The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox’ is a novel about three generations of women, and set between two different time zones. It flickers between the present day and the polite society circles of the 1930s. Dealing mostly with the treatment of women in the 1930s, it contrasts the present day freedom of women with the mould that women were forced to fill 70 years ago. It tells the story of Esme, locked up in an asylum because of her refusal to conform to social conventions, her sister, who is so deceived by the promise of social conventions that she would stop at nothing to have the perfect life she covets only to be disappointed and Iris, a young woman facing the modern problem of loving the wrong people. Since the character of Esme is about 80 years old the novel highlights the fact that there are women alive today that have lived through the type of treatment Esme suffered. It shows that today’s women can now; live alone, own their own companies, have affairs, and is perhaps serving as a reminder that a lot of what we take for granted was hard fought for by others, and that we should be carrying forward their efforts and not becoming complacent about the treatment of women all around the world. I enjoyed this novel because it dealt with an unusual subject matter and made me more aware of this part of our history. I cared about the characters of Iris and Esme, and I wondered what I would do if I was faced with the decisions they had to make. I also liked the flashback structure of the novel which let the story unravel slowly – mirroring Esme’s life. I felt there were a lot of loose ends; however this seems fitting as it made the novel seem more like real-life and left the reader to think about the different outcomes that are possible. Overall, I thought this novel was enjoyable and thought-provoking.