SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

August 25, 2020 by Amanda MacGregor

Book Review: The Whitsun Daughters by Carrie Mesrobian

August 25, 2020 by Amanda MacGregor   Leave a Comment

The Whitsun Daughters by Carrie Mesrobian

Publisher’s description

“How quickly everything in the world disintegrates. Everything but the loneliness of young women.”

So begins The Whitsun Daughters, a story of three girls in a small Midwestern town, narrated by the ghost of a young Irish immigrant who, over a century earlier, lived and loved on the same small patch of farmland the girls and their mothers now call home.

Award-winning author Carrie Mesrobian weaves the story of the girls’ day-to-day struggles with the fractured and harrowing memories of their unseen observer. The threads of the tales are familiar: An arranged marriage. An impulsive proposal bitterly refused. Secret affairs. And pregnancies, both welcome and not. Each young woman fights her own lonely battle in the generations-long war of those who would no longer settle for haunting the margins of a world that wants to ignore them.

Amanda’s thoughts

I really like when I come to expect a certain thing from an author (genre, voice, whatever) and they veer off into some new direction. Especially right now, in this world full of the most routine of all routines (shall we stay inside today or stay inside?), I appreciate this foray into something new.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Half of this book is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Mesrobian—relatively poor kids hanging out in Nowhere, Minnesota, swearing, fending for themselves, figuring out adolescence, stumbling, and surviving. But the other half takes us back in time and follows the life of Jane, a young Irish immigrant brought to Minnesota to be a farmer’s wife at just 15. We see her leave and lose everything she has, come to Minnesota, live in relative loneliness and unhappiness with her new husband and his sister, and find comfort and joy in another man on the farm. Eventually, we also hear her narrate her story and the story of her descendants after her life has ended.

The bulk of the modern storyline revolves around the pregnancy of one of the Whitsun daughters and a, as one of the girls calls it, “homemade abortion.” The three Whitsun girls, Poppy, Daisy, and Lilah, spend this time with two neighbor boys, Wade and Hugh, who provide unexpected (and relatively nonjudgmental) support and assistance during this quest to end the pregnancy. In the short period of time we spend with them, we see their already complicated relationship grow far more complicated than readers can predict. And, thanks to Jane’s ghostly narration, we see how their lives are stitched together with hers.

The contrast between the more formal, beautiful narration of Jane and the conversational, grittier view from the modern characters works well to separate the stories and showcases Mesrobian’s writing in new ways. Parallels between the women in each timeline come out as the novel goes on, revealing absent men and fathers, pregnancies, mental illness, lies, secrets, and an eternal loneliness.

A gorgeously layered look at love, loss, and the complex lives of girls. Not to be missed.

Review copy (ARC) courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9780735231955
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date: 08/25/2020
Age Range: 14 – 17 Years

Filed under: Uncategorized

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
AbortionBook reviewsGirls and GirlhoodHistorical FictionIrish immigrantsMinnesota

About Amanda MacGregor

Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on Twitter @CiteSomething.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

December 2022

Book Mail: Romances, thrillers, mysteries, dystopias, and more!

by Amanda MacGregor

December 2022

The Difference Between YA and NA, a former teen now new adult reader perspective

by Amanda MacGregor

December 2022

Post-It Note Reviews: Quick looks at 9 new titles

by Amanda MacGregor

October 2022

Reclaiming Queer History, a guest post by James Brandon

by Amanda MacGregor

October 2022

I Wrote a Book About the Pandemic. I'm Scared No One Will Want to Read It, a guest post by Sara Saedi

by Amanda MacGregor

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Surprise! Announcing CABOOSE

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Jump Into this Guest Post by Shadra Strickland About Her Latest Book: Jump In!

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Kiss Number 8 | Review

by Johanna

Heavy Medal

What’s Coming in 2023, A Feedback Poll, and Goodbye for Now…

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

WRITING FOR YOURSELF FIRST, a guest post by author M. K. Lobb

by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

A Book 25 Years in the Making: Marla Frazee Visits The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Five Debut YA Authors On Their Challenges, Surprises, and Advice for Teens

“Today, I’m Going to Talk About Hope” | M.T. Anderson Accepts the 2019 Margaret A. Edwards Award

4 Debut YA Authors Center LGBTQIA+ Characters

March YA Debut Authors on Luck, Hope, and Kindness

World-Building as Resistance: YA Author Junauda Petrus Discusses the Importance of Speculative Fiction and the Limits of the White Imagination

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023