Chasing Secrets
| Modern Age |
|---|
 Chasing Secrets
|
American History > Modern Age > Gilded Age
Newbery Honor–winning author Gennifer Choldenko deftly combines humor, tragedy, fascinating historical detail, and a medical mystery in this exuberant new novel.
San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Age. A fantastic time to be alive for lots of people... but not thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy, stuck at Miss Barstow’s snobby school for girls. Lizzie’s secret passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls. Lizzie lives to go on house calls with her physician father. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city—a side that’s full of secrets, rats, and rumors of the plague.
The newspapers, her powerful uncle, and her beloved papa all deny that the plague has reached San Francisco. So why is the heart of the city under quarantine? Why are angry mobs trying to burn Chinatown to the ground? Why is Noah, the Chinese cook’s son, suddenly making Lizzie question everything she has known to be true? Ignoring the rules of race and class, Lizzie and Noah must put the pieces together in a heart-stopping race to save the people they love.
Emily's Review
I really enjoyed this story about a headstrong girl living in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Lizzie loves to help her father tend to his patients, and she longs to become a doctor as well, something that her Aunt Hortense just cannot abide. Girls are meant to be pretty and well-mannered, which is why she is sent to Miss Barstow's School. But when there is suspicion about a possible plague outbreak in Chinatown, no one believes it, but Lizzie knows something is definitely wrong.
This was a very atmospheric read - I could easily visualize the setting. I really enjoyed Lizzie as a character and seeing her and her Aunt learn to understand each other was really heartwarming.
I also thought the commentary about the plague and why so many chose to believe it wasn't happening was very relevant. People never change I suppose.
Other Similar Books
Other suggestions on the subject of The Gilded Age.
- The Gilded Girl (by: Coleman, Alyssa, Gilded Age, magic, MG)
- Audacity (by: Crowder, Melanie, Gilded Age, Activism, UMG, YA)
- Chasing Secrets (by: Choldenko, Gennifer, Anti-Chinese Immigration, Gilded Age, UMG)
- The Golem and the Jinni (by: Wecker, Helene, Immigrants, Gilded Age, Jewish History, YA, A)
- The Last Days of Night (by: Moore, Graham, Technology, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, Nikolas Tesla, Gilded Age, YA, A)
- These Shallow Graves (by: Donnelly, Jennifer, Gilded Age, YA, A)
- The City Beautiful (by: Polydoros, Aden, Gilded Age, Jewish Immigration, Chicago World's Fair, YA, A)
- Jackaby (by: Ritter, William, Gilded Age, YA, A)
- The Mad Girls of New York: A Nellie Bly Novel (by: Rodale, Maya, Gilded Age, Writing, Journalism, Nellie Bly, Adult)
- The Devil in the White City (by: Larson, Erik, Gilded Age, Chicago World's Fair, A)
- The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams (by: Brown, David S., Henry Adams, Gilded Age, A)