At first unhinged and unstable, Jeanne finds her voice and strength, eventually shedding more than one protective skin. Emory suffers too, but his sorrow feels disappointingly devoid of remorse; he’s the least-formed character in Burdick’s world, so it’s hard to muster much sympathy for his travails ... concludes in crescendo so fever-pitched that the last page seems to come too soon. Nevertheless, Burdick has spun a cautionary tale of struggle and survival, love and family — and above all, the strength of the heart, no matter how broken.
... a wonderful read, from the unique stories of wayward children sent to live under the harsh control of nuns to the cruelty of young girls that find themselves there, even to the woman spearheading the suffrage movement, left to feel the judgment of a male-dominated society. Although the book covers some difficult topics, such as runaways, class divide, and poverty, I still found the story to hold my interest throughout. While The Girls With No Names started out as a slow burn, showing off the dynamics of life before the metaphorical storm hit, it slowly turned into a story that I did not expect in the slightest.
Told by three alternating narrators, Burdick’s carefully researched narrative shines a light on the untold stories of countless real women, and fans of Joanna Goodman’s The Home for Unwanted Girls (2018) will be consumed by the fast-paced plot and well-characterized, sympathetic girls at the novel’s heart.
The bleak lives of women in early-20th-century New York spring to life through Burdick’s deft sketching ... As for the House of Mercy itself, Burdick shrewdly lets it loom in the background for a bit before pulling it to the foreground, like an urban legend suddenly brought to life. Burdick is especially adept at slowly revealing the motivation of the ominous figures around Effie and Mable while ratcheting up both the girls’ vulnerability and courage ... A spellbinding thriller for fans of Gilded Age fiction.
Burdick will break hearts with this exquisitely wrought, meticulously researched historical reflection on an American version of the infamous Magdalene laundries of Ireland ... Told from the alternating points of view of Effie; her mother, Jeanne; and Mable, the narrative combines lush prose with a quick and riveting plot. Readers will be intensely moved by this historical.
