Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline | Rating: ★★★★★"Time constricts and flattens, you know. It’s not evenly weighted. Certain moments linger in the mind and others disappear."
Have you ever read a book that sticks with you for months after you’ve originally read it? Of course — all avid book readers have. Whether that’s a classic or newly introduced novels like The Book Thief, we’ve all had them. For me, that book is Orphan Train — a fascinating tale of a bond that forms between a teenager and an elderly widow who have a bit more in common than the teenager previously thought. It is almost impossible not to learn something from this interesting time in our worlds history.
One trigger warning is that there is a small section of the story that does feature the topic of sexual abuse in foster homes.
Our story opens to the life of seventeen year old Molly Ayer, who has gotten into some trouble and has landed a gig in the form of community service to prevent her from ending up in Juvie. We come to find that she lives with a foster family she isn’t particularly fond of (and a foster mother who is definitely not fond of her) and get a pretty decent glimpse into her life before foster care as well as her everyday life. Her narrative isn’t the best and she isn’t as well developed or believable as Vivian, but it’s still decently done.
The real treasure in this novel is the story we’re told in flashbacks about the elderly woman she helps clean for: known in present day as Vivian Daly. Vivian proves to us that through tragedy our strength really does appear in time.
