Little Mercies This is about how Veteran social worker Ellen Moore and a poor waif named Jenny Briard's lives intertwine. I initially was hesitant on reading it because I really didn't find the synopsis interesting enough. Thankfully, Ms. Gudenkauf's reputation as a brilliant writer made me persevere in reading the book.
This book is told by different characters. Let's start with Ellen. Ellen has a loving husband and 3 children. At work with the Department of Human Services, she was greatly dismayed when an evil abuser named James Olmstead manages to escape jail time for the murder of his little girl , Madylyn. He has a typical battered wife , Deidra, who looks away from his obvious violent deeds.
Then we have Jenny Briard who lives with her loving but drunk and irresponsible dad. He goes from one girl after another as he does with his jobs. There is one friend-girl (not girlfriend! Jenny says) named Connie who was the only one who showed her love and affection. Alas! She leaves them when she catches Jenny's dad with another girl in bed. To make a long story short, the father-daughter tandem decides to leave town when her father gets caught in an altercation outside the bus station they were going to leave from. Then the cops are called in and a scared Jenny sits tight and starts planning where to go from there. She decides to visit her grandma only to find out the old lady passed away last year.
Hungry and depressed she goes to a restaurant and catches the eye of a concerned waitress named Maudene. She overate and started throwing up so Maudene decides to bring her home and take care of her.She keeps on lying but Maudene just takes everything in stride knowing there was something wrong going on. Jenny insists on paying Maudene but Maudene refuses her cash and instead gives her a place to stay until she finds out what is really happening.
Minwhile Ellen goes to a new case not knowing her husband placed their youngest in the car seat at the back of the car. While trying to work her way to the new distressed family, she notices someone breaking into her car. Then she realizes that he was breaking into the car to save her baby.Then things get reveresed. Now she is branded as a bad mom and all the women who lost custody of their children because of her come up in arms. She is now being investigated even though she pleads she didnt realize her husband placed the baby at the back of her car. While the baby is hospitalized for dehydration and heat exhaustion she is arrested.
Maudene drives Jenny to her grandma's house only to come back and tell Jenny her grandma has passed. What she didn't disclose was that the old lady's daughter inherited the place and is living there. Since the woman didn't look trustworthy, she decided not to tell Jenny this detail. When they get home, she sees on tv about the social worker that was arrested. She quickly goes to the police station with Jenny. Maudene is Ellen's mother!
Maudene helps taking care of Ellen's kids while Ellen's husband is in the hospital with the youngest. Ellen's daughter is extremely rude to Jenny and tells her she's not wanted over there. When Ellen comes home, she questions her mom why Jenny was there. This is where Jenny hears that her mom was living in her grandma's house. Feeling like she was a burden she leaves a note to Maudene with some cash to cover whatever Maudene has spent for her. She also tries deperately to call Connie who was very concerned for her. Still she decides to visit her mom even though Connie pleads to pick her up.
She goes back to the house and sees her mom. Then when her mom didn't invite her to stay she decides to leave. She was also scared of her mom's boyfriend who is now her husband. He severely beaten her when she was younger that's why they gave her dad custody of her. That's when her mother says she wants to go with her. So they quickly pack up and buy tickets at the train station for Georgia. Then the husband appears! He followed them!
Joe, the cop who helps Ellen with her cases , informs them that the mother of Jenny is Diedra whose husband was the murderous James Olmstead. They quickly go to the train station only to see James manhandling Diedra and Jenny back into his car. This is when Diedra pretends to tell Jenny she couldn't care less about her and told her to go with Maudene and Ellen. Jenny is distraught as her mom tells her to go away and throws her possessions out of James' car. Maudene and Ellen tries to appease a wailing Jenny and brings her home.
They managed to placate Jenny and bought her some new clothes. Then her new foster parent appears and it is Connie! Jenny was so happy!
At the police station the cops were dragging a bloodied woman who ends up to be Diedra! She shot James in his sleep and begs Ellen to tell Jenny she did what she did so that James wouldn't hurt her. In the end Ellen's case is overturned due to the support the other women she helped showed her. She then quits her job and decides to stay with her kids to make sure she enjoys and protects them while they are still young. Diedra is in jail for 10 years and writes to Jenny every week. She pleads to Ellen to talk to Jenny but Ellen tells her to let Jenny heal. Jenny, on the other hand, is enjoying her stay with Connie who loved her very much.
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