Beginning ~ with rage

Beginning

I lay with my cheek pressed to the floor, the cement cool against my spent rage.  I'd screamed.  I'd bitten and scratched.  Now I was paying for it, but I didn't care.  I'd do it again.

The Girls with No Names ~ by Serena Burdick, 2020, fiction

Growing up in New York City in the 1910s, Luella and Effie Tildon realize that even as wealthy young women, their freedoms come with limits.  But when the sisters discover a shocking secret about their father, Luella, the brazen elder sister, becomes emboldened to do as she pleases.

Her rebellion comes with consequences, and one morning Luella is mysteriously gone.  Effie suspects her father has sent Luella to the House of Mercy and comes up with a plan to get herself committed to save her sister.  But she miscalculated and, with no one to believe her story, Effie’s own escape seems impossible — unless she can trust an enigmatic girl named Mable.  As their fates entwine, Mable and Effie must rely on their tenuous friendship to survive.  A tale of hope, courage, and sisterhood — inspired by the real House of Mercy and the girls confined there for daring to break the rules.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.