Eerily reminiscent of our world today!

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donna @ ondbookshelf Avatar

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3.5 stars

Talk about a time warp! This novel about the 1918 Spanish flu was eerily in sync with what is happening with the Covid-19 pandemic. I'm sure that this was already well on its way to publication when our current crisis happened, so I will be anxious to hear if the author has any thoughts on being clairvoyant? Obviously, this story is heavily concentrated on a portion of the disaster that we are not seeing now, with a woman who takes immigrant children and places them in orphanages (I take that back, we ARE seeing this, but not in connection with the pandemic!). What I found fascinating was the reaction to the flu, complete with a newspaper clipping from Philadelphia stating that the news media was over reacting and people should calm down and go about their business (hmmm.....rings a bell). Also, the character of Bernice with her bigotry, could be any number of people who exist right now. I love this author's writing, and found this story compelling and well told. The characters were wonderful (whether you loved them or hated them), and while I was rooting for a happy ending, this is where I had some problems. It was all just too coincidental (and not believable) when certain pieces fell into place at the end. So much so, that it put a pretty big dent into my rating for the book.

I loved this book about the Spanish flu in Philadelphia. A sweet thirteen year old girl pitted against a mean spirited bigot made for a great read right up until the end. The ending left me wanting a more believable scenario, but for many that will be overlooked. Such an interesting parallel between viruses over a century apart.