Have you ever heard of North Brother Island? Whether or not you have heard of it, author Shelley Nolden knew nothing about the island until she flew over it returning to NYC. Her and her husband spotted the crumbling infrastructure and her husband immediately suggested she write a book about the island.

In fact, late in the nineteenth century , a hospital was built on the island to treat (and sequester) patients with communicable diseases, like typhus, tuberculosis, and the Spanish Flu. Research into these diseases was centralized on the island as well. Later on the island was used to house soldiers returning from fighting in Europe (WW2), and it also provided housing for drug addicts, (in the 1960's). The facilities were completely abandoned, and the island was left uninhabited. Today, it is a bird conservation site, and is completely "overgrown".

Considering it's (spooky) history, Nolden decided she really liked the idea of writing a book that takes place on North Brother Island. Her book covers more then 100 years of the island history, and it is a mash up of genres including, historical fiction, science fiction, and suspense. Three generations of the Gettler family (going way back to late 1800's) have worked in the hospital and research facilities on North Brother Island. They hoped to create a vaccine that would provide immunity to many diseases including cancer. The present day Gettler believes he is on the brink of making this discovery. His younger brother Finn, not a scientist like the rest of his family, wants to know more about North Brother Island and his family's history on the island (that has always been so "secretive"), so he starts to snoop around the island. That is when he spies a woman (Cora) who, he believes, is living on deserted, North Brother Island. Cora apparently, knows who Finn is, and tells him some things about his family (nasty things) he knows nothing about. He's intrigued. His snooping ... disrupts everything ... when the cure is actually so close ....

Shelley Nolden has released a novel about pandemics (and viruses and immunity) during a pandemic. The Vines could not possibly be a more timely read. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend picking it up. Thank you @netgalley and Freiling publishing for my complimentary copy of #thevines in return for my honest review. #5stars.

I cannot proceed with the reading of this book from Net Galley due to awkward phrasing, sentence construction, word choice, strange actions, etc. Concept of book sounded very intriguing but reading it is too much of a struggle.
Ive tried to pick it up time and time again but maybe im not the correct target audience. I feel as if i would need to take notes and that isnt appealing to me. Best of luck. .

How do you handle the dark side of family history? Especially when it still impacts you and everyone you love. That is one of the themes that permeates this provocative horror/thriller/family saga. Set on the little-known North Brother Island situated by New York's Hell's Gate, the story spans much of the 20th and 21st century and four generations of the Gettler family--and the secretive person who lives on the island and is at the heart of the story.
I can't say that I particularly liked the story--too much torture for my taste--but the writing is good, the suspense is compelling, and there are a few plot twists that I didn't see coming. There was also some fascinating history of the actual island that is intriguing, to say the least. I would recommend this book with some reservations about the focus on the torture that occurs, but on the whole it is a well-done book.

I only managed to read the first chapter of The Vines, not because I thought it was terrible and a DNF, but because of technical difficulties. After every page, or if my screen turned off, the book would go back to the start and not save my place. It drove me insane. So naturally, I went online to pre-order the tangible copy of the book. The few pages I read had me captivated from the start, and I can't wait to finish reading The Vines. The eerie setting, the chilling secrets is right up my alley.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Vines by Shelley Nolden.

Finn is exploring a mysterious Island off of NYC, known to have the remains of a hospital, filled with the ghosts of experiments and deadly contagions. While exploring, Finn happens upon a woman about his age who is covered in scars. He is fascinated and horrified of this woman, and even more so when she begins throwing scalpels at him. Who is she, and how has she come to live at a place like this?

Initially I was a bit daunted by the length and science-y vibe of this book. But keep going, it's worth it! The backstory is so good, and I loved the back and forth, as well as the medical talk after everything we have been through with our own pandemic. It appears that there will be a sequel and I very much look forward to it!

So straight off, I am going to say, this book ends in a cliffhanger. I'm not a fan of not knowing that from the get go, so here is my warning to others who are like me and prefer going into a book with that knowledge.

On to my review...I enjoyed this one a lot. It was well written and quite relevant to our situation at present (pandemic). It had a captivating plot. Intriguing characters. An atmospheric setting. Some real historical facts and people mixed in. I'm looking forward to the next book! 👍👍

The cover is what first attracted me to this book-it immediately had my attention and drew me in. Once I read the description I knew I had to read it!
Thank you Netgallery and Freiling Publish for an EArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

We are introduced to Finn, whose family has secrets he wishes to uncover. The men in Finn’s family have served as medical doctors/searchers on the North Brothers Island, near NYC. Finn is not one himself, but he wants to find out the connection between his family and the Island as well as the secrets his family is keeping.
Finn enjoys exploring-and one day he decides to explore North Brothers Island by himself. It is there that he comes across the mysterious Cora. Little does he know the connection between his own family and Cora.
The Island use to be home to a quarantine facility for those with contagious diseases-such as Tuberculosis and measles in the early 1900s. Finns family were the head Doctors and researches at the facility.
He desires to know all about Cora-who she is, where she came from, and why she is all alone on this deserted island. Cora makes her hatred for Finn and his family very clear-but the question is why?
Little does Finn know that the men in his family have been harming Cora and doing experiments on her for nearly a century! Cora felt like a prisoner on the Island where Finns family did many experiments on her in hopes of discovering vaccines for the diseases.
The story goes back and fourth between the POV of Finn and Cora, and spans from the early 1900s to present day. We get to know Coras back story-as to how she ended up on the Island and what she experienced while there.
Author Shelley Nolden is very descriptive in this book. To me, it shows that she spent a lot of time doing research on the actual history of the island. It compelled me to actually Google North Brothers Island and do some researching myself.
I also want to point out that it was very interesting to read this story centered around contagious diseases now with the current state of the world with the pandemic.
The characters are all very well developed and we really get to know each and their back story.
There is a lot of mystery, history, and a little science in this story to keep it moving right along. I didn’t find it slow pace, nor fast pace.
The ending definitely has me thinking that Author Shelley Nolden has much more to bring to us with this story!

The cover made me think the book would be about wine and vineyards. I was wrong, very wrong. I am glad I misinterpreted the meaning of the vines on the cover. It was an interesting read. And very relevant. The book brought up many possibilities that I myself have pondered. It was a read that made you wonder.,

What would life be like if . . . . .someone hed the cure for diseases?

What would we do about it?

How would we react?

Would we remain compassionate?

Neutral rating because I just could not get into this. Its most unfortunate though because this was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I was confused the whole time because of the timeline shifts. I have a few theories that would explain the reasons I was confused but I didn't care enough to stick it through and the past timeliness which I was the reason I anticipated this book was very dry. I think I reason I didn't like this was because I have false hopes on the type of story this was going to be.

I wanted to like this book but I just didn’t. It was difficult to empathize with the characters and the way of story telling was just tedious for me to read. When I can’t get into a book I usually don’t give up on it until I reach 25% but I couldn’t make it that far. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was definitely an interesting read. This book follows a girl, Cora, as she grows up and finds out that she is immune to all diseases when she makes a miraculous recovery after watching her sister pass away . She watches as those around her grow old and die of age and disease around her because the island, North Brother Island, that she lives on is used to house the sick. But after WWII, she is all alone on the island because she can't leave due to how contagious she is and only visited by a family of Nazi's that expirement on her because they want to find the cure to disease.

This book was good. The story was captivating and my heart bled for Cora as she went through one traumatizing experience after the next. The imagery really brought this story to life and the internal struggle of Finn, the youngest member for the family studying Cora, really drives this story forward. This is a great read and I cant wait to see what Shelley Nolden does next.

Thank you Netgalley, Freiling Publishing, and Shelley Nolden for allowing me to read an ARC of The Vines. The description of the book was intriguing! When I read an ARC, I rarely have the description handy to refresh my memory when I start to read an ARC, so I felt lost at the beginning. I kept reading and soon found myself enthralled in the story and the writing. There were a couple of points that I found my mind wandering, but then the book got my interest back. There are some scenes that are tough to read, so be warned. And there were so many timelines I got a little confused, but I can’t wait for the next book in what looks like will be a series.

I struggled with the beginning 30% of this book. The flashbacks and flashforwards were confusing and clunky. I honestly had zero clue on what was going on. I ended up reading some reviews to figure out what was happening. Once I understood that Cora is an anomaly who doesn't age or get infected with diseases, it made sense why she was in the past and present storyline.

After the 30% mark, the story started to get a lot better and I'm happy is didn't quit. I really felt awful for Cora's character. I'm bummed this book ended with a big cliffhanger since this book could have been shortened to wrap this story up.

After reading this book, I now plan to research and learn more about the North Brother Island and the experiments that happened there.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

The Vines
By Shelley Nolden

As a nurse, I am always drawn to stories that bring to light the history and perspectives of medical treatments, historical figures, and historical landmarks, those that have made strides to the improvement and saving of lives, as well as, the notorious characters like Typhoid Mary as mentioned in this novel.

From the moment the story opens, I was completely hooked by Cora, who she is, what her scars were all about, and why she was at Brother Island, now off limits to public and a bird sanctuary - an isolated location of a shuttered Riverside Hospital now in ruins. The thrilling story continues to keep me turning those pages as Nolden expertly weaves stories from the past and the secrets the Gettler family is hiding. In this genre bending story, we witness the abhorrent and unethical experiments and practices from the past and how this is hauntingly creeping into the present timeline as dark secrets are surfacing. This story is also about the strength and resilience of Cora which was a formidable character and a true badass.

I recommend you look into the history of Brother Island and the pictures online from some amazing photographers that were granted entry into the now bird sanctuary with the buildings left in ruins. It really helped me bring this story to life.

Overall, this historical fiction scifi thriller mystery was engaging, thought provoking and quite relatable to our current pandemic situation.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and Freiling Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Nolden takes readers on quite a ride in THE VINES! I've been lowkey obsessed for years with the abandoned/not so abandoned islands in NYC that have been used for quarantine hospitals, prisons, and mental institutions until they were abandoned and left for nature to slowly consume. So I was hooked as soon as I saw that this book takes place on North Brother Island.

The publication timing on this book is a little unnerving as the world continues to live in the midst of a global pandemic for over a year. And while I think this book would be relevant regardless of when it was published, or when a reader picks it up, the overarching theme and messages about being able to stop a global pandemic... or cure cancer, that Nolden has running through their text is especially poignant in 2021. How far is too far to push scientific studies? Is this where the suffering of one is ok as long as it can save hundreds?

Flipping back and forth between periods of time, Nolden is able to capture the mystery and the raw beauty of an island that time forgot, while also giving voice to the island's history. And while Cora's story is something out of science fiction, what the Gettler men have been doing in the name of science is in unfortunate close proximity to actual medical and scientific history.

I enjoyed the twists and turns the narrative took and am glad that Nolden does not leave everything neatly resolved. While readers are set up for a second book, the messiness of family secrets being exposed is very realistic and adds to the story.

I am also grateful for Cora, Lilly, and Sylvia being fierce women that fight for what they believe is just and right. The world could use a few more of them and fewer Ulrich's in it.

If you have ever heard the tale of Typhoid Mary, an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid that infected multiple other people, then you are most likely have an inkling of the tale of the quarantine hospital on North Brother Island that was created over 100 years ago. The Vines is a well-researched fictional tale that takes place at a real location that is both haunting and fascinating. If you just Google this place, you will most likely fall down the rabbit hole for North and South Brother Islands as you uncover story after story about this location. This is a thrilling debut novel that does contain a few cliffhangers, so, although it can be read as a standalone, it is good to be aware that there is a sequel in the works.

Cora McSorley is a resident of the hospital. She is sent there to quarantine due a virus where she thinks that she will be like other patients that went there and were released when their time was complete. Instead, she is kept there by the doctors to be used as a research subject due to her infecting others. Although Cora went to the island to recover from one disease, she seems possibly immune to others, which makes her of great interest to the doctors there. She is trapped and constantly poked and prodded as the doctors take samples from her. It is a fascinating take on medicine, before the age of vaccines, where the reader can possibly see how a doctor can become obsessed with a person to try and figure out a cure, while also seeing the other side of seeing the torment centering the person in question.

Finn Gettler is on a mission to explore North Brother Island, which is now a bird sanctuary after being closed in the 1960s. His family ancestry has a tie to the island as his great grandfather and later his grandfather were doctors at the hospital on the island It is on the trip to the island that he encounters Cora. Here there is the first of many mysteries that need to be figured out as Cora’s life is tied all the way back to Finn’s great grandfather, Otto. Finn sets off to research further into his family history and uncover every potential secret.

The writing was very interesting as it was clear that the author did her research as the novel, at times, felt like a true story. The story moves along at a decent pace where the main events move along and then the reader is taken back to the past to have the backstory play out before returning to the present. There are modern diseases, including a strain of Coronavirus (one of the novel’s timeline takes place in the mid-2000s, which is about the time of the Coronavirus-based SARS outbreak). The other timelines in the story range from the 1960s all the way back to the early 1900s. The story takes a bit to get into as the reader wraps their head around the different timelines and stories.

This novel seamlessly weaves together truth and fiction as there are some characters, and of course, the setting, that actually existed in reality. There are tons of secrets and mystery in this novel along with family drama. The Gettler family is a fascinating set of characters as they have a lot of darkness surrounding them, but they also work towards creating cures for diseases. Cora’s story of surviving and her mental state was an enthralling read as it felt sometimes as if the reader is reading a memoir instead of a fictional tale. There was a part that made the story feel real and it is further aided by actual history weaved throughout. I am beyond curious to read the sequel as I want to learn more and see what will happen next! [3.75 rounded to 4]

**I want to give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Freiling Publishing, for a review copy of this enjoyable novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

I found this book to be very disturbing. I didn't realize until I read the authors note at the end that it is historical fiction. That made it even more disturbing because some of the people were real. It reminded me of Henrietta Lacks but only the medical research part. Poor Cora was always so trusting of the Gettler doctors and there were four generations of them. None of them treated her like a human being. They were a very selfish lot.. She had ageless beauty (literally), but that was definitely not a blessing. I did not know anything about North Brother Island in NY or the General Slocum where 1,021 men, women and children suffered to their deaths. Having to quarantine for over a year now this book hits close to home since the research the Gettler doctors were doing was for a vaccine for the corona virus and SARS. They also wanted to cure cancer. This book was very well written even if the subject matter was disturbing. I also didn't realize it was a series. It ended rather abruptly and without finishing up the story. So I guess I have to stay tuned for the next book.

Thanks to #Freilingpublishing, #netgalley, and @shelleyNolden for an ARC of #TheVines

Chillingly contemporary, #thevines incorporates history, virology, pandemics, medical experimentation and family in a compelling, page-turner of a novel. This is full of chilling images so be aware before going in. I look forward to the sequel. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for this really interesting story to read and review.

If one woman's genetics hold the cure to dozens of diseases, how far would you go in the name of humanity?
Cora has been a prisoner on North Brother Island for decades, waiting for a cure to set her free. She has slowly given up hope, even after the island and quarantine hospital are abandoned. But when a stranger shows up on her island with the face of generations of her torturers, can she trust him to save her?
Based on an actual quarantine hospital on North Brother island, this story had me hooked. As you jump back and forth between Cora's history on the island to the present, every horrifying detail is revealed. This story ended on a cliffhanger and I can't wait to find out what happens next!
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The views and opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

From my blog: Always With a Book

As soon as I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it...and I'm so glad I did. It was such a twisted, creepy book and I loved every minute of it.

This book was such a fun mash-up of historical-fiction, mystery and a little sci-fi thrown in. I love books set in NYC and when you add in old abandoned buildings, especially ones that were used as asylums or hospitals, I'm definitely all in. I had never heard of North Brother Island, so of course I went down the rabbit hole of research both during and after reading this and I was so utterly fascinated by all that happened on this island and I feel that the author really did such an amazing job bringing the island to life in her story.

Reading this book while at experiencing our own pandemic was quite interesting and I'm so thankful that for those that did get sick they weren't banished to isolated islands, as the characters in this book were, but rather just told to isolate at home or worst case, sent to hospitals. It clearly makes you thankful that medicine has come so far.

I loved the dual timelines and how they eventually met up, thanks to the clever use of sci-fi. Again, I say I don't like a true sci-fi book but when it's used in a genre-bending story like here it works for me. The twists and turns this book takes really kept me glued to the pages and I even appreciated the mention of Typhoid Mary!

This book was meticulously researched and so well-written. A book about secrets and survival, resilience and strength, this is an engaging, thought-provoking read and I am quite eager for the sequel! Definitely pick this one up and be sure to check out the history and photographs of Brother Island online. It will definitely enhance your reading experience.