We discover a dark and dangerous place, one where screams of madness are unheard or at least, ignored; this is where we find Mary. She has been wrongly placed into a dark and unfamiliar world for her sins as a child, we follow Mary’s trials as she learns to live in her new world full of the strange steps characters.

This book is beautifully written, the author describes the scene so well, you can hear the same sounds Mary can, you can smell the same same smells and you begin to feel her fear.
I really enjoyed this book, well worth a read!

***I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Troubador!!***

This book took me on quite a ride, some of it good and some of it not so good. The premise is one that I found interesting. At the turn of the 20th century, the world was undergoing a big transformation with regard to mental health. There was still a lot of the old methods of locking people away because they didn’t fit into the societal mold. But the world was also beginning to wonder if that was the best way to deal with “deviant” people, or perhaps they should focus on the truly mentally ill with more compassion. This is where Mary comes in. She has a baby out of wedlock right in the middle of this period. Her baby is taken and she is sent to the asylum where she spends most of her life. This was the story of Mary finding her own family and creating her own community.

This book was a slow burn. I mean, really slow. Most of this book is just people having conversations. Sometimes that made things a bit boring and I started to skim because nothing was happening. The first part of the book that takes place in the asylum was the most boring. Not only was the majority of the story taking place in conversations but the limited actions outside of those conversations were also extremely repetitive. Wake up, go to breakfast, go to the yard for exercise, go to the day room, go to bed. For about 140 pages. It was dull and I found that I didn’t care much about what happened.

Once Mary is transitioned out of the asylum the story started to take off. Now it was getting interesting. She is a middle aged woman who suddenly has to figure out how to make money, make friends, buy clothes, all the normal adult things that one does. She doesn’t even know how a person is supposed to buy underwear because she’s been in an asylum since she was 16. That transition was hard for her as she both yearned for her freedom and was scared to relinquish the safety and security of asylum life. It was a compelling story and I enjoyed watching her make friends and create a community around her.

My biggest problem with the book was that the author seemed to want to connect everyone to Mary personally. By the end of the book pretty much every single person that Mary was close to had kept some secret from her about how they were related to her former life or her child’s life. And then in the epilogue the author told us who Mary’s child was. I was frustrated because it felt contrived. I already had emotions towards these people and their relationship with Mary, why did we have to have this extra layer that added no substance? The whole point of the book was that even though Mary never found her long lost son she created a family for herself, filled with love and trust. It should have been left there and I should have never known who her son was.

Overall, a compelling story about a tragic young woman who transform into a formidable grown woman. A story about a woman creating her own way, even when the world didn’t think she could. And that was a great book.

Sent from the workhouse to an asylum after the birth of her child, Mary struggles to survive, ultimately learning how to cook and finding her identity. Yearning to find her child and support herself, she is defined by the times she lives in, but rises above the outdated attitudes about mental illness in the early 19th century.

This was an interesting book which kept my intrigued as we were introduced to a young girl named Mary, who is placed in an asylum for having a child out of wedlock.

I felt all kinds of emotions reading this book, but the most prominent feeling was anger. She never really belonged in this institution, but spent most of her life there. As you read on, you learn that things happened beyond her control and yet she was still labeled a "temptress", even by some of the people closest to her. Some others labeled her as a "lunatic: without even really learning the circumstances which put her there in the first place. You felt like she was naive and childlike throughout the whole entire book, mainly because that is the way most people treated her.

It takes awhile for her to want to leave once she has the permission to be out on her own. Once she learns she really has nobody outside the walls of the asylum, she doesn't want to leave her friends. Some of these friends are closer to her than she ever realizes.

I am proud of her that she learned to read, wrote her own cookbook, and had the courage to finally be independent, but she did it at such a late age. She had so much more life she could have experienced, but at the same time, she also ended up having all she ever needed.

The Echo of a Footfall is a memoir of a fictional character Mary spanning about 50 years. Mary is abandoned and everyone around her hurt her for some reason or other. This is a story that iterates the fact that our surroundings and encouragement uplift us! The story starts off slow, but you can feel what Mary feels, her hurt, her development, her mind voice! The author has penned it down well. I found the asylum to be too much, but the story is in 1930s.. so who knows, people could’ve been that cruel! The love and encouragement that Mary got in that asylum from nurses and fellow “inmates” were was heartwarming! Pick this one if you want some uplifting and the satisfaction of reading a good woman’s fiction!
Thank you NetGalley, Patricia Scampion and Troubadour publishing for reader’s copy of this book. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way.

There’s so many lessons we have learned from the past. I shudder to think that it was ever ok to leave a #family member in an #asylum just because they suffered from #depression and/or had a #baby out of wedlock. This book is yet another reminder that we must embrace & #accept people for who they are. I really did enjoy this book. Thank you to #netgalley for the copy of this book that I received. This is how I rate my books: 1 Star means I didn’t finish it. 2 Stars means I finished it, but wasn’t thrilled. 3 Stars Means I would recommend this title. 4 Stars means I enjoyed it so much, I’d read it again. 5 Stars means the title is now on my favorites of all time list.

Beautiful book depicting the journey of a young woman sent to an asylum at age 16 for long years until she eventually could leave the institution. Mary had a baby, was not married and therefore considered a depraved person. Through her life the reader not only learns about life in an asylum but also raises questions as to individual identity and belonging. The characters of the book all have issues about their own identity even though their origins are completely different. Excellent book. Thank you Patricia and NetGalley for letting me read this book. Christine

This book was so good! The characters were so well rounded, you felt like you actually knew them! The plot was so good you didn't want the book to end!