The Vines by Shelley Nolden
In the shadows of New York City lies forbidden North Brother Island, where the remains of a shuttered hospital hide the haunting memories of century-old quarantines and human experiments. The ruins conceal the scarred and beautiful Cora, imprisoned by contagions and the doctors who torment her. When Finn, a young urban explorer, arrives on the island and glimpses an enigmatic beauty through the foliage, intrigue turns to obsession as he seeks to uncover her past - and his own family’s dark secrets. By unraveling these mysteries, will he be able to save Cora? Will Cora meet the same tragic ending as the thousands who’ve already perished on the island?
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This book! It’s hard to find the words but this book was so intriguing. I couldn’t look away no matter what curveballs the author threw in my direction. I highly enjoyed this story and honestly, I cannot believe that I have to WAIT for a sequel….. Not sure I can do it to be honest. I don’t have that much patience. The Vines is equal parts thriller and historical fiction. I learnt so much actual history from this book while also being kept on the edge of my seat. I fact checked the whole way through and I am impressed with the accuracy and the portrayal. Shelley Nolden, you’ve forever won me over as a fan! I was intrigued by this book from the get-go and searched high and low at every bookstore around for it and finally gave up and bought an ebook copy because I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it any longer. It takes place on a real abandoned island off of New York City that was used for quarantine during major disease outbreaks and after googling pictures of this apocalyptic/Chernobyl-esque island, I knew I had to read this story, and it didn’t disappoint. From the science and fear around pandemics (right from the early outbreaks in the 1900s up to the early 2000s SARS fears) to the historical relevance of catastrophes and their impact on human nature, this book had it all.
The plot of this book was what drew me in. There’s an island in New York called North Brother Island where there’s an old abandoned tuberculosis hospital set up from back in the 20th century. This island was the location of New York’s biggest shipwreck, housed Typhoid Mary, was a “rehabilitation” place for drug addicted teens, and had a lot of rumours swirling around it about possible human experimentation. The location on its own is the set-up for an amazing story. In the book itself, one of our main characters, Finn, goes to the island. His family has a long history of researching disease on this island but in the last few years his father and brother have given up the search but Finn doesn’t understand why, so he sneaks over to North Brother one day and runs into the elusive and mysterious Cora. Cora has lived on that island for most of her life…. yet it’s an uninhabitable island so how did she get there? We are plunged into the past, into Cora’s story and her history with the island and her dark secret history with Finn’s family.
What really surprised me was how much I became attached to the main character. Cora is introduced as a dangerous ticking time-bomb whom we should fear but in getting to know her I wanted nothing more than to give her everything she deserved out of life. Her story was so enchanting and heartbreaking. Each new hurdle that she had to face just broke me down further and further. And I swear, if the author puts her through any more shit in the next book, I’m going to have to write her a strongly worded letter. Cora is a victim as much as she is a survivor. She’s been taken advantage of her entire life, always guilted into doing what’s right for others and not for herself. She’s never been allowed to be selfish, never been in control of her own fate. Seeing the harsh and unforgivable world through her eyes could make you so hopeless yet she could still find beauty in life even when all seemed lost and that was so admirable. I can’t wait to read more into who she is as a person now in present day and see how much she’s changed from her past self.
One thing I found very interesting in this book was the exploration of bodily autonomy and the dark side of human ambition. Finn’s family are so entranced with the goal to create a global vaccine, they’ve lost sight of why this project was started in the first place. Even some of the outlying characters slowly get sucked into the black hole that “as long as we’re doing it for the good of the many, it doesn’t matter if what we do to get there is shady af”. I got so, so angry that even level-headed, loveable characters could lose sight of their own humanity so fast when only focused on the “end goal”. We also explore the various ways bodily autonomy can be taken away, whether forcefully or through manipulation. It was interesting because in most books, this usually means sexual assault/abortion laws but this book dove so much deeper than that into the many ways someone’s control and choice over their own body can be taken away and sheds a light into how extremely terrifying and unfair that that is, no matter the reasons behind the actions. For a book that didn’t really set out to be a feminist book, it kind of wandered into that territory and I loved it.
The historical accuracy was on point. In such a quick thriller with such an elaborate plot, Nolden managed to squeeze in so many historic events from measles and typhoid epidemics to WWII to sketchy government practices in the 60s-80s to the early 2000s panic over coronavirus diseases and the race to find a vaccine. It was amazing and, written in a year where we are experiencing our very own global pandemic, it was so relevant…. chilling… but relevant. The amazing and horrible history of this island has just faded into obscurity to the point where I thought most of the stuff in this novel was fake but it wasn’t. I was extremely impressed and my historical fiction loving self was in cloud 9.
Highly, highly recommend this book. It is a bit of a thriller but not in the “ahh it’s too scary” kind of way and more in the “this is insane and I can’t believe we’re here in real life” kind of way. It was great. My mind was blown by the end. 5 stars.