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 familys 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 doesnt 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 doctors 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 its 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,
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, A “The Vines” by Shelley Nolden, Freiling Publishing, March,by Linda Zagon
If you enjoy a terrifying, horrifying psychological thriller, I have a book recommendation for you.
! Shelley Nolden, the author of “The Vines” has written a captivating, intriguing, intense and historical thriller, This novel takes place on North Brother Island, close by New York, on an island that has been taken over by vines and plant growth, At one time there was a hospital, used for quarantine for contagious illnesses, help for patients with addictions, and experimentations of biological viruses and toxins, as well as human beings.
The author describes her dramatic characters as complex, and complicated, Some are evil and appear to be psychotic, or obsessed with dangerous things, There are lies, secrets, betrayals, danger and death,
Finn is exploring the island and checking the foliage, and comes across Cora, a woman who is beautiful but scarred, Most of Finns family have been doctors affiliated with research on the island, As Finn gets close enough to meet Cora, without getting killed, he starts to learn dark secrets and mysteries about his family, that he can hardly believe is true.
Cora has developed unbelievable survival skills, although she has become the uber victim,
There are twists and turns, danger lurking at every turn, and the possibility of death, I could not put this book down, and continued to read, With everything going on in the world today, there could be a realistic tone to it, and it is very thoughtprovoking, Staytuned, I believe there will be another book to follow, I look forward to reading it,
As a nurse, I am always drawn to stories that bring to light the history and perspectives of medical treatments, historical figures, and historical landmarks, those that have made strides to the improvement and saving of lives, as well as, the notorious characters like Typhoid Mary as mentioned in this novel.
From the moment the story opens, I was completely hooked by Cora, who she is, what her scars were all about, and why she was at Brother Island, now off limits to public and a bird sanctuary an isolated location of a shuttered Riverside Hospital now in ruins.
The thrilling story continues to keep me turning those pages as Nolden expertly weaves stories from the past and the secrets the Gettler family is hiding, In this genre bending story, we witness the abhorrent and unethical experiments and practices from the past and how this is hauntingly creeping into the present timeline as dark secrets are surfacing.
This story is also about the strength and resilience of Cora which was a formidable character and a true badass,
I recommend you look into the history of Brother Island and the pictures online from some amazing photographers that were granted entry into the now bird sanctuary with the buildings left in ruins.
It really helped me bring this story to life,
Overall, this historical fiction scifi thriller mystery was engaging, thought provoking and quite relatable to our current pandemic situation, Conceptually harrowing and dark, The Vines is a multipov blend of historical fiction, science fiction, and mystery, I didnt know much about North Brother Island prior to going into this but I dont feel like that affected my reading experience, The writing style made it a bit difficult for me to immerse myself in the story immediately and the pacing was a bit slow but the subject matter was enough to keep me intrigued throughout.
I look forward to reading the sequel!
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
All opinions are my own, The Vines is a story that ties together modern advances in microbiology and vaccination with a historical background,
It begins with Finn, a descendent of a family of microbiologists in some form, He discovers a scarred woman named Cora and begins to unravel her connection to his family and the small, abandoned New York island she resides on, We find that Cora has been experimented on for decades and hosts multiple epidemic diseases, including typhoid and smallpox, It is up to Finn to discover how she has lived so long, determine the extent of his family's unethical treatment, and try his best to help her.
I particularly enjoyed the historical aspects of the story, Many famous scientists and their discoveries, such as Leeuwenhoek's "animalcules," are discussed, It also brings a focus to ethics and if one person's suffering for the "benefit" of mankind acceptable, This is why I read!!! I learn something new every time I open a book, As a librarian, I challenge my students to find something you are interested in and go with it, but lately it has been go out of your comfort zone and genre you will be amazed by the new categories of knowledge that are surfacing.
Shelley Nolden, thank you for opening my eyes to North Brother Island, NY, How did I not know this existed I realize the story is based on historical fiction, but this led me down a rabbit hole to research the island, The General Slocum, the human experiments, the quarantines and mankind's seemly cruelest mistakes.
Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC in exchange for my review, I thoroughly enjoyed it and hoping for a sequel,
I couldn't stop thinking about the General Slocum that killed,men, women and children, I was horrified by the descriptions and the poor souls clinging to life while watching so many burn or drown and the countless people who tried to rescue them.
The images online of this island is captivating with so many beautiful castlelike buildings, It would be hard to keep me away from investigating this farther if I lived in New York, The book has an excellent historical background and research with connections to the Holocaust and the family responsible for the horrifying psychological human experiments on the patients quarantined for contagious diseases.
This book hits close to home with our universal quarantines from loved ones and a pandemic that will be written about for decades, I'm thankful for being quarantined at home when loved ones during the early's were taken from their homes and sent to live on this island with no technology to connect.
Extra note After closing in, the island was then used to isolate drug addicts until,
Interesting characters to watch for is Typhoid Mary, I remember reading about her in history books, but to see her character come to life is phenomenal, Finn, an adventurer, that explores the island that he has always heard about since he is a by product of his family responsible for relinquishing harm on the patients.
Finn discovers Cora, a beautiful isolated inhabitant scarred mentally, physically and kept against her will for decades, She has experienced pain and torture from the demented Dr, Gettler.
The enrichment of this work holds parallel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,
Discover the lies, betrayal, intriguing strength found hiding on one of the best kept secrets in the remains of this shuttered hospital and island,
Don't forget to
research the North Brother Island and General Slocum, The images will enhance the reading of this book This book is chilling, This isn't labeled a horror novel, but the real life treatment of and the experiments done to the patients of North Brother Island were truly horrifying, This book give us a glimpse of the island's dark history while also seamlessly weaving a present day tale that highlights the ripple effect of destruction caused by the gruesome experiments conducted there.
Couple that with reading this book during a pandemic, and it's even more jarring and unsettling, Waverly Hills has nothing on North Brother Island, and I wish more people would write about this haunting place,
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review, Wow, this book was very timely in! 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, Intriguing
This is an awesome read and I look forward to the next book in this series, Would you like to be trapped on an island having experiments being performed on you year after agonizing year A young girl losing her chance at a normal life, ostracized from everyone around her even a human touch with no chance of love but continues to have hope through all the cruel and evil done to her.
With all the elements of a thriller and a well written imaginative story, I recommend you give this author a try, You won't be disappointed. Wow. So many feelings.
I am grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for this digital ARC for my honest opinion,
The mystery that began on the first pages with a scarred but beautiful woman being watched by an innocent interloper and then fearing for his life from said woman was a pretty good start! I got a bit confused with the first change in timeline narrative and it did require me to let go of some of my more "realistic" notions.
Once I did, I was able to fully embrace the story and let my mind and heart engage in the many layers of emotional wranglings that the characters must navigate.
This story wrestles with the ideas of the individual versus the collective, human strength and dignity, the drive to live, and the motivations to help others against the deeper evils of power, glory, and control.
Evident here that was a poignant point to me, was the necessity to dehumanize in order to harm, Also a difficult, and well presented question of how far someone is willing to go to prevent/cure/aid someone or yourself, Do the ends justify the means I thought these questions were dealt with well in a very human way through the characters, Reading more about the author and her cancer experience helped me understand how she could bring such depth to the emotion,
I like a book that leaves me with a sense of challenge how do I really feel about something, This book definitely did that,
My only critique beyond the "realistic" notion that I had to shake off is that I wished for a more satisfying end to one of the antagonists, one that was sooner.
All the frustrations I had with Cora, the scarred woman in the beginning, seemed to be explained and made sense as the story progressed, She was a stronger woman that I had given her credit for in the beginning,
A timely story in a year of Covid, this is a good read that poses basic human questions that are for any time, Thank you to Shelley Nolden, Freiling Publishing and NetGalley for this copy of TheVines in return for an honest review,
The Vines, The Vines, The Vines what to say about The Vines
I wanted to like this book,
I wanted to LOVE this book,
I really, really did,
Great cover. Great idea. Great execution.
Its just that well nothing really happened!
I dont want to give anything away, but I so desperately wanted this book to go places, to give me more of the main character, Cora.
More of who she was and what she could do, of the island and the history/mystery that surrounded it, But the book didnt deliver, it just sat on its bony arse and barely moved a muscle much like my dog, except her arse is far from bony.
I kept telling myself the problem lay with my choice of reading platform, This was my very first kindle read rather than an actual reallife bookinhand read, but I dont believe thats it, Or perhaps its because the prose was a little on the purple side for me, but then the book Im reading now is also a little too flowery, but Im enjoying it just fine.
So what WAS the problem with The Vines The characters were likable enough except for Ullrich, the bastard and though the story jumped back and forth faster than one of those bats with a ball on elastic, it didnt in any way ruin the story.
So I guess, in truth, I honestly dont know why The Vines didnt do it for me, But it didnt shrug.
What I will say though, is perhaps you should read it for yourself because its not a bad book, Far from it. Im just completely and hopelessly stuck in the middle with this one, and because of that my review is essentially next to useless,
bemused out of five,
Catch Hold Of The Vines Formulated By Shelley Nolden File Format Leaflet
Shelley Nolden