My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is more of a 3.5 stars, but I figured a 4 star is more accurate as far as the research that went into the book, as well as the writing style. Just so you know, if you choose to read it, there are no quote marks. It did feel like you were reading in a dream-like state, which is what the author intended. But it was a little more difficult to know when the characters where thinking vs. talking. The 1918 flu pandemic was certainly not good for the US, but it definitely was not good for the world, either, and in this story, Irish pregnant women and their nurse are the recipients of the flu- either deadly or just a bother depending on how it affected a person. Lots of little points are made within the book- either as a setting or as a extra bit of information such as PTSD from the trench wars, the Protestant/Catholic tensions, and the mass amounts of injustices in the adoption wards. In just three days, the plot is a snippet of a day-in-the-life, but also how so many relationships can change the course of a person's original trajectory. Oh, and some may think it is gruesome, but childbirth isn't known for being a simple chore. The descriptions were clinical, but they did not shield the reader from the truth.