I enjoyed reading this but it was just ok. I really wish I would have like it more. Having just read another book about eugenics maybe it was just too much at one time?

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC. Very compelling historical fiction in which the author Ann Leary had a personal connection and to which seemed very well researched. I’ve never read anything from this author before but reaTlly enjoyed this read, plan to read her other highly rated books,
this is a strangely compelling book, for being one without a tremendous amount of action.. Definiely a must read this summer.

Thank you to netgalley and publishers for an advance e-copy in exchange for my honest opinion. It is a pleasure to recommend this book to anyone needing a good enthralling story

It’s 1927, and Mary Engle, fresh from classes for secretarial school gets her first job working for an accomplished woman who runs an asylum for feebleminded women of childbearing age. Mary is is moved by the speeches given by her new boss and begins to believe in the mission espoused by the woman. As time wears on, Mary realizes that one of the inmates is a woman she grew up with in her orphanage they grew up in. The woman never seemed feeble minded to Mary. Mary is hesitant to ask about the woman’s learn the circumstances leading to her confinement and work detail at the asylum details. Eventually, the two women meet and Mary begins to question the asylum’s purpose and even the character of the imposing woman that runs the asylum. This novel takes the reader to the times when men committed wives for as little as voicing their own beliefs in opposition to their husband. A compelling read about a sad moment in the lives of American women, all the more poignant after recent Supreme Court rulings.

I found the historical basis of this book really fascinating. The research and attention to detail was obviously there. However, I disliked the main character to a degree that was honestly distracting. I love a good anti-hero. I genuinely do not find it necessary to love characters in in books I read. But Mary was grating. I also didn't quite buy her growth.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Loved it! Did not expect the ending, at all. Two huge shock twists back to back. It was great! Left me wanting more.

A great historical fiction story! Back in 1927, 18 yo Mary Engle is hired as a secretary to the prominent Doctor Vogel who is the Director of the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. An odd name for an institution, Mary thinks, but apparently at the time there is a need to keep women who are "slow or feebleminded" "retarded" or "dangerous to themselves or others" out of society so they do not bear children thus passing along their deficient genes to their future offspring. Mary is slightly in awe of the very famous, well-educated and rich Dr. Vogel and is so honored to have been chosen by her to be employed at the Village. Eventually through several incidents, Mary becomes Dr. Vogel's personal secretary and also living in Dr. Vogel's luxurious home too. While working, Mary discovers she knows one of the residents, a girl named Lila who she grew up with in an orphanage in Scranton. Mary knows Lila is NOT feeble minded and wonders why she is there. She hears stories but has trouble believe in them. There is a lot going on in this story with Mary, Dr. Vogel and how she got to where she is, Mary's blossoming social life with new friends and a boyfriend, and also Mary discovering more about the Village and the residents and how they have ended up there. Apparently this is sadly based on a true story. IT is so interesting and I enjoyed every minute of it! Great read!

Book concept based on author's grandmother being involved with a similar facility.

Assistant knows inmate from her childhood; inmate convinces assistant to plan her escape; assistant has close relationship with head of institution.

This part of US history has been neatly ignored. Many thanks to Ann Leary for writing such an intriguing book. I felt very engaged as I was reading and liked how the main character developed over the course of the story. I kept thinking about The Foundling after finishing the book, always worth a bonus star when that happens.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review ... and also for introducing me (yet once again!) to an author that I had previously missed. Many thanks to Ann Leary the author and to Scribner, Scribner / Marysue Rucci Books.
Classified as Historical Fiction. Publish date 31 May 2022.

I have read other historical fiction books that address the practice and popularity of eugenics in the 1920s. Most were set in Europe, with a few visiting Dr.s and financial backers making brief cameo appearances from the USA. So although I was aware the practice of eugenics was being done on American soil also, I never really understood how common and how widely it was accepted here.
This story, about the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age, opened my eyes to the real extent the horror was practiced. That being said, for me that is all this book accomplished. I really don't want to write a negative review but this book never really hits it's intended mark. It is very well researched, based loosely on the author's grandmother, but the execution of the story is just off. This should have been a very dark, disturbing story, highlighting the miserable conditions these women were subjected to against their will. It comes off way too light, as if not taken seriously enough. I understand the main character Mary was sheltered in an orphanage full of nuns but come on now, just how naive for how long can you really be? How blindingly loyal to the great Dr. Vogel can she be until BAM! Conveniently she suddenly changes course and hates the Dr. and what she has been doing to these women? It just comes off as pretty unbelievable, Mary is very shallow and one dimensional, I did not like her right from the start and maybe that is what ruined this book for me. I found it very hard to stay focused on the book and it has taken me months to actually sit down and get through the beginning of it, I usually read a book a day or every other day, so for me this is a long, long time. It does go a bit faster towards the end but it takes a real effort to get to that point. As I said, great eye-opening topic, just poor execution of the story. I have to give it a 2+ rating, bumped up to 3 because it isn't totally horrible.
Thank you Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.

The Foundling is an interesting historical fiction novel set in 1927 when new social ideas and philosophies were circulating and leading to institutional change. Mary Engle, a young, naive 18 year old is the center of this story. She spent most of her childhood at a Catholic orphanage in Scranton, Pennsylvania after her mother’s death. Her father had to travel for work and couldn’t care for a two year old. She lived there for several years, with occasional visits to her father. Then her father removed her to her aunt’s home, a move that seemed to remove promise from her life.

Mary received the opportunity to interview for a job as secretary at the Nettleton State Village for Feeble Minded Women of Childbearing Age. She was to work for the renowned Dr. Agnes Vogel, a woman ahead of her time, who had worked for women’s suffrage, succeeded at medical school where women were rarely included and now ran a successful asylum for disabled women. Mary, and I, were to learn quite a lot about the eugenics movement in the United States, a movement that isn’t discussed very often, and then often in vague generalities. Here we see how the philosophy of producing and maintaining a “better” population of people is actually carried out in a society that doesn’t want to resort to killing, how the unwanted can be removed from society.

Through a chance encounter, Mary realizes she knows one of the inmates of the village…and she also knows that this woman was not feeble minded when they were at the orphanage together so many years ago. Now her questions begin as she begins to take a closer look at everything around her, even her new hero, Dr, Vogel and the full name of the village.

Recommended…this is a very interesting and instructive look at a part of American history that isn’t discussed often. While Mary’s naïveté occasionally bothered me and she seemed a bit slow to catch on, I also feel that could be very true of a young person in her position with minimal life experience. Though she is intelligent, she is very much afraid of making an error or judging incorrectly. She is insecure.

It is important to remember that eugenics and other aspects of this philosophy are a part of American history, and have shown up at other times and in other ways during our history.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

If you ever want to see me get as close to as mad as I can get without having some sort of mental breakdown, just mention eugenics to me. The very topic will send me into a spiral of information going all the way back to the Irish Potato Famine and will work its way up into the time this book takes place, past WWII, all the way up until the present day. It's the one topic that steams me up so much I keep up with it because it makes no sense, isn't rooted in any kind of accepted medical or biological science, is usually attributed to the wrong person, is a tool of organized religion and the right and alt-right wings, and scares me half to death because if I were alive back when "The Foundling" takes place I likely would've been found to be feeble-minded. Being born and raised in California during the time of eugenics was an even unluckier hand to be dealt than in Pennsylvania, for those of you who know your Supreme Court decisions.

But enough about me. The paragraph above only explains why I chose to read this book. I like my books to make me feel something, and I absolutely went into this knowing this book would make me mad. I knew I would be mad, but I was drawn to reading a historical fiction suspense mystery (inspired by a true story) set in the late 1920s at a Pennsylvania "village" for "feeble-minded" girls of childbearing age. These girls and women may have earned the right to vote by 1927, but they sure hadn't earned the right to almost anything else, including any autonomy over their own bodies and minds. Our main character, Mary, has been so sheltered her entire life she knows nothing of what these types of institutions are, what they do there, what these females did to be sent there, how they get sent there, or what it means to be labeled the various terms (terms that we so disdainfully regard today, and with good reason) they are labeled once they get there. She's only blinded with admiration for the great Dr. Agnes Vogel, the female psychiatrist who heads the "village". Mary's so very impressed that a woman had the ability to become an actual doctor that she takes her word as gospel... for a while.

Ann Leary did a great deal of excellent research to write this book, and it shows. The vocabulary, colloquialisms, and slang of the 1920s are solid. The cultural makeup (ethnic and religious) and dialect of the region for the time period shine through. It's not forgotten that it's not only orphans that stayed at orphanages at this time, but half-orphans as well (Mary has a father, but he works and lives in the lumber industry at a camp and as such cannot have young Mary living around that many men). The differences between prisons, asylums, and homes are all distinct (the term "sanitarium" had fallen into disuse by this time in much of the US). The largest amount of research, of course, was done in the field of eugenics and about facilities like the one that features in this book. It likely helped that the author's grandmother worked at the facility that inspired this book (indeed, it was her grandmother that inspired this book altogether). I congratulate the author on doing such thorough research. Writing about the victims of the eugenics movement is no laughing matter, and I'm glad she took such measures to ensure their legacy was treated with care.

The book itself was engaging and thoughtful. A solid read all around. If you like historical fiction centered on highly controversial times in history, I recommend it. If you like historical fiction aimed at women's issues, I recommend it. If you like historical fiction centered around the history of feminism, I recommend it if only to remind yourself that feminism has a history of not always being on the right side of history and all women have trodden on other women in the past to get where we are today. We have a great deal of work to do still today to bring equity to all women.

Thanks to NetGalley, Scribner, and Marysue Rucci Books for allowing me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the opportunity to review this book.

This was an interesting storyline. I felt it average compared to the many historical fiction books I’ve read, including those of foundlings, child abuse and asylums.

It was a quick read as I skimmed over all the angsty inner dialogue. The protagonist seemed to vacillate between naivety and insecurity to being wise and intuitive from sentence to sentence. The character development was sporadic and inconsistent.

The subject matter should have had me cringing, but honestly it was a very light read that did not evoke any guttural or emotional response.

With that said, the historical parts were informative and interesting but the fiction part did not intrigue me.

The Foundling is why I love historical fiction. I *sort of* knew places like this existed, but reading this book really brought it to life and made me realize another dark past of this country's history. The story was beautifully told and the characters were so memorable. Some of my favorites I've read all year.

I was pleasantly surprised by this story. I didn't know much about this book, what it was supposed to be about or anything so going off the cover and some speculation I had kind of thought this might be a suspense or mystery/thriller type read, but this was historical fiction and end up being one of the few books I've read recently that was a 5 star read.
This is about a girl named Mary Engle in 1927, who is 18 and gets hired to be a secretary for a Doctor and a woman Doctor at that. Mary is instantly in awe and full of admiration for this Doctor Agnes Vogel, who's in charge of the remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. As it turns out Dr. Vogel was the only woman in her class in medical school and she spoke out about women's suffrage. Now Dr. Vogel runs this public asylum and everyone admires her and how dedicated she is to taking care of these poor and vulnerable women under her care.
The problem starts when Mary learns and then sees a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of these poor women at the asylum under the Doctor's care and it doesn't make sense to Mary why this girl from her childhood, Lillian, is there at this mental institution. Lillian approaches Mary to ask her in secret to help her to escape from this asylum and Mary doesn't know what to think or what to do about it. What happens and the sequence of events that come after Mary decides what to do with Lillian and whether to help her or not leave them with life-altering consequences.
It's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride with some twists and turns that threw me off a bit. I was shocked by some of what I read and heard in this story and wonder what things were really like back then. This is the second historical fiction book I've read recently about how poorly women were or could be treated back then in the late 1800s and early 1900s etc. This is the second book I have read about a mental institution for women that was more like a prison and not used for giving real care to those who were in need of it. It's a bit disturbing reading about these kinds of things and makes you wonder. I would recommend this book and further reading/researching on this kind of thing in history too if that interests you like it did me.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books for letting me read and review this very interesting read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you, Ann Leary, NetGalley, and Scribner Books for the opportunity to read this book. It was just released on May 31st, 2022.

“Well, you know what books I like, I mean, what else do you need to know?”

THE FOUNDLING
The Foundling by Ann Leary takes readers to the year 1927 and introduces the extremely naive, Mary Engle. At just 18 years old, she gets a job as a secretary at Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. She had grown up in an orphanage and jumped at the chance to work under Dr. Agnes Vogel. Mary is in awe of her and her new job. But one day, she sees a familiar face, Lillian, a girl who was with her at the orphanage. There is no way she belongs here. Mary soon discovers that there is something wrong with Nettleton and especially with Dr. Vogel.

This book held a lot of promise with that premise, but it was not executed well. Let me start with the pacing. The beginning is slow, which is to be expected. We meet naive Mary, and as the book progresses she doesn’t really stop being naive. Well, maybe she does, but then happily turns a blind eye and feigns ignorance. Because “she can’t lose her job.” Which is mentioned quite often. Then about 70% into the book and she is just not ignorant anymore and is determined to make a change, but only to one person.

Now time to talk about the trigger warnings. The author did her research and wanted it to be as accurate as possible. So be warned the language used is very insulting. The women are deemed low in intelligence and are referred to as idiots and morons. But the author does state in the introduction that this was the actual language used in asylums during this time. There is also rape, abuse, gaslighting, racism, and antisemitism.

This leads me to the tone of the novel. This story is heavy and dark, or it should be written as such. For some reason, it came off very light to me. There is definitely the want for a happily ever after when I think this book would have made more of an impact by embracing the heavy and important topics.

However, thanks to the ignorant Mary, we do get to see her experience a lot of lessons involving her privilege. I do appreciate what the author tried to do with this book, but not sure how well it was executed.

I AM MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!
This is the thought I had while reading The Foundling. A work of biographical historical fiction, The Foundling is set in The Nettleton State Village for Feeble Minded Women of Child Bearing Age. The name is foreboding. It is an institution of outward respectability and inner evil in operation during the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century.

Eugenics: The practice of controlled selective breeding of humans to improve the genetic gene pool. Superior race and all that. Sound familiar?

Nettleton and others like it were society's attempt to keep those deemed intellectually, physically, or morally deficient from having children. After all, we don't need them expecting hand outs from the government, birthing a brood of more moochers. Sound familiar?

Homes for unwed mothers, sanitoriums, asylums for the "feeble minded", reform schools; all institutions that, on the surface, have our best interests at heart but whose intentions are often distorted and mangled by those trying to control what isn't rightfully theirs to control or trying to mitigate their own wrongdoing.
Sound familiar?

The main character, Mary Engle, a young, naive Catholic girl takes her first job at Nettleton. She worships Margaret Sanger, the woman at the helm. Questions arise when she sees a girl from the same orphanage where she was raised, a girl who didn't seem "feeble minded" in the least. I couldn't help it, I judged Mary Engle harshly. I wanted to slap her and yell in her face, "Wake up!." But it wasn't her fault; it was the culture of the time (behave appropriately, respect authority, don't question).

All of the women at Nettleton were institutionalized against their will for the duration of their child-bearing years. They were essentially free labor for the institutions and the people with money and influence in the community. Many women were sent away by their parents or husbands because of their refusal to do as told or because they dared to speak about emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse. Sometimes it was a means of controlling her money without the nuisance of having her around. The eugenics movement certainly wasn't the first nor the last example of the blaming the victim mentally still evident today. Every story deserves to be heard but I have to admit that at times I feel the weight will crush me.

What makes The Foundling particularly poignant is that it is based on the true story of Leary's grandmother (not great-grandmother or great-great-grandmother). The book is well researched and rings true. I would like to have more information about what happened to the women after they were released. It couldn't have been good.

The question that needs pondering is this: When we are witness to injustice, when our eyes are opened, will we have the courage to act?

I received a drc from Scribner via Netgalley.
Available now from your favorite bookstore or library.

Ann Leary did an incredible job putting together is novel and bringing to light the topic of eugenics - the goal to eliminate undesirable genetic traits in the human race through selective breeding. This topic is not normally discussed, but was a big part of history.
Mary’s character at times is very naive and self-centered, which is hard to “root for” as the hero of the story. Where as Lillian, who as been forced into the asylum, you want to root for her to be free, but should she really be? At times, the story lacked action and we were waiting for the big problem to drop.
Overall, a great thought provoking novel.

TW: violence, sexual assault, rape, anti-Semitism, racism, dated racial terms, dated psychiatric terms, ableism, eugenics, misogyny, miscarriage and stillbirth, incest, childhood sexual abuse

In 1927, at the age of 18, Mary Engle finds herself at the doorsteps of Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. She has been hired in as a secretary for the prestigious, Dr. Agnes Vogel. Dr. Vogel runs one of the largest and most self-sufficient asylums for women in the country. Mary admires Dr. Vogel seeing how dedicated she is to having the poor and vulnerable women under her care.
As Mary begins to work, she recognizes one of the inmates at the asylum as a friend from her childhood orphanage. But Lillian isn’t mentally disabled? Why is she here and what’s going on? Lillian knows Mary’s darkest secret and Lillian wants to escape Nettleton. Who can Mary trust?
Based on a true story from Ann Leary’s grandmother, this historical fiction novel touches the surface of the forgotten horrific time period in the American history of eugenics.

Thank you Netgalley, and Ann Leary for allowing me to review and ecopy of the book for my honest review.

A story centered around Eugenics in the guise of an institution for women who seemingly shouldn't be there. The naive Mary and haughty Dr. Vogel are masterfully created as are the other characters. Anti-Semitic sentiment and racism are apparent in the plot and history. Based on real institutions and the Eugenics movement, this is a fast and well written read.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read this ARC!

Content Warning: death (including that of a child), violence, sexual assault, rape, anti-Semitism, racism, dated racial terms, dated psychiatric terms, ableism, eugenics, misogyny, miscarriage and stillbirth, incest, childhood sexual abuse.


Mary Engle is only eighteen when she's offered a prestigious opportunity to work at an isolated institution, the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Her employer, Dr. Agnes Vogel, is a suffragist and one of the leading psychiatrists of her time, and Mary is only too eager to learn from this educated, cultured woman. At first, she is touched by the dedication Dr. Vogel seems to have towards her patients, but when Mary discovers that a girl she used to know -- a fellow orphan at St. Catherine's -- is one of the mentally disabled girls, she struggles to make sense of it. The Lillian she remembers from her childhood was vivacious, brave, and whip-smart. Could this really be the same girl? And if she is -- is there something nefarious going on at Nettleton Village? Determined to get to the truth, Mary takes it upon herself to find out what exactly is going on in this scenic, outwardly beautiful institution.

Having some prior knowledge of the long, dark history of eugenics here in the United States, I wasn't totally shocked by the story being told in The Foundling. A topic like this, though, is never one you quite "get used to," and I must applaud Leary for deciding to bring these atrocities to a wider audience. This is a piece of America's past that often gets overlooked, and while this book takes place in 1927, the attitudes of the public towards those who are considered mentally disabled haven't changed as much we'd hope.

Our heroine is Mary Engle, a "half-orphan" who lived in an orphanage until she was twelve. You would think that her own disadvantaged past would perhaps make her more sympathetic to those who are from similarly unlucky circumstances, but it's just the opposite: she's ingrained with a sort of self-righteousness that will make you grit your teeth. I'm of two minds on Mary's character, and it's hard to decide what exactly to feel about her, and whether one opinion precludes the other. On the one hand, Mary is self-centered, naïve, intent on saving her own skin, and seems worryingly lacking in empathy; on the other hand, I think her opinions and thoughts are, sadly, realistic for a character in the 1920s. I hate to say this, considering the author notes that Mary and the entire story are based off her own grandmother and her experiences working at an institution similar to the Nettleton Village, but it's just downright hard to like Mary.

If she displayed character growth, well -- that'd be something entirely different. But throughout the story, she never quite grows up, in spite of her claims that she does. Her whole character revolves around her saying, "But what about me?" One of the side characters, a nurse called Bertie who quickly befriends Mary, is much more likable, relatable, and interesting. Although she displays similar prejudices, she's also openminded, and she's the one who really seems to care and fight for the girls from the very beginning. It's only around the 80-90% mark that Mary seems to show any development at all. This is my main issue with The Foundling. The story itself is fine, and the topic is both interesting and extremely disheartening, but Mary is simply not the kind of character you root for.

Moving onto the plotline, it's decently paced, and there are moments of real interest. Lillian, the girl who is falsely imprisoned (or is she?), is fascinating and lovable. At times, I felt the panic of the characters as they tried to make the right choices in harrowing situations. The descriptions of the women who are forced to live and work there are touching; I wish that we'd been given an insight into more of them. For example, there's a character called Elsie, a savant who plays the piano with astonishing beauty, who I would have loved to see even more of. I liked Leary's villain, Dr. Vogel. Like real-world "villains," she is complex, cultured on one hand, bigoted on the other; loving towards Mary, cruel towards those she thinks of as "lesser"; and in this case, Leary certainly succeeds in making a character who is both unlikable and interesting.

Most importantly, there's something missing from this tale that lends it a feeling of being half-told. It never seems to occur to Mary that even if these women and girls are, in fact, mentally disabled, they deserve love, care, and a world outside of the limited, frightening one they live in at Nettleton Village. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Mary's "aha!" moment of realizing that being mentally disabled does not make you "morally weak," "criminal," or deserving of being imprisoned from the moment you can bear children until the moment you no longer can, but it never comes. She has a few passages where she seems to be leading into this, but overall, the main focus of the story seems to be on the fact that Nettleton Village might be wrongfully imprisoning girls and women who are "of sound mind." That, certainly, is an issue in and of itself -- but what about those who are mentally disabled?

To conclude this already overly long review, I think there are some good, succinct points made here, but the overall story and characterization left me feeling disappointed. Those who are not aware of the history of eugenics in the United States will definitely find this a very valuable read, and I do recommend it if you are looking for more on the subject. However, it is slightly disjointed, and I just couldn't bring myself to be fully immersed when I had so many questions and doubts surrounding Mary's character, as well as the other issues I mentioned.

I hate to do this, but I must compare this to Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, which I reviewed previously on my blog. This is another book about eugenics, forced sterilization, and reproductive violence (focused mostly on black women) that will open your mind, touch your soul, and has a main character who is struggling (and sometimes failing) to do the right thing. Unlike Mary, Civil, the heroine of Take My Hand, is someone also questioning the system and what she believes to be true, but she manages to be lovable, interesting, and a character that still sticks out in my mind.

Set in the 1920s, The Foundling is about two young girls who meet in an orphanage, then meet again years later at a women’s asylum in Pennsylvania. One is a now the secretary to a female doctor who runs the institution, the other a patient/inmate placed there against her will. This story is shocking, and I was horrified by the ghastly corruption and treatment placed upon women inmates within those walls. The author told a well-written and researched tale of friendship, loyalty, and righting the wrongs in an institution that unfortunately didn’t think of these child-bearing aged women being anything but feeble minded. That couldn’t of been farther from the truth. These controversial institutions that primarily focused on eugenics put a large blemish on our history that we sadly still feel the effects of to this day. This is inspired by a true story of the authors grandmother who worked at a similar place.

*Thanks to Scribner / Marysue Rucci Books via NetGalley for providing a digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

The history at the heart of Ann Leary's The Founding is disturbing, essential, and far too little known. The novel is set in the late 20s, when the U.S. eugenics movement was strong. One of its goals was to keep "feeble-minded" women from reproducing. A number of institutions across the U.S. took in women considered feeble-minded and held them until they were no longer fertile—in other words, stays of 20-40+ years. Women placed in those institutions by husbands or families had few legal recourses.

And the definition of feeble-minded at that time was a broad one. Women who were sexually active, were raped, who spent time in prison were viewed as "morally underdeveloped" and at fault for whatever happened to them. And that "moral underdevelopment" was seen as proof of a moral sort of feeble-mindedness.

The author came upon the topic at the heart of her novel when researching family history and discovering that her grandmother had worked as a secretary at such a facility. And the more the author researched the nature of these facilities and the women who were essentially incarcerated in them, the more deeply disturbed she became trying to imagine a family member as part of the staff of such a facility.

As I said, this history is disturbing, essential, and far too little known, though I personally would have liked to approach it via nonfiction, rather than having it woven into a novel because spending time with characters and their lives outside of this topic felt indulgent or inappropriate to me when the topic screamed to be presented on its own. But that's what I would have liked, and authors aren't required to write the books we'd like; they write the books they feel called on to write. Leary felt called on to address this topic through fiction, and her novel is bound to open a great many eyes and—I hope—lead readers to learn more about this episode in U.S. history.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.