What She Left Behind

This is an intriguing novel by Ellen Marie Wiseman. Izzy Stone is in foster care because ten years ago her mother shot her father dead. She refuses to visit her mother in prison or even to read the letters she receives from her. Doctors have determined her mom is sane, but Izzy can only accept what she's done by believing she is unstable. And she fears this for herself. Her latest foster parents are curators of a museum charged with clearing out a defunct asylum; this is where Izzy finds Clara's journal. Clara was a longtime inmate of the asylum, but was not mentally ill. There is a dual timeline to tell the stories of both young women that is nicely interwoven. The author took quite a bit of creative license in treatment Clara received at the asylum; as if being committed against one's will were not horrifying enough; some of the treatment she has ongoing in the 1920's and 30's were discontinued as inhumane in the 1880's. And there was definitely criminal activity going on that no one questions or stops in both timelines.