3.5 stars

Finn, a young urban explorer who comes from a family of doctors, arrives on North Brother Island, which holds remains of a shuttered hospital, once a place of human experiments. There he “glimpses an enigmatic beauty through the foliage.” It leads him to efforts to uncover her past and at the same time his family’s secrets. The way his story progresses, it is challenging to follow at times. In one paragraph he is physically somewhere, in the next paragraph he is somewhere else with his thoughts, and in the following paragraph his thoughts shift again to something else. Also, at some points his story contains too much dialogue which doesn’t move the story forward.

The strength of this story is in the past story with Cora. Her story has a good flow as being more straight forward. Cora arrives on North Brother Island due to a contagion spreading in the city. She hopes to be out of the island as soon as possible. But one test turns into another and there is no end to it.

As Cora “pleaded with Dr. Gettler to allow her to fill her days with purpose” three years earlier, her story has the same feel – not much purpose in it, besides serving a doctor’s purpose for his experiments. I wanted her story to be developed beyond this island. I was so excited when Mary Mallon, so called Typhoid Mary, appears in this story and tries to push Cora to change her circumstances. But Cora refuses. Mary Mallon, who takes destiny in her hands, is the kind of character that holds my interest. Not so much Cora, who goes with what she is being told.

The historical background is interesting and it’s parallel with current situation of trying to understand a virus.

When it comes to style of writing, it gets a bit too descriptive. But there are plenty of readers who appreciate more detailed account of events.

Finn Gettler inadvertently discovers a multi-generational family secret one day in his parent's shed. This secret leads him to North Brother Island on a secret kayak trip that will forever change his life and his family's lives. He thinks his family has the key to end all disease and viruses, but learns that the way they are finding the cure comes at a steep cost. I was so engrossed with this book I read through the night to finish it.

It was a fascinating read, with a lot of history within its pages. From North Brother Island, Typhoid Mary, the Spanish Influenza, and more.

It was very promising but the ending had me craving more from North Brother Island and Shelley Nolden's literary mind.



Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press and allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Vines
Netgalley eARC review

The Gettler family is composed of generations of doctors and researchers whose main goal is to find a cure for all the world's most deadly diseases. On North Brother Island is a facility that has served many purposes over the years, but currently it sits uninhabited, becoming overtaken by the vines native to the island. Finn, the youngest of the Gettler men, is visiting the island for the first time. His family has been very secretive about the history of NBI, so he isn't too sure what he is going to find. What he experiences there separates his life into "before" and "after".

In theory, I like this book; the story is there but the execution is a miss. I like to read medical thrillers, (The Hot Zone instantly became one of my favorite books the first time I read it), but unfortunately, The Vines missed the mark. I found the writing style confusing and clunky; there wasn't enough information given up front, many times I had to stop and reread a section. Other times, a new character's name is introduced without any relevant details so I'm over here scratching my head saying "Who is Susie?". These instances are clarified further on in the paragraph or the chapter, but writing in this way made my reading experience frustrating at times.

This story implements the alternating time line device which I usually love. But again, I don't think it was successfully used in this particular book. The jumps from 2007 to 1904, to 2008, to 1956...etc etc... took me out of the flow of the story. It worked better once I was at least half way through and began piecing together who all these people are and how they fit, but initially, jumping between story lines was very jarring. The time spent in the earlier years (1900-1960ish) were my favorite parts of the story. I wasn't as interested in the 2000 story line, and I think it's because I didn't care for, or about, the main characters in this point of the story.

What I found really cool about this story is the historical elements: the location (North Brother Island), the people (Typhoid Mary), and previous pandemics (Small pox, Spanish flu). It also read as a very timely story due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. There were many allusions to a "new viral pandemic", the initial SARS-CoV infection, Wuhan China, wet markets, and vaccine development. Reading those sentences was eerie but also relevant.

For all the above reasons, I almost didn't finish this book. I'm glad I did though. There was something that happened about half way through that definitely made the story more interesting and bumped up my rating.
I give this book my Donation Box rating: I did not enjoy this book and would donate it if I owned a copy, but I think there are redeeming qualities. If a historical-fiction-medical-thriller sounds interesting to you, then I hope you give The Vines a chance.

This is such a creative story! It’s super relevant to today’s current events surrounding the coronavirus. The idea of human experimentation and the things done to Cora were terrible and sad, but it did make for an interesting storyline. I did find the Gettler family lineage a little confusing in the beginning, but eventually that all came together. Overall, I really enjoyed Cora and found her to be a brave and strong female character. This was definitley a plot driven story and I can’t wait to find out what happens in the sequel!

This was a fascinating read. Being a New York City girl, I was surprised to read about North Brother Island. Great multi generational story, Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I really want to know when the author got the idea for this book, because reading it in 2020 was a trip. As a nursing student, I really appreciated some of the discussions regarding individual autonomy versus medical advancement. The book also touched on other interesting medical debates such as vaccine distribution in the global south and preparing for inevitable disease outbreaks in the future. However, I had a really hard time investing in the story/characters, and I found the climax and conclusion to be very underwhelming. I also did not like how the crimes committed by the neonate villain were so easily forgiven once they found out he had a pregnant wife. If there is a sequel, I do not think I will read it.

A good solid read though i kind of had the vibe that i was reading the same book from before? Maybe because i had similar thoughts and opinion (I can't remember the boom), but ut's still a good read, it was fun but I know I wouldn't remember this and would be erased from memory soon

This is a very interesting novel, looking forward to reading more by this author. Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity of being an early reviewer.

Wow, just wow! This was a fantastic read. The setting of the island gave the book an extra creepiness factor. I was not familiar with this island so the story led to some really interesting research of my own. The story is timely because it covers a bit of what is going on in the world today. I can hardly wait until the second book comes out!

I’m sorry, but this didn’t work out for me.

The plot was interesting. However, based on the blurb, I was expecting something else. The pace was too slow and the writing wasn’t engaging enough for me.

I liked Cora’s strength and resilience, she was a well-written character.

If I’d read this book at a different time, I may have liked it better.

Thank you NetGalley and IBPA for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this. A really dark murder mystery. I really didn't know who to trust. brilliant and well written and plotted.

What an amazing read this is. Generations of the same family have worked on an isolated island just off New York. It had held a hospital for many years but the island is now a nature reserve that cannot be visited most of the year. Finn is the fourth generation to show interest in the island where his great grandfather from Germany had worked. A patient had made a miraculous recovery on the island in the 1900’s.When Finn sneaks on to the island he is attacked by an Amazon like woman who almost kills him. How could she possibly be Cora that young girl from the past? How is she still living and looking so young and attractive despite the signs of experimentation on her Just what his family has done to her is the mystery behind this story. It is at once exciting but also very sad and is a wonderful but disturbing read.

This book had me hooked from the get go! I couldn't wait to read it after I read the summary. I didn't expect the story line to unfold like it did. I was initially drawn to the book because of the subject. Didn't expect it to start in 1904 and evolve the way it did. Good book for a book club

I love the idea of this book however the delivery is exhausting and scattered. This book was unreadable in my opinion.

I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style in this book. It took me a while to grasp what was happening but that could be my fault because I went into this blind and not really knowing what it was about. I can see how many will really enjoy the book especially given what is happening in todays world.

This is the first book in a few years that I did not finish. I didn't enjoy it at all. The dialogue was stiff and felt contrived and I didn't really care about any of the characters. The plot sounded amazing but I was bored and honestly, I gave up around the 20% mark (on Kindle).

I enjoyed this thriller and mystery from start to finish. The story was intriguing and keeps you locked in from beginning to end. The character development was good and tied up all loose ends.

Thanks to Freiling Publishing and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

Wow, this book was very timely in 2020! Lots of relevance in terms of infectious disease. I loved the dichotomy of present day and going back in time. Some pieces felt a bit disjointed to me but I really enjoyed the story overall.

The Vines is a multiple POV blend of historical fiction and mystery that takes place on the very real North Brother Island, one of the spookiest remnants of New York's Hospital for quarantinable diseases. It follows Finn Gettler and his family as we learn the history of the medical research the Gettler's have been doing for decades.

Finn doesn't know much about the research his family has been hiding, but he knows it has something to do with North Brother Island. This prompts Finn to explore the island and stumble across Cora, who has been held on the island and experimented on for decades. We jump back and fourth between two timelines, one in the present with Finn uncovering his family's secrets and one telling the story of Cora and her experience on the island.

I really liked the family dynamics between Finn, his brother Kristian, and his father Rollie. I also liked seeing how the Gettler's progressed over time from nazi scientist Ulrich who treated Cora as no more than a lab rat to Finn who is shocked at learning his about family's research. Plus I thought Nolden's writing was fantastic! Everything is very vivid and she clearly did a lot of research to create a fictional version of a very real place. I would definitely check out more of her work.

What I wasn't a fan of was the pacing of the first half. From the first page I was HOOKED. But when we started going away from Finn and focusing more on Cora, it got a little slow for me. I know showing us Cora's past was important for the story, but I thought too much time was spent describing events that didn't really impact her character in the present. As I said before, this book was very well researched. But some chapters felt like facts being thrown at me and it made the characters have less of an impact. And this book is pretty character driven, which made it hard for me to stay interested during every chapter. The second half did pick up action wise which I liked, but the ending was unsatisfying for me because many questions were left unanswered. Which I guess was the point because Nolden plans to write a sequel. In my opinion, this book would have been a lot more impactful as a stand alone.

All in all though I thought The Vines was an interesting read and I enjoyed the discussions of medical ethics and learning about the historical past of North Brother Island. Many thanks to Freiling Publishing and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This is so poorly written that I couldn't get past the first few chapters. It needs serious editing for grammar, style, punctuation, and much more. The idea is interesting, but the writing is so bad that it doesn't matter.