The Orphan House by Ann Bennett seemed to have a promising premise but failed to be anything spectacular.

The narrative focuses on two characters, Sarah and Connie. Connie, a 90 something old timer is the daughter of the superintendent of a now-closed orphanage. Her father’s secrecy and rage seems to have a powerful hold on her long after he’s dead.. so much so that she continues to guard his secrets out of fear.

Sarah, a thirty something lady, freshly divorced, looking for a new start, is connected to the orphanage, and to Connie in more ways than one.

After buying Connie’s family home, Sarah gets in touch with Connie to uncover some old truths better hidden.

As for the writing, it seems as if the book is a result of a creative writing class the author took. It’s passable but there’s nothing wow about it. The plot moves along slowly as a result of overdoing the foreshadowing and building tension. For most part of the book, I have the “get on with it” feeling, and that never does go away. The plot becomes rather predictable, and there’s too much “telling” and not enough “showing”. The author keeps stating that Sarah feels a connection to the orphan home, or that Connie is a timid creature due to her father’s rage... but we’re never told “why” and are simply expected to take the author’s word for it. The reader isn’t given enough credit for the story seems too predictable and uninteresting. I don’t find myself excited at any point as I would with an absolute page turner. The two narrators are fine, but there’s nothing lovable about them that makes you want to root for them. The portrait of India is stereotypically “Othered” - and I say this after being born and living in Bombay for 24 years. Simply put... it’s all a bit lacklustre.


As for the positives, and I’m trying really hard here.. it’s not too terrible. The premise seems interesting, and I certainly find Ezra’s character promising if only it had been more “show, don’t tell”. Sarah seems quite all right as a character, but she’s flat. Rounding her character with some growth, some key lesson learned would transform the narrative drastically. And the book could certainly do with more humour. In life, we do not meet people with *no* sense of humour at all, which is something the town seems to be plagued with.


Overall, I’d give this book a 2.5/5, simply for being a quick read without too much brain exercise.

Thank you to netgalley.com for a review copy