Devastating and utterly maddening! This book broke my heart and boiled my blood!  Necessary Lies gives a (fictional) human face to one of the most horrifying, inhumane programs in US history.

Living in poverty and being raised by a grandma, Mary Ella and Ivy had little hope of managing their own future in North Carolina in 1960.  Social workers, like Charlotte and Jane, had the power to sterilize anyone that might be “a weight” on society without their knowledge or input. Thankfully young, idealistic Jane sees the egregious error in this ideology and intervenes to protect Ivy’s ability to forge her own future.

I went into this book well informed of the Nazi eugenics program. But I was completely ignorant to its existence in the United States. And this book changed that. While I would’ve liked the characters to have been more multifaceted and less predictable, I found this book a necessary commentary on antiquated beliefs and the power they wielded in history while also drawing a necessary parallel on how we (like Jane) have hope for a different future when treating others with compassion and respect.