Review: Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
A wickedly juicy debut
Jessica Spotswood’s debut novel, Born Wicked, reads a bit like a cautionary tale of what happens when society allows itself to be ruled by fear. However, there is more to this story than fear, there is mystery and suspense, pretty dresses, bookish heroes and heroines and of course a splash of prophecies, oracles and witches.
Something terrible happened in the 1700s when a group, called the Brotherhood, rose up and eliminated all the witches they could find; burning all the texts and temples and striking fear into the hearts of the people against any woman who might be eccentric or learned or independent. Over a hundred years later, Cate Cahill and her sisters, Maura and Tess, are born into a world where women are treated as inferiors and the Brotherhood’s mission to eradicate witchcraft is still going strong.
Cate fears for herself and her sisters as they are witches. As her seventeenth birthday approaches, Cate finds herself in a difficult situation having to chose between a loveless marriage, a life in the Sisterhood - the female arm of the Brotherhood - and true love.
There were many things I loved about this novel, first, the history. I find that, in order to give the reader background knowledge, authors usually let the protagonist explain, in a dialogue, what happened. The things is, this works sometimes, but if overused, it causes the story to become monotonous. Born Wicked uses many different ways to inform the user of history - through dialogue, entries and Cate’s thoughts. At the end of it all there was a lot of information related, but nothing seemed boring or repetitive.
I enjoyed the pace of the story and the development of the characters - though I wish Tess had a little more page time; she was, by far, my favourite character. In the end, I figured out a few of the mysteries, however, the way the narrative revealed those twists was enough to keep me glued to the pages. I especially enjoyed the reveal about the sisters and the prophecy, it was not what I expected and I’m excited to see where this will take the Cahills in the future books.
There was one thing that I didn’t enjoy - the romantic subplot. There was a love triangle, which was handled well - no pinning over who to choose as the choice was very clear from the beginning - however, I did not see the purpose for it. Hopefully the future books will reveal the purpose that each part of the love triangle plays.
Born Wicked is set in one of my favourite time periods and Jessica Spotswood’s description of the customs and dresses transports the reader away from the present and into the past. I always appreciate it when an author can take me away into the world they created. I’m looking forward to reading more about Cate and her sisters.
Release Date: 7th Feb, 2012 || Publisher: Putnam Juvenile || Details →
Get the book on → Amazon
[review based on ARC from Penguin via LibraryThing]
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Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
A witty tale of intrigue and adventure
Take an American girl from Bénouville, Louisiana. Relocate her to a boarding school in London. Throw in a couple of ghosts, a dallop of mystery and a dash of romance and you’ve got the page-turning, spine-tingling, keeps-you-up-at-night-to-finish-reading-it novel that is The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson.
Rory, has a witty and spunky voice - which I found to be similar to Maureen’s Twitter-chatter style. The story opens up with Rory giving the reader a very brief background of her family and home, the reason she decided to go to Wexford, and her arrival at her new school. We meet Claudia, the house mistress, and Charlotte, the head girl - for some reason I blended the two characters in my head and had a bit of trouble sorting them out in the end, however, this isn’t pertinent to the tale. We are introduced to Jazza (Rory’s cautious roommate), and Jerome (Rory’s Ripper-addicted interest, of sorts); both were such fun characters to read that I found myself looking forward to seeing more of them.
The main plot is the ghost story/mystery that is weaved throughout. There is a killer on the loose, one who is copying the Jack the Ripper slayings. Yet, in a city with CCTVs everywhere, the killer seems to be invisible to the police; that is, until Rory thinks she spotted someone out and about, near the site of one of the killings. Once she tells the police her story, the plot picks up pace and takes you on a whirlwind adventure with eccentric roommates, mysterious strangers, and so much Jack the Ripper information that you come away feeling well versed on the topic - and a somewhat creepier for it.
I love reading Maureen’s novels because she is very descriptive about places and situations, so much so that you feel as though you’re walking next to the characters - The Name of the Star is written in this fashion. I also enjoyed the bits of family information that Rory litters throughout her narrative; funny little anecdotes to help describe the way she’s feeling. One thing that I appreciated about the story is that, compared to other protagonists who have supernatural abilities thrusted upon them, Rory reacts in a very normal and completely expected way. She experiences denial and disbelief in a believable way.
The Name of the Star is the first in a trilogy, and while this story ties up a lot of loose-ends, the ending leaves you with a feeling of satisfaction and curiosity as to what will happen next.
I utterly enjoyed reading it, and highly recommend this to anyone who is a mystery fan.
PS - there are no vampires.
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile || Details →
Get the book on → Amazon
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