The Second Life of Mirielle West - Amanda Skenandore

Author: Amanda Skenandore

Narrator: Nicole Poole

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 3 stars.

So many books I’ve read lately have a novel concept but fall short in delivery (or maybe my expectations from such books need to come down.) This is one more to add to that list. The concept in this case: An inside look into the only lepers’ colony in the US.

Story Synopsis:

Mirielle West is a stereotypical movie-star wife, rich, spoilt, vain, and self-obsessed. Living with her silent-film superstar husband Charlie and 2 young daughters in 1920s Hollywood, thirty-two year old Mirielle seems to have it all. But when a small skin lesion on her hand gets diagnosed as leprosy, she is carted all the way to Louisiana to the only leper colony in the United States, a mission hospital named Carville. The story is not just about Mirielle’s separation from her family but more about how people were branded as outcasts and shunned just because of this disease.

Where the book clicked for me:

✔ I must admit I knew nothing about the Carville institution and anything about how lepers were treated. So getting to know about this institution, its work and its facilities, and the stigma attached to leprosy was the biggest benefit of reading this book. The entire institution is brought to life with the author’s rich description. Her research is amazing. I know this looks like only one point but this forms a great chunk of the book. So this huge pro outweighs many cons of the book.

Where the book could have been better for me: (Sorry, but this section includes spoilers. Feel free to skip it and move to the next section.)

**SPOILERS BEGIN HERE**

❌ I guess I was expecting to be more emotionally impacted by a book with such a harrowing topic. But it didn’t happen. And I feel this is entirely because I didn’t like Mirielle, AT ALL. She comes across as a typical socialite at the start and I thought she would change her behaviour as and how the story progressed. But throughout the book, her character goes back and forth, and she hardly seems to change for the better until almost the very end. Her repeated stress on looks, her highhandedness with the other residents and the staff at Carville, her double standards when she blamed Charlie for a supposed fling while she herself was harbouring romantic thoughts about Frank), her decision to be a better mom after her return but still being rude to Jean when she wasn’t in the mood… When the main character herself leaves you so irritated, the plot can’t save the book much. I was hoping for a good role model and in that sense, Mirielle fell much short of my expectations.

❌ The author happens to be a registered nurse. So her account of the medical proceedings are absolutely detailed and authentic. While I did appreciate the painstaking research and information, I couldn’t get my head around Mirielle being the narrator of some of those facts. No matter how much she had worked in the lab, she still wouldn’t have been so adept at parroting off scientific terms, especially considering her background. Yeah ok, this is again because I didn’t like Mirielle and hence didn’t find her cleverness believable.

❌ The book is very unrealistic in places. For instance, there were so many other, more hands-on and experienced residents in the institution. There would also have been many other sisters considering its vast size. Why was everyone calling only Mirielle to help out in times of medical emergencies, especially when she wasn’t the best in terms of her attitude? At the end, when Mirielle locates Jean, that was such an unlikely happenstance. (I am now realising that all my negative points centre around Mirielle!)

**END OF SPOILERS**

The Audiobook experience:

The audiobook was narrated by Nicole Poole and she did an excellent job of taking me through the 12.5 hours long audio. Her enunciation and voice acting was superb. I really enjoyed her narration.

Overall, I would recommend this book if you want to know more about how lepers received the short end of the stick in historical America for no fault of theirs. So this is a historical fiction where I found the historical part fabulous and the fiction part, tedious.

Thank you, NetGalley and HighBridge Audio, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.