The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman

While casually browsing the Costco book section, I noticed a book called The Home for Unwanted Girls. The book caught my eye mainly because I vaguely remembered hearing about it from an old friend. After a brief glance at the reviews on the back of the book, I decided to buy it. (Correction by my dad: my dad bought it).

When I had bought the book, I thought that it would be an interesting historical fiction novel. Maybe like a realistic version of Ms. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children or an elite murder mystery? My predictions couldn't have been more wrong. Unfortunately, while reading the back of the book, I hadn't realized that the praise and reviews were about another one of the author's books. The book was really about a girl who had an illegitimate baby. The baby was put into an orphanage, and the book covers the lives of the mother and child.

I read the book, even though the book wasn't what I had expected. It was glaringly mediocre. As I will explain later in this blog, it felt like the author was attempting to introduce depth with symbolism and relevance, but it fell flat. The book also had unrelatable characters, lazy writing, and various inconsistencies. In my review I'll cover the overall plot, the characters, and the writing itself.

Before I dive into my analysis, I want to note that I'm glad that the book talked about the treatment of orphans in 20th century Canada. It's not a well-known subject, and I learned a lot about it after reading this book.

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Plot:

The plot was very poorly constructed. The introduction took 83 pages to establish the main characters and introduce the illegitimate baby. I bring this up, because after reading 83 pages, the setting and characters of the book were established. But, then there is an abrupt jump through time and the baby is seemingly forgotten. The plot continues with the mother's uninteresting dating life until, there is another sudden change in time, and the protagonist is switched to the orphan. The book continues to change suddenly and makes it hard to read - and even harder to care.

What irked me the most, however, was that there was no climax or satisfying conclusion. I truly believe that if the author focused on the orphan's experience in the orphanage/mental institute instead of the mother's love life, the book could have been interesting. By the end of the book, the resolution fell flat because I didn't know enough about the struggle of the orphan, and I didn't sympathize much with the mother. It felt pointless and cheap.

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Characters:

The characters in this book were generic and inconsistent. At the beginning of the book, the characters were well defined. The mother was an infatuated teenager who admired her father despite his shortcomings. She was a thoughtful and observant protagonist. However, later in the book she inexplicably turned into a hotheaded, emotional mess who hates her father. Another confusing aspect to her personality is her ambition. She desperately wants to be more than just a dependent housewife, but her conflict in the book is living without the love-of-her-life. By the end of the book, she owns a seed farm (fulfilling her ambition, I suppose) but considering that her previous jobs were translating books, it was an awkward ending.

Lazy writing:

It's a rare occasion for me to criticize someone else's writing. Writing has always been a struggle for me, and I commend everyone who has written a whole book. However, when I read two orphans (who have known each other for their entire lives) remind each other that they are both orphans, I raise a red flag. That is just one example of unnecessary dialogue that you'll find in this book. I also would have liked to read some themes and lessons from the book. After I finished the book, I couldn't find anything that I really learned it.

Conclusion:

Don't read this book. If you would like to learn about the embarrassing treatment of orphans in Canada, I'd recommend diving into a nonfiction account or a biography. Don't waste your time.

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