Reviews - The Magdalen Girls

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178 reviews for:

The Magdalen Girls

V.S. Alexander

3.55 AVERAGE

lottie1803's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

tinatater's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

caitlinsnark's review against another edition

2.0

DNF, first half was good, vivid characters and an engaging story, then at about the halfway point it just stops being good. Lots of little anachronisms that get in the way of things, and some very strange abrubt changes in characterisation. I decided to give up, because life's too short, and I have no regrets.

thesuperawesomesarah's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

donnawr1's review against another edition

3.0

The author brought to life the unfairness of girls being brought to Magdalen Laundries, often for trivial reasons, and the harsh conditions they lived under, both physically and mentally. Not being able to even talk with their peers for most of the day was one of the worst, along with the solitary confinement room of complete darkness. But 3 girls did manage to become friends and the story focuses on how they got there and their attempts to escape. Scattered throughout was the oblique story of Sister Anne, the Mother Superior, which I found very overwrought and unbelievable, especially at the end. The place changes all the girls, and causes a lot of self reflection on their lives and how they behave. Even so, I found the story to be a bit formulaic and often unbelievable, especially the individuals who sought forgiveness toward the end. I also didn't feel like I traveled emotionally with the main character to the end.

kallsie's review against another edition

I had hope that with a subject that was much discussed in the last decade that the author would have done more with this novel. The abuse wasn't limited to a single institution - it was endemic, as is clear in how outsiders even discussed Magdalen Girls. But here the author chose to blame the harsh treatment on a single mother superior with mental health issues? Odd choice.

I was disappointed to find that the author used a pseudonym (it isn't a well kept secret, the copyright page has the fellows name), the ambiguity of initials, and a gender neutral biographical note made it seem plausible that a woman had been the author but that wasn't the case. And so I wonder why this was done, and why the author felt that he was the one that should present the story of these fictional woman, inspired by very true tales of misery. Characterization was good, but motivation is made murky by the use of the pseudonym.

I also found it very bizarre that Kensington included a note about using the text for academic purposes on the copyright page, which makes me wonder, was this text created as a teaching tool? This is a work of fiction, why not use primary and secondary sources based on fact to teach about this period of history?