1929: Four-year-old Etty and eight-year-old Dorothy are abandoned at Blakely Hall orphanage by their mother, never to see her again. With no other family to speak of, the sisters worship their beloved mam – and they are confused and heartbroken to be deserted by her when they need her the most.
1940: Etty and Dorothy are finally released from the confines of Blakely Hall – but their freedom comes when the country is in the grip of World War Two and its terrors. Amidst a devastating backdrop of screaming air-raid sirens and cold nights huddled in shelters, the sisters are desperate to put their broken childhoods behind them.
But trouble lies ahead. Dorothy must bid goodbye to her beloved husband when he’s sent to war and Etty must nurse a broken heart as she falls in love with the one man she can never be with.
Etty and Dorothy survived the orphanage with the help of one another and neither sister can forget the awful betrayal of their mother, which has haunted them their whole lives. But when a shocking secret about their painful childhood comes to light, will the sisters ever be the same again?
Many thanks to Bookoutre via NetGalley for my copy of The Orphan Sisters to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Orphan Sisters is the début novel from Shirley Dickson. It has such a striking and impressionable cover and that tagline certainly rings true as the further you delve deeper into the book which follows the story of two sisters Etty and Dorothy. 'Amid the heartbreak of war, two sisters only have each other'. This statement couldn't have been more true as right from the moment their mother abandoned them at Blakely Hall, an orphanage, Etty and Dorothy only had one another despite Etty clinging to the hope that one day their mother would return to reclaim them.
The question that stuck with me right from the very first chapter was - why would their mother leave them in the manner in which she did? Why did she never make contact and just leave the two sisters to their own fate more or less? The brief prologue set me up thinking such a thing would happen but as this is not referred to until the very end again it did go out of my mind. When we came back to it the author had certainly thrown another little twist in that left me changing my opinion regarding characters and certain situations.
Given the title of the book I presumed the majority of this book would be set in the orphanage but instead I would say about 20% of it was and then we moved on to follow the girls once they had reached the age where they were deemed adults and they had to venture out into the big bad world. Dorothy came of age first leaving Etty to weather the daily struggles of the orphanage on her own. It was so heartbreaking and cruel to read the scene where their mother left them, I couldn't understand why a woman could do this except she must have had a very valid and strong reason to do so.
Dorothy seemed to be more accepting of the situation but for Etty the more she comes to realise her mother will not come back for them the more it eats her up inside and she is determined once she can finally free herself of the prison she feels she is in then she will make something or her life. No matter what it takes or no matter the cost. I feel the chapters set in the orphanage were pivotal in showing how both Etty and Dorothy coped with the rest of their lives. It formed them as people and in my mind they turned out very differently than if they had remained in a solid family unit.
The chapters in the orphanage moved forward at a rapid pace, years were dealt with in a paragraph or two in order to speed up the lives of the girls. Dorothy leaves and marries a real genuine, lovely man with no ulterior motives. Lawrence Calvert was the father figure Etty didn't have and he was a marvellous husband to Dorothy. Their relationship was touching and a joy to behold given what Dorothy had been through in the past, I wanted even more of him to feature in the story. This method of moving time forward happened quite often in the book, one minute you could be reading about Etty as a teenager in the orphanage and then next thing she was out in the world looking for a job and a man of her own. I understand the author wanted to move the story on so the focus could turn to the years of World War Two which formed the bones of the story from the midway point and to me were the sections of the story that most held my interest. But still I felt issues and storylines were brought up in a paragraph and solved by the next page, things needed more fleshing out instead of being rushed through and I found it disconcerting and it upset the rhythm of the story for a time. This would be my only issue with the book, but as it is the first book from this author and it showed so much promise, I think there is plenty of time for this to be resolved in future books.
Dorothy is a softer person compared to Etty and I loved her gentle disposition and caring nature. She never judged Etty's actions or the situations she found herself in. Instead she was always there in the background ready to step in and offer solace and advice when needed. Etty was a different kettle of fish altogether and a character not without plenty of faults to her name. It was great to see a character with flaws and who was willing to admit to herself that she wasn't all perfect and did make mistakes. Whether she always learned from these mistakes was another matter and this made me like her one minute and then the next I couldn't make up my mind about her. I enjoy this as I was very much indecisive until the last chapter or two when I made my final judgement as to whether Etty had redeemed herself or not in my eyes.
I think Etty was so hardened, especially mentally, by the traumatic experiences of her childhood that it coloured her outlook on life. She made rash decisions and got involved with someone she shouldn't have as her judgement was often clouded. The sections of the book set during World War Two were very well written especially the scenes featuring the air raid. They were tense and fraught with danger and apprehension and the author really brought alive the feelings of worry and desperation that existed for many at the time on a daily basis. It tested Etty to the max and showed another side to her character. Etty has to battle with her conscious a lot given some of the predicaments she finds herself in and I questioned would she have been better off telling the truth in the first place instead of harbouring secrets close to her chest? Again events in her childhood made her not see straight or to look for love in the wrong place, a place where love didn't seem genuine. Instead I felt she was being used and the love she sought was right under her nose but maybe she wanted that little bit of fire and excitement in her life but gave scant thought to the overall cost and the feelings of others.
Overall The Orphan Sisters was an enjoyable read despite some of the slight issues I found with it. As previously mentioned, for a début read it was very good but I sense there is a lot more to come from Shirley Dickson. That she is really only warming up with what she can do writing wise. I thoroughly enjoyed the era she wrote about and would love to see more from her featuring WW2 but maybe as I have said not to gloss over certain aspects of the storyline and flesh them out a bit more. Fans of wartime sagas will enjoy this book and I look forward to seeing in what direction Shirley's writing will take her next.
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