I hated it. Oh my god, I was so annoyed with the narrator being the ghost. I just… I don’t know why that bothered me so much with this book and not with The Book Thief, but here we are. The writing was lovely, truly wonderful and I felt like I was in the world while reading. The cultural aspects of historic Chicago were as true as they were heart breaking, and I loved the way Ruby portrayed it. 

I had so many conflicting feelings while reading this book. I would be at home and looking forward to Frankie’s story, because I wanted to know more about her and her life, and if she would leave the orphanage, and if she would fall in love, and if she would find a home in her family. And then I would read Pearl’s sections and feel so distracted by the story at hand. 

There were sections that seemed to link better than others, but overall I felt like Pearl’s inclusion in the story was a little like mismatched socks. It may work functionally, but the feel is all wrong. Frankie’s story was so well developed, all of the side characters bring a life to her world, that in contrast Pearl felt very flat in the narrative. 

She had exciting sections here and there, but it felt as if… I dunno, like she didn’t really fit into the story most of the time. She had slight connections, but nothing that really kept her tethered to the plot in any meaningful way, which is kind of a travesty. She had a heart to her character that I really was hoping would go somewhere, but all of her character beats never hit the mark.

There was this moment, about halfway through the book where she explains to her ghost friend, Margarrite, that the girl she’s watching is her illegitimate daughter she had with a Chinese man and there was no tension to the reveal. Instead of pieces coming together for her character, it was a kind of check on a list of things we needed to learn about her. 

I think the main reason why I didn’t like this book was due to the ending. When the narrative of Pearl and Frankie came together in a physical way, it felt like it eliminated all the work that Frankie had done throughout the story. She was constantly fighting for her place in the world, and in her final stand off with her family when she was ready to leave them for good she wasn’t given the opportunity to stand up for herself. Instead, Pearl does it for her and I was left with this feeling that the end of the novel was sequel bait-y and that Frankie’s entire character arch was undercut by this one action. 

God, this was frustrating to read. I loved the writing, I even loved half of the books story, but I can’t really recommend a 400 something page book when over 200 pages were unliked.