My
Thoughts:
The Women in White is told through two timelines:
the past, set in 1964, and the present day. In 1964, Betty and her friends,
known as Girls One through Four, are test subjects in a study on psychic
abilities at the Marquis University. In the present, Riley applies for a job as
Betty's caregiver. Riley isn't sure why Betty hired her, as Betty seems capable
of caring for herself, even if she does seem stuck in a time warp. However,
Betty has a another assignment in mind: she wants Riley to track down the other
women, Betty’s friends, who participated in the experiments conducted by the
study's director, Dr. Trimble.
I was outraged by the amount of power Dr. Trimble and the
husbands wielded over Betty and her friends in the 1964 timeline. I wanted
these women to stand up for themselves. Riley’s search for the women yields
little information at first but digging deeper she finds out their fates. In
the present there’s also some strange occurrences and Betty determines she must
go back to Marquis with Riley to get to the truth.
The Women in White was an engrossing story, but I
found I was more invested in the present timeline than the past. I speed
up the audio for the 1964 chapters because I was frustrated by how powerless
these women were. I wanted one of them to stand up for themselves, or for
someone to intervene in their behalf. Some of what happened was “too
little too late” for my tastes. I also
wanted more closure regarding Dr. Trimble. He was a nasty piece of work only concerned
with his research and what the discoveries would mean for him.
That said, I was satisfied with how things ultimately
turned out for Betty and Riley.
I alternated between the e-book and audio copy and can
recommend either version. Saskia Maarleveld did a wonderful job bringing all
the characters, male and female, in a wide range of ages, to life.
3.5 Stars
Book Description:
From Sarah Pekkanen, the New York Times bestselling author of House of Glass and co-author of The Wife Between Us—a stunning new novel of buried secrets, mind-bending history, and one woman’s search for the truth . . .
Decades ago, four women at prestigious Marquis University were the focus of parapsychology experiments led by a pioneering researcher. Just as they seemed on the verge of a real breakthrough, the four women vanished and the program was abruptly shut down.
In the present day, Riley Bell is desperate for a new life when she lands a caretaker job for Betty Sadler—an elderly, wheelchair bound woman whose house seems suspended in time. No television. No microwave. And Betty has never even heard of a cell phone.
Newly widowed, Betty discovers notes in her late husband’s papers that spark her quest to answer one final unanswered mystery that has shadowed her for six what happened to her three best friends who disappeared on the same day?
Told in dual timelines, as Betty’s world of 5 o’clock martinis and increasingly rigorous experiments converges with Riley’s present-day search for the other three women, the danger and intensity grow white hot.
Because whatever was swirling around these four exceptional young women is rising again.
I have had a similar experience with dual timeline stories, where I was more interesting in one over the other.
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