The Girls with No Names
INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A beautiful tale of hope, courage, and sisterhood--inspired by the real House of Mercy and the girls confined there for daring to break the rules. Growing up in New York City in the 1910s, Luella and Effie Tildon realize that even as wealthy young women, their freedoms come with limits. But when the sisters discover a shocking secret about their father, Luella, the brazen elder sister, becomes emboldened to do as she pleases. Her rebellion comes with consequences, and one morning Luella is mysteriously gone. Effie suspects her father has sent Luella to the House of Mercy and hatches a plan to get herself committed to save her sister. But she made a miscalculation, and with no one to believe her story, Effie's own escape seems impossible--unless she can trust an enigmatic girl named Mable. As their fates entwine, Mable and Effie must rely on their tenuous friendship to survive. Home for Unwanted Girls meets The Dollhouse in this atmospheric, heartwarming story that explores not only the historical House of Mercy, but the lives--and secrets--of the girls who stayed there. "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." -- New York Times Book Review "Burdick reveals the perils of being a woman in 1913 and exposes the truths of their varying social circles." -- Chicago Tribune
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Community Reviews
My heart ached for Mabel as she had to bury her stillborn siblings. Emory, Effie’s father, was the definition of a rich, selfish, male chauvinist, while her mother felt trapped in the role of the dutiful wife.
The House of Mercy was horrifying. A place that was supposed to help young girls was nothing more than a torture chamber, where vulnerable girls suffered simply because society labeled them as troublemakers.
A heartbreaking story about the lack of choices women and girls had and the courage it took to fight for something better. A reminder of how far we’ve come, yet how much these stories still make us feel. 💔
*Historical fiction
A painfully beautiful and poignant story that shows the early 20th century from an authentically female perspective. Burdick's characters are very human, they don't react in the same ways. The struggles of the early 20th century are on vivid display in this novel, especially the struggles that women in particular had to deal with. But they are not automatically shunted into the category of victim.
Each woman and girl in this story has a motivation and method of her own. Some are classic suffragettes, some are abused and neglected girls who don't know enough love to even hope for a better future, some are naive rich girls who are learning the strife of life for the first time.