A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
My Rating: ★ ★ ★
Published: 6 October 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Genres: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Grace Mae knows madness.
She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum.
When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past.
In this beautifully twisted historical thriller, Mindy McGinnis, acclaimed author of Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust, explores the fine line between sanity and insanity, good and evil—and the madness that exists in all of us.
She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum.
When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past.
In this beautifully twisted historical thriller, Mindy McGinnis, acclaimed author of Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust, explores the fine line between sanity and insanity, good and evil—and the madness that exists in all of us.
This book was, well, odd. You would probably expect that from a book told from the view of a girl locked up in an insane asylum, but it was plain strange. It may have been that I was completely distracted while I was reading this, as I was stuck at my brother’s soccer teams party, but I didn’t feel any connection to the plot. I almost forgot I was reading a book. It was as if the words were escaping my brain as soon as I read them.
A Madness so Discreet was very complex, to say the least. It had a lot going on, but wasn’t terribly interesting. The writing and the characters were beautiful, but other than that, it lacked substance. I wasn’t drawn to keep reading, yet I continued on because something about Grace fascinated me. She was locked up in an insane asylum that wasn’t at all conventional - they’d starve their patients just so they’d be less violent, put those who were acting badly in the basement in which the mud rose up to their ankles. Though she wasn’t insane in the first place, as she was placed there because she got pregnant, not by her own accords, I feel as if a place like that would’ve made her insane.
I would tell you to give it a shot - from what I’ve heard, the majority of people did enjoy it, I just didn’t. The writing is beautiful and the topics discussed are wonderful, as they touched on mental illness, rape, all with absolutely no romance. But if you’re more into books that you need a connection, then I’d skip it. The writing makes the reader very detached from the story and is a bit of a mess. Now, I gave it three stars because I truly enjoyed the story, I just didn’t like how it was presented.
A Madness so Discreet was very complex, to say the least. It had a lot going on, but wasn’t terribly interesting. The writing and the characters were beautiful, but other than that, it lacked substance. I wasn’t drawn to keep reading, yet I continued on because something about Grace fascinated me. She was locked up in an insane asylum that wasn’t at all conventional - they’d starve their patients just so they’d be less violent, put those who were acting badly in the basement in which the mud rose up to their ankles. Though she wasn’t insane in the first place, as she was placed there because she got pregnant, not by her own accords, I feel as if a place like that would’ve made her insane.
“Grace had learned long ago that the true horror’s of this world were other people.”
Grace is just such a lovable character, I wanted to pick her up and shield her from everything bad that has happened to her. After a violent outbreak, she was sent down to the basement, where she met Falsteed, who helped her meet a man named Dr. Thornhollow who helps Grace stage her death so she can leave the asylum. This doesn’t happen that far into the book, and I was hoping that I would get more interested in the book, but it didn’t happen. Literally Grace is the only thing that saved this book for me, other than the writing itself and setting.
“These are your friends now, Grace Mae.
A madman who eats cancer in the dark and another who searches for a different kind of killer, the kind that smiles at you in the light of day.
This is your new life. I hope you can stand it.”
In the end, the idea of the book was interesting, which is why I picked the book up in the first place, but I feel as if the author tried to fit too much into the novel. Once Grace took on a detective role with Dr. Thornhollow, helping to solve a murder case, it just made the book worse. It’s not really the fact that there were multiple genres in the book, but it just wasn’t done well. McGinnis really just touched on the details as must as she needed to, without going in depth - and that was the issue.A madman who eats cancer in the dark and another who searches for a different kind of killer, the kind that smiles at you in the light of day.
This is your new life. I hope you can stand it.”
I would tell you to give it a shot - from what I’ve heard, the majority of people did enjoy it, I just didn’t. The writing is beautiful and the topics discussed are wonderful, as they touched on mental illness, rape, all with absolutely no romance. But if you’re more into books that you need a connection, then I’d skip it. The writing makes the reader very detached from the story and is a bit of a mess. Now, I gave it three stars because I truly enjoyed the story, I just didn’t like how it was presented.
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