What She Left Behind

By: Ellen Marie Wiseman

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now 17, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloguing items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past.

Clara Cartwright, 18 years old in 1929, is caught between her overbearing parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash, he can no longer afford her care and Clara is committed to the public asylum. Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices - with shocking and unexpected results.

©2014 Ellen Marie Wiseman (P)2014 Tantor

Good story, not great. Very different reader.

The story moved along at a pace which is about my cup of tea. I thought more of the mysteries were going to tie together than they did, but...if I want that I guess I should write a book. It was easy to follow and distracting enough for the commute to work and back. The reader was very unusual. Ms Gilbert has perfect diction, I mean, when she read the line, "I liked to go there," you could clearly hear both the 'd' in 'liked' and the 't' in 'to' separately. She doesn't seemed strained at the level of perfection. But one character was read as continuously anxious. Every line of the character was worried and fearful and nervous. I supposed there was a slight difference between scared and terrified, but it got very old for me - like listening to a whiny child - because it was a main character. I suppose that if Sandra Bullock hyperventilating for 2 straight hours in the movie Gravity didn't bother you, then this won't either. It just diminished my enjoyment of the book a bit.

Mother sacrifices all for daughter

Good story includes today and 15 years before. Predictable other than that. Mother is committed as insane, daughter is lost in foster care. Caring couple helps daughter to work through problems toward a good end.

Really sad

Really sad, ending somewhat makes up for it. Not for readers who like "happily ever after".

Can't believe what I just read

Very interesting and sad. It had me researching Williard to find out it is an actual facility, just not as described in this book.

Yay!

This book was quite good. At first, I was not fully impressed, as it began a bit heavy on the teen drama, but stuck with it because I liked the two stories intertwining. As the story progressed, I grew more and more invested with the characters. I especially enjoyed how even the antagonists had flushed out motives that were understandable.
My one complaint is that I listened to this book before bed each night and the narrator would go from a relatively quite speaking voice to almost screaming, which would jolt me out of my half slumber.

Overdramatic narrator

Would you try another book from Ellen Marie Wiseman and/or Tavia Gilbert?

The story was pretty good - but the narrator worked way too hard to sound dramatic. It was distracting to me and a little annoying.

Would you recommend What She Left Behind to your friends? Why or why not?

Probably not. Narrator was distracting.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Every sentence was overdone to sound dramatic.

OH MY GRACIOUS

Here is another books that will affect you long after it is over. You will not like the parents, how could parents like these!? A love that is never fulfilled, and the deceit that flows through this book will keep you on the edge of your seat. It does wind itself to a nice ending. I, of course, wish this story could have gone another way, but Ms. Wiseman has given us an awesome story!

Too much hearteache

The story, although a really good one, is filled with a bit too much anguish and pain and it's hard to believe someone would not be much to adversely effected to carry on their life. It's a good story, well written. Just tough to read.

Historical & Depressing; Izzy's not the main story

Any additional comments?

Two stories, somewhat intertwined. Main story: Its late 1920's and Claire is sent to an asylum, just because her wealthy and powerful parents want her to marry someone else, and her boyfriend is not "good enough". Doctors do not believe she is sane and keep her committed, against her will.

I found the narrator's interpretation of the boyfriend (Bruno), who is supposed to be Italian, annoying because he definitely had a Russian accent. I didn't care for the narrator's other characters, but Bruno was the worst.

Depressing that this could happen, how people were treated, and truly mentally ill people were misunderstood.

great story, warm and fulfilling ending.

narrator is a little"fancy" or formal in her style. characters are well developed and the content has something people if all ages can relate to.