STACKED

books

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

|

It’s 1814 in England, and young Georgie is being sent to a reform school after accidentally setting her family’s stables aflame. The fact that she didn’t do it on purpose and that it was all in the pursuit of science doesn’t seem to make a difference. She’s shipped off to Stranje House to be “fixed,” which means ridding her of any thoughts of being a scientist. Little do Georgie or her parents know that Stranje House is not a reform school at all, and the unusual girls sent there are groomed for very unusual activities indeed. Espionage, for example.

While it takes Georgie a ridiculously long time to realize that the school is not what it seems (past believability), this is a really fun story. The main plot involves Georgie trying to develop an invisible ink that can be used by England to defeat Napoleon once and for all, and she’s got a dreamy young man assisting her. They butt heads a lot, which means there’s lots of lovely romantic banter (Baldwin also writes adult romance, and it’s evident). It’s clear that Georgie is the brains behind this endeavor, though. This is an historical novel that turns into alternate history near the end, which may surprise some readers already familiar with the end of Napoleon’s story. I know I sat back and thought “Wait…” for a few moments before I remembered that this was fiction and the author is free to change history if she likes. And she does. It actually makes me even more excited to read the next book.

This one can be added to my list of secret historical societies of teenage girls along with The Agency, Grave Mercy, and Maid of Secrets, and readers who enjoy the subversive nature of those stories should like this one as well.

Georgie and the supporting cast members are predominantly white, but one student who becomes part of Georgie’s circle of friends is of Indian descent. There are a couple missteps with the treatment of her character – she’s referred to as “exotic” and described using food adjectives. This could be partially explained as it being Georgie’s perspective, but it’s still lazy and could have been done better. Aside from being a really fun romance and adventure story, this is also a great story about friendship, and all of Georgie’s friends have distinctive personalities and an important role to play. Subsequent books in the series will each focus on a different girl, which again reminds me of Grave Mercy. If you liked Grave Mercy but are interested in something a little lighter, A School for Unusual Girls is a natural pick.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Reviews: Two Recent Historical Fiction Reads

|

Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little
I talked about this one a little in my post about the dearth of ancient historical fiction titles not set in Egypt, Greece, or Rome. This book is unique because it’s set in ancient Mesopotamia, both the wide open desert and the many cities located within the region. It’s the story of Jayden, a member of a nomadic tribe that travels in the desert from oasis to oasis. She’s been engaged to a cousin (by friendship, not blood) since she was a little girl, and her engagement ceremony nears. The cousin, Horeb, will be king of their tribe once his father dies, making Jayden their queen. Jayden’s older sister was engaged to Horeb’s older brother, who died during a raid. Jayden loves the desert life, but her sister has become disenchanted with it and wants to live in one of the cities, becoming a priestess of one of the local goddesses.

The story takes a few familiar turns. Horeb is awful, as can be expected. A stranger from the southern lands – where the valuable frankincense is plentiful – shows up, gravely injured, and is healed by Jayden’s tribe. The two fall in love, again not a surprise. This is the main conflict of the story – and it is a dangerous once, since Jayden is at the mercy of her father until she is married, after which she will be at the mercy of her husband.

There are interesting details about life during this time in this region – the importance of camels, the many uses of belly dance, the tribe’s religion, raids on other tribes, the way women gave birth in a squatting position – but it never feels completely engrossing. Jayden’s voice seems a bit naive for a girl who lives the very hard desert life. Some events also don’t make sense: The men ostensibly keep a close eye on the women, but Jayden and her sister seem to go to the local city and its temple as they wish. The tribe also doesn’t notice or care when one of the city girls shows up at a tribal dance, despite the tribe’s mistrust of the city people. The story feels a bit meandering, particularly during the first half, which is taken up with a lot of travel and not much else. This won’t win over readers looking for a terrific story, but it should be engaging enough for people interested in lesser-known times and places.

(The author states in her historical note that she deliberately did not describe her characters’ skin tone, as scholars are divided on what color such people’s skin tone actually was. But the cover shows a pretty light-skinned girl, which I’m sure surprises nobody.)

A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper
I’ve continued my historical fiction binge with this (somewhat) older title from 2008. This is a book I’ve heard subdued chatter about consistently since its publication, chatter that pops up again each time a sequel is released. It’s set in a fictional island country called Montmaray, located in the Atlantic Ocean near Britain and France, in 1936. The book is Sophie’s diary, and it tells of her life on Montmaray with her little sister Henrietta (Henry), her crazy uncle (the king), her cousin Victoria (the king’s daughter), a surly housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s son Simon, whom Sophie has quite a crush on. Sophie’s parents are both dead, and her older brother – the heir, since women cannot inherit the monarchy – is away at school in England. Occasionally they’re visited by their friends Anthony and Julia via airplane, but for the most part, their lives are completely isolated. The other inhabitants of the island mostly died during World War I, or moved away afterward.

People tell me this has a very I Capture the Castle feel, but since I’ve never read that book, I can’t say. It does feel a little old-fashioned, in a sweet way. It’s not particularly exciting and not much happens until the end, but the journey is still interesting. The first part of the novel is very much a slice-of-life sort of story. The setting is intriguing and the relationships between the characters feel authentic (Sophie and her siblings share a secret language, and the whole family is close-knit but can also be quite prickly with each other). It’s kind of incredible to think about these teenagers running around unsupervised on this tiny island that they literally rule – if that means anything when there’s no one to rule over. Of course, the harder reality of their situation is also made clear: no doctors, no luxuries, and nothing to protect them against the onslaught of World War II. Then two Nazis show up on the island with unknown purpose, and the teens’ somewhat sedate lives take a big turn.

Sophie’s voice is great, and she’s brought to life quite well by Emma Bering (I listened to it on audio). While I do think this takes a while to get going, I did immediately begin listening to the second one upon the first’s end. It’s a different perspective on World War II than anything I’ve read before.

Reviews: Two Recent Historical Fiction Listens

|

The Mirk and Midnight Hour by Jane Nickerson
I listened to Nickerson’s first novel, Strands of Bronze and Gold (a re-telling of Bluebeard set in the antebellum South), and liked it well enough. Her second novel is in the South during the Civil War and re-tells a different legend: Tam Lin. Nickerson’s writing is slow with an emphasis on developing setting and building atmosphere. It worked pretty well in her first, but it’s less successful here. A full third of the book is purely expository. The protagonist, Violet, lives on a small plantation in the South. Her twin brother was recently killed in the war and her father remarried, then went off to fight himself, leaving Violet with a new stepmother and stepsister along with two male cousins who have come to stay. Nickerson spends a lot of time getting us acquainted with the farm, called Scuppernong, and its inhabitants, including several slaves.

About halfway through the book, Violet meets a wounded Union soldier named Thomas Lind. She dare not take him to a hospital, since he’d simply be taken captive. Thomas is being kept alive by a group of free Black people who practice hoodoo and are obviously preparing Thomas for some sort of ritual, which comes to a head at the end of the novel. This storyline is juggled awkwardly with that of the cousins at Scuppernong, one of them a young man whose intentions toward Violet and his younger cousin are anything but charitable. This would have been a stronger novel had Nickerson focused on one of these plotlines; as they exist now, they seem to be fighting each other for prominence. They don’t come together in any way by the end.

Violet’s voice is heavily accented and seems a little forced. I don’t think the narrator – Dorothy Dillingham Blue – has such a strong Southern accent naturally and it just comes across as fake. I also find books featuring hoodoo awkward when written from a white perspective, and I’m perhaps a bit tired of white Southern Civil War stories, where the white protagonist comes to the realization that people should not be owned and is lauded for it. It’s a hazard of Civil War historical fiction and it’s become cliche. A more nuanced and interesting take on slavery in a Southern plantation is Delia Sherman’s The Freedom Maze.

I don’t think this will appeal much to readers interested in Tam Lin; the retelling isn’t hugely obvious and it doesn’t even come into play until halfway through the book. Readers looking for setting and atmosphere may enjoy it, as well as readers who can’t get enough of this time period – and there are certainly those readers out there. Violet herself is an incredibly naive narrator, which may be accurate for this era when girls were meant to be quite sheltered, but it also slows the novel down some and keeps certain conclusions (mostly the cousin being a bad egg) from coming to light for much too long. I wouldn’t call this a first pick.

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller
This novel is set in 1909 London and focuses on a teenage girl who is determined to become an artist. Vicky comes from a wealthy family and they are determined that she give up her foolish dreams and get married. She’s taking an illicit art class in Paris while she’s supposed to be at finishing school and she decides to pose nude – it’s a life drawing class, the model failed to show, and all the other male students had already posed. Of course, her act is found out by her parents and she’s sent back home to London in scandal.

Her parents arrange for an engagement to a young man, a gambler who seems nice and whom Vicky believes may just be progressive enough to pay for tuition at the Royal College of Art. Vicky doesn’t mind marrying him if it means she can pursue her dream. The problem is, she starts to fall in love with a young police officer she met while sketching the suffragettes at a rally. Her life becomes a series of deceptions – sneaking away to meet the police officer (who has become her muse), sketching the suffragettes and eventually using her artistic talent to help them (a cause with which her parents heartily disagree), and applying for a scholarship to the art college.

Waller does a good job of showing Vicky as being progressive for her time but also caught up in its prevailing ideals. She can’t see a way to achieve her dreams beyond a man agreeing to give it to her. At the same time, she keeps pushing for a way to make it happen, and some of her actions would be considered progressive even for our own time (posing nude, for example). The suffragette storyline is a great subplot and helps give Vicky an arc – she realizes she has to fight for this cause if she ever wants to make her own dreams come true, that she can’t rely on others to do it for her. She’s a strong-willed protagonist who also seems like she belongs to her time, a fine line to walk in feminist historical fiction.

This is a great example of what historical fiction can be: a snapshot of a certain place at a certain time featuring an interesting protagonist in interesting circumstances. Readers wanting to know more about the suffragette movement in England would do well to pick this up – it features a number of real prominent figures in the movement and focuses on the force-feeding of the imprisoned women, a real-life occurrence which I know will be new to many readers. Katharine McEwan narrates Vicky’s story well, injecting personality into Vicky’s voice and slightly voicing the other characters.

Both audiobooks borrowed from my local library.

Audio Review: Cleopatra’s Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter

|

Though the title may lead some readers to think it, Cleopatra’s Moon is not, in fact, about Cleopatra VII, the most well-known Cleopatra of history who was famously portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor. Instead, it’s about her daughter, Cleopatra Selene, whose name is not nearly as well-known. In fact, in her author interview at the end of the book, Shecter mentions that many people didn’t even realize Cleopatra had a daughter – the romanticized stories aren’t particularly interested in Cleopatra’s children.

“Selene” means “moon” in ancient Greek, hence the title. Cleopatra Selene had a twin brother named Alexandros Helios; the second part of his name comes from the ancient Greek word for sun. People with names like these cry out for a story.

Unlike most YA novels, this one starts off with Cleopatra Selene at a pretty young age and keeps her there for a big portion of the book. It opens with her parents crowning her queen of a few Egypt-controlled territories and I believe she’s around 4 or 5 at that point. The story then progresses a few years, through her parents’ deaths and her time in Rome in the household of Octavia, Octavianus’ (Caesar’s) sister. When she first goes to Rome, she’s a pre-teen, and much of her growth as a character happens during this time. It’s only during the last third that she is old enough to be called what we think of as a “young adult” (a teenager). Despite her various ages, this is a young adult novel throughout – its themes are more complex than a middle grade novel, and the narrative voice is more mature and reflective.

This is a treat for fans of ancient Egyptian history. Do you know a reader who would have loved Mara, Daughter of the Nile if this were 1985? This book is the 21st century’s Mara. It’s got romance, political intrigue, murder, thievery, and a fantastic setting – two of them, actually, since the first portion is set in Egypt and the second portion in Rome. The fact that Cleopatra’s Moon is about an actual person, who lived and breathed and interacted with these people who seem right out of legend, only adds to the book’s allure. By the end of the book, Cleopatra Selene seems like a legend herself.

In her author interview at the end of the audiobook, Shecter talks about historical fiction as an exercise in “filling in the gaps.” This is especially true for ancient historical fiction, where most readers can only find out very basic information from a casual perusal of Wikipedia or their public library. There are a lot of gaps for an author to work with and a lot of creative license she can take. Shecter sticks close to what historians know of Cleopatra Selene, including her siblings’ lives, her move to Rome as a captive of Octavianus, and her eventual marriage. But even if you read up on the history before diving into the book, meaning you know just where Cleopatra Selene ends up as an adult, there’s plenty of narrative tension – there’s a lot to explore in the gaps.

Shecter’s writing is strong. Cleopatra Selene has so much to handle at so young an age (her parents’ suicides, attempted assassinations in Rome, and her own desires to reclaim Egypt), but never do we believe she won’t be a match for it, even if it may take her a while to figure things out. Above all, Shecter writes her characters and their story with respect. This is especially evident in her treatment of Cleopatra Selene’s religious beliefs. This is Cleopatra Selene’s story and her faith is as true to the author as it is to her. The characters and their cultures never feel exoticized.

The audiobook is narrated by Kirsten Potter, who isn’t one of my favorite narrators for a first person YA novel. Her voice sounds very mature, not like a teen’s. She also narrates the Hattie Big Sky audiobook, and that’s one reason I didn’t much care for it. (This is a case of personal preference; I know many listeners who enjoy Potter’s narration.) It’s a credit to Shecter’s storytelling skills that I was completely entranced regardless. Chapter breaks include haunting music which I quite liked and definitely help create the appropriate mood.      

This is another frustrating audiobook which does not include the historical note. It does include an interview with Shecter, which is fine, but doesn’t answer the nagging questions any historical fiction reader will want to know: What really happened and what did the author create? For that, you’ll have to find the ebook or the print book. It’s especially important for books like these, which are set in a time most people don’t know much about. If you do listen to the audio, and I recommend it, do yourself a favor and hunt down the ebook or print book so you can read the historical note as well.

Audiobook borrowed from my local library.

Audio Review: Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

|

I always think it’s more than a little daring for an author to attempt writing historical fiction featuring real people whose lives are heavily documented. Yet that’s exactly what Anne Blankman does in her novel, Prisoner of Night and Fog, which is also a debut – and all the more impressive for it. Her efforts are resoundingly successful and make for a gripping, devastating audiobook, narrated excellently by Heather Wilds.

The risks in writing this kind of historical novel are many. Because the characters’ lives are so well-known, there could be little room for embellishment or imagination on the part of the author. Yet it’s the embellishment – the filling in of the blanks – that makes historical fiction so enticing to many readers. What can an author do when there aren’t many blanks to fill in? By sticking strictly to the historical record, she tells a story the reader could find by browsing the nonfiction section of the library – and that’s not what historical fiction readers are looking for. But by creating something new, she risks making the story unbelievable for the reader, who would know for a fact that events did not unfold as described.

Blankman’s strategy is to create a wholly fictional character in her protagonist, Gretchen Muller, and surround her with real people from history, most prominently Adolf Hitler. Hitler is not merely a person seen from afar, as happens in many historical novels set in this time and place; he is a vital, terrifying secondary character, one who interacts regularly with Gretchen and helps propel the story forward. To Gretchen, Hitler is her “Uncle Dolf,” a man revered by her whole family. Several years ago, Gretchen’s father died as a martyr to the National Socialists when he jumped in front of a bullet meant for Hitler. Since then, “Uncle Dolf” has looked out for Gretchen and her family, giving them a position of social prominence and a measure of safety in uncertain 1931 Munich.

One day, Gretchen is approached by a young man named Daniel Cohen who tells her that her father’s murder is not what it seems. Initially, Gretchen resists the idea, both because she believes in her father’s sacrifice and because Daniel is a Jew. She is, after all, a good little National Socialist in training.

But her hesitancy doesn’t last long. Gretchen is a sympathetic character, so naturally her aversion to Jewish people erodes until it’s gone completely, and she and Daniel begin a sweet romance that provides a nice subplot to the main story. This puts her in conflict with her “Uncle Dolf” as well as her many friends among the Nazis, but most particularly her older brother, Reinhard, a sadist and sociopath. Reinhart is perhaps even more terrifying than Hitler is, partly because his crimes are more readily apparent (at this point) and partly because he is closer to her. Reinhard’s actions spur Gretchen to learn more about pyschology while investigating her father’s death, and this subplot dovetails nicely with Gretchen’s revelations about her Uncle Dolf.

Other real people make appearances in the story. Eva Braun is Gretchen’s best friend, and Hitler’s real-life niece Geli Raubal is another acquaintance of hers. Hitler’s allies also make frequent appearances and interact with Gretchen, including Ernst Rohm and Rudolf Hess.

This is a dark, moody, and mostly humorless story. It’s frequently terrifying, both overtly when Reinhard commits acts of violence against Jews and against his sister, and less visibly, during Gretchen’s conversations with Hitler, where much is intimated but never spoken plainly. Much of the terror comes from the fact that we as readers know what Gretchen does not: that soon Hitler will conquer much of Europe and act as the catalyst for the massacre of millions of people. Wilds narrates the book’s dialogue with a German accent, which lends authenticity to the story and makes for a truly immersive listening experience.

I was so looking forward to the author’s note at the end of the book, which I hoped would explain exactly where fact met fiction (so essential in historical fiction featuring real people). Alas, the audiobook version did not include it, though I know the print version does. Sure, I can look the people up on Wikipedia, but that’s no match for the research done by the author, which is more in-depth, interesting, and specific to the story being told than an encyclopedia article could ever be. Audiobook producers: We want the author’s note. There’s no harm in including it; if other readers are bored by it, they’ll simply stop the recording and move on with their lives. But I’m certain that would be rare. Readers who seek out historical fiction – teens included – want that extra information, believe me.

Audiobook borrowed from my local library.