The Foundling by Ann Leary ~ARC Review~

Amanda's Book Review!

Jun 4

Thank you, Ann Leary, NetGalley, and Scribner Books for the opportunity to read this book. It was just released on May 31st, 2022.

"Well, you know what books I like, I mean, what else do you need to know?"

The Foundling

The Foundling by Ann Leary takes readers to the year 1927 and introduces the extremely naive, Mary Engle. At just 18 years old, she gets a job as a secretary at Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. She had grown up in an orphanage and jumped at the chance to work under Dr. Agnes Vogel. Mary is in awe of her and her new job. But one day, she sees a familiar face, Lillian, a girl who was with her at the orphanage. There is no way she belongs here. Mary soon discovers that there is something wrong with Nettleton and especially with Dr. Vogel.

This book held a lot of promise with that premise, but it was not executed well. Let me start with the pacing. The beginning is slow, which is to be expected. We meet naive Mary, and as the book progresses she doesn't really stop being naive. Well, maybe she does, but then happily turns a blind eye and feigns ignorance. Because "she can't lose her job." Which is mentioned quite often. Then about 70% into the book and she is just not ignorant anymore and is determined to make a change, but only to one person.

Now time to talk about the trigger warnings. The author did her research and wanted it to be as accurate as possible. So be warned the language used is very insulting. The women are deemed low in intelligence and are referred to as idiots and morons. But the author does state in the introduction that this was the actual language used in asylums during this time. There is also rape, abuse, gaslighting, racism, and antisemitism.

This leads me to the tone of the novel. This story is heavy and dark, or it should be written as such. For some reason, it came off very light to me. There is definitely the want for a happily ever after when I think this book would have made more of an impact by embracing the heavy and important topics.

However, thanks to the ignorant Mary, we do get to see her experience a lot of lessons involving her privilege. I do appreciate what the author tried to do with this book, but not sure how well it was executed.