Book Review: The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry

The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry  

4 Stars 

What a beautiful book of mothers, daughters and the magic of storytelling. I really enjoyed this one. Patti sure does know how to engage you in a book and keep you there needing to know what happens up until the end. I loved Flora Lea and this did not disappoint.

We follow Clara - a daughter still haunted by the loss of her mother, Bronwyn. Her mother was a child prodigy and literary sensation who vanished off the South Carolina Coast in 1927. Cut to 1950s when Clara is now a mother herself and gets a call from a man in London, Charlie, who says he found her mothers dictionary of invented language, stories and a letter for her that brings her from America to London on a journey through grief, motherhood and discovery....all set against the 1952 Great Smog of London.

Overall, this was a really layered story with lots explored - loved Clara's daughter Wynnie, she added so much to the story. Seeing the circumstances around the Great Smog of London was also interesting to get more details and added higher stakes to the plot. 

My only issues I had with this was I wasn't in love with the ending with the aftermath once things were revealed, I would have liked a bit more exploration there with the ending. It felt like it was wrapped up too soon after things were solved and that things went "back to normal" almost too quickly for the family. Also, I was not a fan of Charlie and Clara's relationship - there is a "fade to black" scene with them, while not explicit, there is mention of them sleeping together all the time and they had only known each other a couple of weeks, so it did not really add anything to the story for me personally. That was very brief mentions though and doesn't necessarily take away much enjoyment from the story for me, I still really liked it. I think if Charlie and Clara had more developing feelings for each other vs outright sleeping together all the time so quickly, that would have been better and made more sense for the story.

Really liked the last chapter from Wynnie's POV - that added a lot to the end and the author's note where she explained all the real life story tie ins was nice. 

Reading this with my friend Melissa was also a wonderful experience! Looking forward to reading more books by Patti! 

Content: few mild curse words like H*ll, D*mn, fade to black bedroom scene before marriage, parental abandonment feelings, asthmas attacks, grief explored

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7351842278

Amazon: https://amzn.to/44FAB4Z

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.