The characters in this book are incredible, fully formed, as if they were living and breathing alongside you as you read it. Even supporting characters felt like they had full roles, and it made me, a white woman in 2025, stop to consider what role I would have had in Gracetown in 1950. The portrayal of the affluent white women, like Miss Anne, stuck with me. That many of these women, who had privilege far beyond what the main characters could imagine, believed that they were beyond the harm that was being done to this family, while simultaneously keeping quiet about the injustice and lies that might save them, was a very real admonishment of what was likely a common sensibility of the time. And while the horror and the ghosts that were within the confines of the reformatory itself were horrific, I think it's these much subtler, quiet terrors that haunt me. That so many people could stand by, know the truth, and still keep their silence. Overall, this was a great book, with a strong story and stands a courageous tribute to the real life victims of this kind of oppression.