Living with young people, I find myself often reading Young Adult literature. Truthfully, when it's well-written I really like the genre as a whole and read YA books just because they're fun. I read the Harry Potter books, for example, ages before my kids were ready for them. I suspect I'll be reading YA books when my children are grown-up (which feels like it might be next week at the rate time seems to fly by...but I digress).
Recently, the first installment of a new YA book series fell into my hands courtesy of the Blogher Bookclub. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood is a story of three young witches living in New England in the late 19th Century. The US, in which they live, is not that of our history but one run with religious fervor by a Taliban-style Brotherhood who fear the uprising of witches. Young women are forced to declare their intentions at age 16 either to marry or join The Sisterhood--a convent of seemingly pious women who serve and support the men of the Brotherhood. Women live in constant fear of being named witches and sentenced to an asylum or labor on a prison boat without the ceremony of a trial.
Cate Cahill and her two sisters Tess and Maura are motherless teenagers whose father, still grief-stricken over the death of his wife years before, has abandoned his children to the care of servants and their own devices. Cate, the eldest and our narrator, was charged on her mother's deathbed with the protection of her younger sisters. The three girls also happen to be witches. As Cate approaches the age of intention she worries what the future holds for her sisters who have difficulty restraining their magic if she marries and is forced to move from her family home.
Oh, what tangled webs! If I rated this book on my personal Twilight (1) to Harry Potter (10) scale of young adult fiction, I’ll give this book a 7. I passed it on to Mary Rollins who is reading away at it – it has lots of romance, a bit of mystery, a good-sized helping of magic and a pinch of The Scarlet Letter. It doesn’t have any vampires which I find wonderfully refreshing. And, now I’m waiting expectantly on the edge for Book 2.
Just so you know, I was compensated for writing this review for the Blogher Book Club. The opinions, though, are entirely my own. Always are, always will be.
3 comments:
OK, ok. If you read the 2nd one I'll read it too!
Was my review too harsh? I like it OK, I just didn't love it.
What rating does the Hunger Games get on your scale?
I had given Hinger Games a 7 originally so maybe I should downgrade Born Wicked a bit, maybe a 5.5.
Mary Rollins loved it and read it in less than 48 hours while on Spring Break and is passing it on to her BFFs. She's the intended audience, I would think, so therefore it's a success. She asked when I thought the second book would come out.
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