Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Two ordinary sisters. A long and brutal war. A heroic sacrifice…
London, 1915. As German bombs rain down on the East End of London and hungry children queue for rations in the blistering cold, fifteen-year-old Florrie is forced to grow up fast. With her father fighting in the muddy trenches, Florrie turns to her older sister Edith for comfort. But the war has changed Edith. She has grown quiet, with dark shadows under her eyes, and has started leaving the house at night in secret. When Florrie follows her sister through the dark and winding streets of London, she is shocked by what she discovers. But she knows she must keep her sister’s secret for the sake of their family, even if she herself must pay the ultimate price…
Years later Kate, running from her broken relationship, is sorting through her dead aunt Florrie’s house, which she shared with her sister Edith. As she sits on the threadbare carpets, looking at photos of Florrie during the war, she notices the change in her aunt – from carefree young girl with a hopeful smile to a hollow-cheeked young woman, with dark sad eyes.
Determined to put her family’s ghosts to rest, Kate must unearth the secret past of her two aunts. Why is there a hidden locked room in the little house they shared? What is the story behind the abandoned wedding dress wrapped in tissue and tied up with a ribbon? And when Kate discovers the tragic secrets that have bound her family together, will she ever be able to move on?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Shut Away Sisters to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Shut Away Sisters by Suzanne Goldring is a dual time-line story set during World War One and the years after and the modern-day aspect is set during 1999. In the present day we are introduced to Kate. She works for a London PR company and is successful in her job, dedicated and very hard working. She has been in a relationship with David for five years but her world is about to be turned upside down. She logs into his emails to check the final details of a holiday they are about to embark on only to discover that David has been emailing back and forth with another woman. It’s quite clear that this and a lot more besides has been going on for some time right under Kate’s nose and despite not wanting a relationship to end she kicks him to the kerb.
Kate is a strong woman when we first meet her but this unexpected discovery knocks her for six. It leads her to questioning everything she has known. Is she destined to forever lie on the shelf? She becomes discontented, restless and unhappy in her life and returns to her family home to lick her wounds and recover from the pain and humiliation she feels. But more bad news is to come. Her Great Aunt Florrie is spending her last days in a hospice. Kate gets to visit her but soon after she passes away. Her father lets Kate stay in Florrie’s house on the proviso she will spend time going through everything and then the outcome for the house will be decided. The house is like a time capsule where nothing changed for many many years. Florrie had lived on her own after the death of her sister Edith but to the residents on the street Edith was always an enigma and a recluse. It was Florrie they met and interacted briefly with. Kate feels the house is calling her, it’s a refuge from the pain she is experiencing. She has always lived to work but now she wants a life and a future.
Considering you know from the start that this is a dual timeline story, as a reader you are constantly looking for little clues and hints that would suggest a link between the two strands. But honestly the two stories just seemed so disjointed and it felt like I was reading two different novels in one and I have seen other readers comment the same. I didn’t really care for Kate at all and had much more of an interest in Florrie’s story which was told through her diary entries. There were details about Kate’s job that didn’t seem necessary at all and I just wanted her to get on with finding out more about Florrie. There were times when she avoided clearing out things or in one case really breaking down something and it frustrated me I wanted her to get on with it so the reader could learn more. I felt Kate’s aspect of the story dragged the plot along as a whole. Perhaps if Kate was mentioned for a chapter or two in the beginning and then again at the end it would have tied the two stories better together. I did enjoy getting to know some of the residents on the street where Florrie lived through Kate’s eyes but still overall there was nothing truly significant to have me deeply invested in Kate’s story.
Whereas I much preferred reading of Florrie and her family during the years of World War One. Her diary entries built up a fascinating picture of a family living through the most turbulent of times. I felt Florrie had to grow up very fast learning the way to run the household especially when her mother passed away from the Spanish Flu. She stepped up to the mark even though Edith was the elder sister and really she had no other choice. Edith was lost in a world of longing and pain. Her sweetheart Frank is away fighting and she spends her days writing to him and checking the local casualty lists when they are published. Edith comes across as a truly selfish character, time and time again she is asked to help Florrie and the family but she refuses and is allowed get away with this attitude. Yes, some sympathy can be extended to her given she longs for some news of Frank but still surely everyone was to pull together during times of need in the war.
Florrie was the complete opposite. She grew in strength and determination throughout the book always putting her family first. Initially I thought her viewpoint was off to a very slow start and I did think given how young she was how could she sustain the entire story set in the past? But it does grow to work. Florrie makes so many sacrifices the magnitude of some of them you only truly appreciate as you near the end. She always put others before her own needs, wants and desires. She really has no female sympathy or support and when her father passes away she really has to become the matriarch of the family looking after both Edith and Georgie, her younger brother. She feels abandoned in a way but I think her parents would have been proud of the values and morals she upheld especially when she is faced with the most challenging of circumstances. The two sisters were truly torn apart by the war and the dark secrets they kept. If discovered the consequences would be disastrous but so many years later as Kate edges ever closer to the truth will the secrets remain that way, hidden and trapped or do they need to come to the surface?
I have enjoyed Suzanne Goldring’s books in the past and I love historical fiction but this one was not my favourite nor the most memorable story I have read this year. That said I will read more from this author in the future.
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