the narratives of the tragic lives of these discarded young women--Pearl the ghost cannot change her unfortunate past, but the reader can hope that Frankie may at least escape from some of the harm that Pearl and other women frequently suffered in those days (rape, murder, or being confined to a mental asylum). ( )

Very confusing. Frankie and her little sister Toni and brother Vito lead miserable lives in the orphanage run by nuns, one of whom is a sadist, because their loving father whom they adore is in love with a new woman who doesn't like them. Poor dad, what's he to do? He loves his children when he thinks about it, but the new woman comes first. The book is full of weak men, vile women, and ghosts who confuse things quite a bit. I think they confuse things a little too much. I had trouble integrating everyone. ( )

I love reading books set in the time period of WWII. Then you add in a young girl named Frankie and a ghost named Pearl, whose stories alternate and you have the setup for a great book. The thing that really sets this book apart from so many other of this time period is the difference between the treatment of males and females. There are so many things a female is expected to do just because of her gender. Yet we have a story here to show how strong the female can be and how they rise above the expectations for the time period. We also look at the difference in treatment between those who have money and those who do not.
Frankie is living in an orphanage. The story takes place in America. This surprised me because I figured as a World War 2 book it would have taken place in Europe. However, this was a refreshing detail. Frankie, her sister and brother all live in an orphanage because their mother is dead and their father can’t afford to take care of them. I got angry at the fact that their father meets another woman, whose children are also in the orphanage, and they get married. The marriage wasn’t the issue. It was the fact their father was moving out west and taking his new wife and her children and their brother with them. The only reason the brother went was because he had aged out of the orphanage. Another unique aspect of this orphanage was the way they separated the boys and girls. Girls were required to take care of the dinner dishes from the boy’s side, but not allowed to talk or acknowledge them without repercussions. Some of the nuns came across as just looney or sadistic. The storyline is engaging and kept me reading. A bonus for me was learning that this is based on the true life story of the author’s Mother-in law. A strange book, yet engaging. I will say it was difficult in the very beginning to keep the two perspectives straight. If you stick with it, which I say you should, you will soon find yourself so invested you can’t stop reading it. So glad to have read and recommend this book. ( )

This one took a while. Some parts grabbed me, some I wanted to skip over. There were times when I couldn't figure out who was speaking: Frankie? Pearl? Marguerite? The historical aspect of the story was good. I felt for Frankie when it came to her relationship with Sam. Pearl's story was heartbreaking, but with so many different POV, I felt the true story got lost in the end. ( )

I don't know what to say about this book without giving too much away. For me, part of why I loved it so much was unraveling the narrator's story and how it wove in with the story of Frankie and her sister Toni. Vivid storytelling. ( )