4/5 ⭐️

This was enjoyable. I literally know nothing about leperacy so this was interesting. I liked how this was set in a historical setting, it makes me glad to be living in the time period I do.

⭐️ 4.25/5

First and foremost I want to thank Kensington Publishing Corporation for this ARC copy, thank you for giving me the opportunity to review it🤍

The story has to do with a woman who out of the blue gets leprosy. She leaves her home, where she lives in luxury and goes to a center which deals with the disease. In there, she has to learn how to live again and in the process her attitude towards life and everything really, changes.

My only complaint for this book is that it is too short. I loved the story so much, it made me wept, laugh and it left my heart sore but happy. I honestly couldn’t put it down.

The writing is EXCEPTIONAL, the characters have an amazing development and the plot is so beautiful, tense and relaxing all at once. You can never tell what’s coming next and it definitely leaves you wanting to read more and more. The story picks up from the first pages, which is a HUGE asset in this book, as personally I don’t like it when there are pages and pages of information that don’t add anything to the plot. And lastly the chapters are short, which I certainly loved and appreciated.

An absolute page turner, definitely recommend it✨

Mirielle is every inch the Hollywood socialite. She attends fabulous parties hosted by studio big wigs with her husband Charlie West, the famous silent film actor, while the Nanny takes care of her children. But then tragedy strikes and Mirielle, simply goes through the motions, barely present in her own life. When getting ready for yet another party, she burns herself with her curling iron and ends up at the hospital. It is here her second life begins.

With the stigmatic diagnosis of leprosy, Mirielle is shuttled across the country to quarantine in a leprosy colony in Carville, Lousiana. Used to having the finest of everything, Mirielle is initially perturbed by the simple life the residents of the encampment lead. After a rough start, she slowly begins to find her rhythm in with the slower pace of life at the leprosy encampment.

With a host of interesting secondary characters, including Irene, her cabin’s natural leader, Jean, the little girl who needs a mother figure, Jack, the charismatic man who runs the canteen and one particular nun with a tough love attitude, Mirielle’s “second” life indeed is a rich one, despite her circumstances.

Mirielle is imperfect, which made me love her all the more. Her choices are what make her human and more than once I was brought to tears by what she faced. This story was based a real leprosy colony in the early 20th century in America where people were sent away from their loved ones because of the fears of spreading an infectious disease.

I highly recommend picking this book up! It comes out Tuesday, July 27th. (The audiobook was fantastic by the way.) Thank you to Netgalley, HighBridge Audio, and of course Amanda Skenandore for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore
Historical fiction based on America’s only known leper colony.
A socialite contracts leprosy and is sent away to a government living facility.
The story follows her denial, acceptance, friendships, tragedies and life in the colony.

The Epilogue was welcome and satisfying.

Sad and heartbreaking. But also hopeful and heartwarming. Special thanks to the doctors and nurses and patients that helped and studied and worked to find a cure. I learned and now have more compassion for this little known history.

🎧 I alternated between a paperback copy and an audiobook version. The audiobook is narrated by Nicole Poole. What exactly is a California accent? Ms Poole nailed the high society, cultured tone of California in her narration as well as the southern accents of New Orleans. I could hear the proper starch in the nuns instructions as well as the charm of the Deep South in the men’s voices. Several times I had to back up to listen to a sentence again. What did he say? Exactly how I’ve felt when traveling. At least here I had the advantage of replaying which you don’t get in real life!
I listened to this at 1.25 and partially at 1.5x, the first being my usual and most comfortable.

Thanks to NetGalley, Between the Chapters Bookclub, Kensington, and HighBridge Audio.

This book is a must read! I was so enthralled with the array of colorful characters. It challenged me to think about the how it would have felt to be a leper and be a societal outcast. We follow Mirielle as she is faced with trials. These trials test her faith and fortitude. During this book you will laugh and cry as you experience the second life of Mirielle West.

First of all thank you so much to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for the opportunity to listen to this book. One of the best things about historical fiction is the facts you learn. This book is about a wealthy housewife who finds she has leprosy and is shipped in a boxcar to a leper colony in Louisiana. This colony actually existed until 1999. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. It will be released July 27, 2021.

Thank you to HighBridge Audio/Kensington Books for my ALC on NetGalley! This book publishes on July 27th.

Mirielle West's first life is full of glamour - as the wife of an actor, she's a fixture at all the parties. Her second life begins when her doctor discovers a numb and pale patch of skin, leading to the unthinkable: a leprosy diagnosis. Mirielle is exiled to a leper colony in rural Louisiana and forced to come to terms with her new reality.

I love fish out of water tales, so I was really excited to read this book. Among the things Mirielle packed for Louisiana were a parasol, riding cap, and ten sets of silk pajamas. Lol. I enjoyed seeing her learn to adjust to her new environment, make friends, and find community. Mirielle's story could have easily been heartbreaking, but it turned out to be a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. I loved when she got closer to others at the camp, including Frank, Jean, and Irene.

My one criticism of this book is that it felt a little long in the middle, but I'm glad it picked up again at the end. Nicole Poole did a great job with the narration - especially capturing Mirielle's indignation at her new circumstances.

I really appreciate Skenandore's handling of leprosy (now known as Hansen's disease). We know now that Hansen's disease is not very contagious, and despite the huge stigma attached to the disease, sufferers were unlikely to pass it to others. The stigma surrounding leprosy was repeated in the 1980s with HIV/AIDS, and we've also seen elements of it with the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm glad that Skenandore chose to shed light on this little-discussed topic and show the emotional and mental toll of the stigmatization.

If you're looking for new historical fiction topics, I definitely recommend this one! I also recommend Moloka'i, which centers on a different leper colony.

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:
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.)
<spoiler>
❌ 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!)

</spoiler>

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.

The book was an incredibly well written look at a time in history that is not something most people are aware of. The author did an excellent job developing all of the characters from the various walks of life that landed in the leper colony in Louisiana. The voices felt incredibly authentic. The narrator did a great job of ensuring all characters had their own voice and that the voice adapted as the characters grew and changed.

Thank you NetGalley , the author, and HighBridge Audio for allowing me to listen to and review this ALC.

The Second Life of Mirielle West is a fascinating historical fiction novel. I could not stop listening to it!

The novel is set in Carville, Louisiana, in a leprosarium that operated for a century, where patients were held involuntarily. Despite a grim premise the book is very hopeful, and often upbeat and funny. Yes, there are some gruesome descriptions of the more severe cases of Hansen disease (widely known as leprosy), but the larger focus is on the community that these seemingly “hopeless” patients were able to build. It’s about second chances, perseverance, and finding happiness and hope despite the horrible circumstances. It is also about making a new family, a “chosen” family, after a trauma of losing everything and everyone from your past. Lastly, it’s a great book to give to people who keep whining about how “modern medicine is the culprit of all modern diseases”, and “good ole’ times” in general. Here is a good example of the disease that ravaged humanity for thousands of years, was once considered a death sentence, and is now cured in a matter of months with a course of antibiotics.

Mirielle’s circumstances are slightly different than those of her fellow Carville patients. She is a wealthy woman, born and raised in California, and married to a famous movie star. When Mirielle first learns of her diagnosis, she laughs it off. Surely the doctors have made a mistake! Leprosy? Her? It is a disease she learned about from films such as Ben-Hur. She is used to hanging out with the powerful and rich of Hollywood, she couldn’t possibly…As Mirielle is carted off to Carville against her will, she falls into a deepest depression, and desperately tries to distance herself from the other residents. She doesn’t understand the “community” part of it all. Why build a new life, when all the life’s remaining energy should be focused on getting cured, and going back to your old life? But after a while, it becomes clear that there is no cure, and that old life may not be achievable even for those who get discharged. With time the “uppity city girl” Mirielle starts to change, opening her heart to her new family and friends in Carville.

I know that a lot of you will have reservations about this one. I had some too. But to those who think it is “gross”, I say this book has been written for YOU. First, you will learn a thing or two about Hansen disease. I know I did! Second, it is an important reminder of our collective ignorance when it comes to treating people with infectious and chronic diseases. Let’s just say I was the most disgusted NOT by the descriptions of the lesions and the missing limbs, but by the treatment of those with the disease. Even though Hansen disease is not very contagious, people suffering from it, and ANYONE who comes in contact with them have been ostracized for centuries. Abused, abandoned by their own families, called all manner of derogatory terms, not allowed to see their kids, denied medical care – you name it, they have experienced it. The parts about the kids who have been dropped off at the facility never to be visited again were especially tough to read about. And despite all that they persevered, built new lives for themselves, celebrated holidays, made friends, and in some cases even found love again.

I loved the romance in the book! Although I do feel like Frank deserves to be canonized into sainthood for putting up with all of the Mirielle’s crap. And yes, the ending was a bit too Hollywood style “sweet” for me, and I found few other parts of the book entirely unbelievable (such as an apparently successful treatment of the depression with a cold bucket of water 😊 But all in all I enjoyed this audiobook immensely and kept listening to it nonstop until I finished. It was a pleasant surprise as I had no expectations whatsoever going into it!

The narrator, Nicole Poole, has done a fantastic job with the southern accents! Except for Frank’s Cajun accent perhaps. I am certainly not an expert on Louisiana accents, so take this statement with the grain of salt!

If you are a historical fiction fan, I say go for it!

Triggers: loss of a child, drowning of a child, suicide, depression, discrimination due to chronic illness, bullying, separation between the mother and the newborn, abandonment

I received a copy of this audiobook from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Mirielle is living a glamorous life in California in the 1920s. She is married to a movie star and is the mother of two beautiful young daughters. But after a minor accident with a curling iron, she is sent to the doctor, only to discover she is a Leper.

The book is based on a real story of the only Leper Camp in the US, and it is a heartbreaking story.
Not only is the book well written and easy to follow (and fall in love with) it is also fascinating and informative about this horrific illness.
Even though not that much happens throughout the book (since most of the book takes place inside the camp), it is still such a good story.
We get to know some beautiful characters that each have their own heartbreaking story.
Mireille's struggle to accept her new life and come to terms with her new reality is hard to listen to.
I did not know this disease very well, and the book definitely gave the focus this part of history needed. It must have been horrible, and especially the way these people were treated was awful!

I honestly didn't expect to love this book so much. Every chapter brought something, and I had a hard time thinking about anything else than this book.
As I mentioned, I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator did a great job. Her voice fitted the story very well and was easy to listen to.
I am happy to have listened to this book and learned something new. The book was a joy to follow, and I expect it to be in my head for a long time to come.
It is simply a must-read for any historical fiction fan!

Wow, I really liked this!
Mirielle West lives a lavish lifestyle in 1920’s Los Angeles, she’s married to actor Charlie and has two young daughters.

Underneath the beautiful clothes and makeup Mirielle’s a vulnerable women, she lost her beloved son and is struggling to cope with his loss. She accidentally burns her finger, her husband’s concerned and he thinks she should get her family doctor to check it. While examining her finger, the doctor notices a small patch of pale skin on her hand, he recommends she immediately see a dermatologist, at the County General Hospital and Dr Sullivan checks all of the skin on her body and runs some tests. She has no idea what’s wrong with her, she notices the staff act oddly around her, to protect her husband’s fame she uses another name and she calls herself Mrs. Pauline Marvin. The next day Dr Sullivan gets the results of her tests, she has leprosy and her life changes with the diagnosis.

Thank you Net Galley for an Audio ARC of The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore. I'm not going to spoil this one for anyone. I found lots of hidden meaning to this book. It was part ah ha moment and reminding me of the important things in life. Fantastic read!

I have made a habit of NOT reading the description of a book so that I am completely surprised with the story line. I also enjoy books that make you want to research and learn more This was such a great book to be able to do both of these! I had no idea of the history of leprosy as you do not hear about it much in the 21st century and what happened to people that did have it, I learned so much from this book and then once I finished I researched and continued my learning. Besides that knowledge from this book it is also very inspirational in ways that can be translated into current life as ways to live by, just replace leprosy with divorce, prison, cancer or any other life altering circumstance. I would recommend this book to many types of readers for both the inspirational and historical aspects.


#TheSecondlifeofMirielleWest #NetGalley #AmandaSkenandore #audiobook #bookish #HistoricalFiction #HighBridge

The Second Life of Mirielle West is not a genre in which I usually indulge; however, I'm so glad that I did! Initially, Mirielle is self-involved and suffering from a bout of depression due to some really unfortunate circumstances. In her life as a wife of a film producer, she has taken to self medicating through alcohol and spends little time with her children and husband. After being discovered to have leprosy, Mirielle is shipped off to a leper colony in Louisiana. For some time Mirielle, acts like a spoiled, entitled child but eventually learns to put the needs of others in front of hers. This novel shows that everything happens for a reason and even if it's not what you want, it eventually all works out. I would not call this a feel-good book by any means but a reflection of all of us and how we perceive others. Individuals with infectious disease deserve love and care just like everyone else and to hold them at arms length only furthers their isolation. I just reviewed The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore. #TheSecondLifeofMirielleWest #NetGalley

This novel is about a Hollywood socialite, Mirielle West, who is diagnosed with leprosy in beginning of the story and is forcibly removed from her home and family and placed in a colony in Louisiana. This institution was part of American history that I had no idea about. People were stripped of their rights and freedom and even if they got better, there was no cure. Therefore, there was a stigma attached to anyone who had been there. Mirielle must find strength and a purpose in the institution.

Overall, I had a difficult time with this book. For me it was just ok. I learned something from the story and it had an interesting premise. However, I never connected with Mirielle. I became indifferent instead of rooting for her as I normally would with a book like this. The story moved too slow for me and the characters were not fleshed out. I received this book as an ARC and because of this I made sure to finish but I'm not certain I would have had I gotten it at the library. I received an audio version of this book and the narration was bland and sometimes robotic which may have lead to my dissatisfaction with it. Additionally, it would randomly stop and there was a section I had to just skip over because it would stop at the same part over and over. Hopefully this will be resolved in the final release of the book. There are lots of reviews that praise this book but it was not enjoyable for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Highbridge Audio for the opportunity to read and view this novel. I truly appreciate the experience.

Los Angeles socialite/wife/mother Mirielle West receives a surprise diagnosis of leprosy from her doctor in 1926.

To avoid embarrassing and stigmatizing her family, Mirielle is secretly exiled to a leper colony in rural Carville, Louisiana for what she hopes will be a swift cure.

The conditions in the Louisiana Leper Home are dire and Mirielle quickly goes from living a glamourous Hollywood life to hitting rock bottom.

In Marielle's "Second Life" at Carville, she needs to accept being ostracized/ shunned as well as the fact that leprosy will drastically change her appearance.

This book's premise was ultra-compelling and the author's research was very impressive.

Throughout the entire book, I enjoyed learning about a disease and period in history that I knew nothing about.

Prior to reading this book, I had been clueless that during the 1920s leprosy was "hush-hush" and that being diagnosed with leprosy was a stigma for the patient AND the patient's family. Upon arriving at Carville, patients were encouraged to take on a new identity to avoid the social stigma of the disease.

Just like the COVID pandemic, the public's fear of catching this disease was real and intense.

All this being said, I was looking forward to a 5-star read. Overall, the book was wordy and lacked the pace and tempo that I had been expecting. The author created a great protagonist yet I felt that her character development was one-dimensional and lacking.

I listened to the audiobook and the narration was excellent.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars.

4.5 Stars rounded down.

Mirielle West is living a glamourous life in Los Angeles with her movie star husband Charlie & their daughters. When she sees a doctor for a burn, the doctor finds a troublesome skin patch & insists she gets tested. Mirielle is diagnosed with leprosy and is exiled to rural Louisiana.

Mirielle is admitted to Carville, where she remains in denial of her new life and has trouble adjusting. After some time, she finally finds a community & purpose in helping other patients and finding a cure for leprosy. Mirielle is motivated by the hopes of returning home to her old life, but she knows that is not a guaranteed outcome.

Mirielle transforms into a selfless and caring woman, much different from her selfish socialite days. This is an excellent story about hitting rock bottom and making the best out of your new situation.

I rated this 4.5 stars instead of 5 solely because Mirielle could be insufferable and frustrating at times, but in general I really loved this story.

I received an audiobook copy of The Second Life of Mirielle West as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

Mirielle West is living a glamorous life as the wife of a successful actor in 1920s Los Angeles when, after being diagnosed with leprosy, she is exiled to a colony in rural Louisiana for treatment and quarantine. Unwittingly forced away from her husband, children, and home, Mirielle finds she must reckon with past grief and broken relationships while also forging a new life for herself far from everyone and everything she's ever known.

I loved this book. It was gritty and at times disturbing, and I enjoyed watching Mirielle's transformation from socialite to public health advocate, which felt well-paced and realistic. I liked that, as the story took shape, you knew that the ending wasn't going to be completely satisfactory: there were simply too many factors and characters whose lives couldn't be wrapped up into a neat little bow. The ending is bittersweet and all told, really lovely. Can't wait to read more from Amanda Skenandore.

I'd like the thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced listener copy of the audiobook. I enjoyed listening to the narrator, and I feel she did a great job using different voices for the different characters.

As for the characters themselves, they didn't feel as fully fleshed out as I would have liked. Mirielle's growth was one I predicted from the outset because she's such a trope. I wanted more of her backstory than the bits and pieces that I did get because I wanted to connect with her, but I really couldn't. As for the side characters, they also seemed a little lacking, but I did find them more likable than Mirielle, so I was thankful for them.

I enjoyed learning more about an aspect of history that I knew very little about, and I appreciate the research that must have been done to bring us this insight. The descriptions of the setting made me feel as if I was really there, and I could picture it beautifully in my head. At times, however, this description made the story slow down to the point where I was losing interest. The story didn't really grab me until about the final 20%, which really saved the whole book for me.