Review for Serenity Grove by Jesika Westbrook
Serenity Grove, by Jesika Westbrook, is a dark, Gothic novella about reclaiming control over your own life, even if it means destroying yourself.
Alistair is a psychiatrist who works at Serenity Grove, an asylum for the mentally ill. He meets a patient named Lillian, who was sexually abused by her father. As time passed, and she continues to deteriorate under the care of another doctor, Alistair decides to try and treat her. However, because of the strain of the treatments, Lillian has all but become a shadow of her former self. Despite Alistair’s best intentions, she finally dies, leaving the doctor alone and heartbroken.Westbrook crafts a tale about a young woman and her doctor, both of whom are chained down by their pride, society, and ultimately, their minds.
I loved reading about Lillian. I recently started volunteering at a rape crisis center, and hers is a common situation. She was assaulted by the person she was supposed to trust the most, and when she became too burdensome, she was sent away, where other men began imposing their own wills on her. Even Alistair did this to her, even though he believed it was for the greater good. She couldn’t take it anymore. She was treated as an object for the majority of her life, and she was so dehumanized that in the end, she decided to end it. Honestly, if I were in her situation, I would’ve done the same thing. After all, what else can you do when you literally have nothing left, when you have no loved ones to comfort you, no one to remember you?
As for Alistair, his infatuation with Lillian reminded me of a man named Carl Tanzier. He worked in a hospital at Key West, Florida, where he fell in love with a woman named Maria. He would shower her with gifts, and did everything in his power to treat her tuberculosis. Unfortunately, she wound up dying. He took her body and buried her in a mausoleum. Still, his obsession wouldn’t fade, so much so that he took her body out of her grave and preserved it, replacing rotting skin with silk, her eroding eyes with glass. And while Alistair’s obsession with Lillian wasn’t as bad, it was creepy nonetheless.
One of my favorite things about this book was how it gives insight into mental health treatment back then. Many hospitals, especially the Bethlehem Royal Hospital (Bedlam), paraded patients around where the public could mock them. They were tortured, maimed, lobotomized; in fact, some of the most infamous examples include the Frederico Mora Hospital in Guatemala and the Republican Siauliai Hospital. Many patients were abused by their caregivers, and even today, there’s ongoing abuse in mental health institutions.
Overall, I would give this book a rating of a 4.3 out of 5.0 stars. The characters were interesting to read, and the narrative fits the darker, more hopeless setting of the story. It’s a short, thrilling read for anyone who’s curious about the history of mental health, as well as those who enjoy twisted, tragic romances.
