Starred review from December 22, 2008
British author Rich's debut novel opens onto an unusually fraught scenario–and the tension only increases as the story develops. In the ironically named Freeborne, a strict religious community, 14-year-old Alis is told she must marry the 40-year-old minister: it is “the Maker's will.” Readers will feel her terror as she instinctively thinks about seeking help but pictures the nearby houses, “all dark at this time, shuttered against the winter cold.” Deciding to join her runaway brother in “the city,” Alis lands in disastrous circumstances, finds an ally (and romantic interest) and then indirectly costs him his life. Devastated, wary of bringing harm to anyone else, Alis returns to Freeborne—and the minister. The rich plot continues to thicken until Alis is put on trial for a crime she has not committed; the proceedings, the quasi-historical setting and the moral complexities of the themes may remind readers of The Crucible
. Rich's sympathetic portrayal of Alis and her desperate struggle to exercise free will in a theocracy will have audiences firmly gripped. Ages 12–up.
March 1, 2009
Gr 7-10-Alis, 15, is betrothed against her wishes to Galen, the 40-something minister of Freeborne, a "Community of The Book" in an imagined, horse-drawn past. Outraged, she escapes to Two Rivers, another Bookish Community, where she earns the enmity of Thomas, a conservative religious reformer. She meets and falls in love with Luke, who is forced to flee with his grandparents because of their philosophical disagreements with Thomas. She goes to the big bad City, where she finds her runaway brother leading a Dickensian gang of young cutthroats and part-time prostitutes. She gains an ally in Edge, a girl who defends herself with a knife, but seeing that life there is a dead end, Alis eventually returns home and meekly submits to marriage to Galen. She is relieved that he does not force her to sleep with him, and life continues apace until Edge shows up, is startled by Galen's sudden appearance, and fatally wounds him. Thomas soon accumulates enough circumstantial evidence to charge Alis with murder, setting up the climactic trial. The story may be compelling to the intended audience, but the plot winds back on itself overmuch, with many characters, some of whom are stereotyped as "good" or "bad" as much by their physical description as by their actions, dropped by the wayside. While sexual undercurrents, hypocrisy, and religious repression dominate the tale, in the end Alis and Luke ride off into exile a bit older and perhaps more worldly-wise, but little different, really, than if they'd done so 100 pages earlier.Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 15, 2008
Grades 9-12 This compelling debut novel is set in some other time, some other place, at the strictly religious Community of the Book. The Book, something akin to the Bible, has decreed, to her shock, that 14-year-old Alis is to marry one of the middle-aged Elders. So begins an engrossing saga that takes Alis away from the Community in a desperate effort to avoid the marriage. First, she leaves for a nearby Community to aid a friend, but the womans fanatical husband becomes an enemy. With the help of a young man, Luke, she escapes to the city to find her brother; but she is not prepared for the squalid, dangerous environment, and it drives her back to the marriage she doesnt want. Eventually shes accused of murder when her husband dies. These are just some of the high points in a story so action-packed and filled with twists that readers wont anticipate the ending. First-timers usually dont attempt such multi-layered stories, especially with religion at their core, but Rich pulls it off.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2009
After fleeing her arranged marriage, fourteen-year-old Alis discovers the world outside her somber religious community is just as oppressive and hypocritical as the place she left. Despondent, she returns to do her duty until being blamed for her husband's murder. The story is set in an indeterminate past, and Rich depicts the psychological pressures and dismal atmosphere of her puritanical world beautifully.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)