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Adrea Pierce's Reviews > The Home for Unwanted Girls
The Home for Unwanted Girls
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** spoiler alert **
I don’t get it. This book had such a high rating so I expected so much more from it. I found it to be a monumental letdown.
It starts with a young teenager (Maggie) who falls in love with someone (Gabriel) that her parents do not approve of. They send her away to stay with her aunt and uncle to get her away from him. She finds out she’s pregnant and eventually gives birth to Elodie who is stolen from Maggie and sent to an orphanage.
I listened to it in audiobook form so I’m not 100% sure if it was the writing or the narration that sounded juvenile, but I suspect it was a bit of both. The narrator’s inflections and tone just sounded very childish in some places and I found that to be very grating. That said, there were also parts of the book that felt as though they had been written by a teenager. The love story between Maggie and Gabriel is the prime example of this. Every detail of how it was written just seemed far too convenient for something that was meant to be historically accurate. I found the entire book to be very cliche and seemed to be written by someone who really didn’t have a lot of knowledge about anything - not love, or child birth, or reality.
The rape by her uncle was wasted words and nothing more than filler. And her entire marriage was almost laughable. She can carry babies only by Gabriel? Just wraps it all up nicely so there’s no need to tackle anything more difficult than a fluffy little romance.
It wasn’t even edited well. At one point, Maggie’s father called her husband Roger. His name was Roland. I think this is where I gave up all hope for this one.
Overall, the story of Elodie was intriguing and I did enjoy that part but not enough to give this anything more than 2 stars.
I recently read Before We Were Yours and I can’t even describe how incredible that book was. I went into this one hoping for the same. But this was the B version of that. If you read Harry Potter and then tried to read Twilight, you will understand this analogy. This book was the Twilight version.
It starts with a young teenager (Maggie) who falls in love with someone (Gabriel) that her parents do not approve of. They send her away to stay with her aunt and uncle to get her away from him. She finds out she’s pregnant and eventually gives birth to Elodie who is stolen from Maggie and sent to an orphanage.
I listened to it in audiobook form so I’m not 100% sure if it was the writing or the narration that sounded juvenile, but I suspect it was a bit of both. The narrator’s inflections and tone just sounded very childish in some places and I found that to be very grating. That said, there were also parts of the book that felt as though they had been written by a teenager. The love story between Maggie and Gabriel is the prime example of this. Every detail of how it was written just seemed far too convenient for something that was meant to be historically accurate. I found the entire book to be very cliche and seemed to be written by someone who really didn’t have a lot of knowledge about anything - not love, or child birth, or reality.
The rape by her uncle was wasted words and nothing more than filler. And her entire marriage was almost laughable. She can carry babies only by Gabriel? Just wraps it all up nicely so there’s no need to tackle anything more difficult than a fluffy little romance.
It wasn’t even edited well. At one point, Maggie’s father called her husband Roger. His name was Roland. I think this is where I gave up all hope for this one.
Overall, the story of Elodie was intriguing and I did enjoy that part but not enough to give this anything more than 2 stars.
I recently read Before We Were Yours and I can’t even describe how incredible that book was. I went into this one hoping for the same. But this was the B version of that. If you read Harry Potter and then tried to read Twilight, you will understand this analogy. This book was the Twilight version.
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Reading Progress
July 5, 2018
–
Started Reading
July 11, 2018
– Shelved
July 11, 2018
–
Finished Reading
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by
Matt
(last edited Jul 12, 2018 08:48AM)
(new)
Jul 11, 2018 08:28PM
Great review, Adrea. I am sorry it was such a letdown, as your summary seemed to speak of a foundation for a great novel!
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I agree about the juvenile nature of the writing in some parts. Also, Maggie's marriage to Roland dissolved so quickly with no problems that it didn't seem realistic.
I felt the exact same way, and I also loved Before We Were Yours.
You just came off reading a great book then got this you felt was a dud! Funny, I just came off two duds so this was excellent compared to those for me! I do agree with the story teenage sappy but I guess the story hit home to me on for personal reasons. But I had audiobook and the real paperback I got at Target. I listening and noticed the name error once but you will be happy to know that was the narrators slip no one caught as print edition is correct.
Before We Were Yours is one of my all time favorites! I’m not finished reading The home for unwanted girls yet, but I have the same opinion as you do so far. On one page she says Clementine has a 4 yr old, then says she has no children?
I thought the sex was too graphic and unnecessary.
I did feel like I was reading a YA story.
I’ll will finish reading it though.
Completely agree. I feel she did zero justice for the actual tragedy of the orphan scandal in Quebec during that time. The storylines and characters were poorly developed.
I caught that "Roger" too and had to rewind to make sure I heard that right. And I thought the same thing too about only pregnant by Gabriel. Still, the narrator is one of my favorites and I don't really have any complaints about it.And Before We Were Yours was amazing!
Thank you. You put it into more eloquent words than I did, but everything you said is spot-on for me as well.
Thank goodness others saw the mega flaws in this book. When I saw the high overall rating, I was thinking "I really am out of it" in my likes and dislikes. There was no character development in this novel other than what suited the plot.
Juvenile is the most accurate description for how I felt about the writing. It was a bit too simplified for the seriousness of the subject matter.
I agree! And none of the characters were even likable, in my opinion. The IDEA of the story is very strong... but the characters just don’t make it so.
