Laura, by Vivian Schurfranz. Where do I begin? I remembered from my last readthrough that this was one of the most cringey books in the series, but I had forgotten just how cringey it was.
Laura is in a hurry to grow up because everything she involves herself in is meant to be for adults only. She lied about her age to join the D.C. motorcade and is disappointed that even still, she’s too young to be shipped overseas. When she joins the women’s suffrage movement, she’s too young to picket and therefore, too young to get arrested (though when she does get her wish, all of a sudden she has a history of severe claustrophobia).
Laura is in love with her neighbor, who has been a mentor to her all her life. She’s worried that he sees her as a little girl and frustrated when he’s slow to display his feelings.
Man number two is an acquaintance of Laura’s brother, who knew him only briefly at basic training. He is quick to charm Laura and her family, but the red flags are immediate. Every time the suffragists are brought up, he tells Laura that she’s waisting her time hanging around a bunch of old hens. He is nasty around man number one, demanding that she stop spending time with him, and explodes with rage whenever Laura defends herself. There is a bit of hypocrisy in this, as one time Laura calls off a date, he threatens to ask out another girl.
Laura only continues to see man number two because she is convinced that she can fix him, which of course can never happen. She endures months of emotional abuse until despite everything, the final straw is how he reacts to her news that she wants to go into law.
Then there’s the subplot surrounding the Spanish influenza, which Laura is concerned about way too far in advance. When the infection finally makes its way to D.C., she doesn’t seem to care as much until it starts effecting the people she loves.
