Abstract For fans of Fever 1793 comes the story of a young woman paving her own path and falling in love during the Great Plague of 1348.

Edyth was sent away when both father and mother die. Set during the Black Plague, this is a a tale of the darker aspects of life including the themes of loss, grief, and self doubt. However the tale also gives birth to hope and faith.
Book is well written historically with good descriptions. Illustrations are throughout the title while beautiful were not necessary. While book started strong it I struggled with the my attention span in the middle. I would recommend this book to high schoolers who enjoy historical fiction.

Does contain a few swear words, and violence typical to the area (hangings, intentional drownings.) ( )

Literary Merit: Okay
Characterization: Lacking
Recommended: No
Level: High School

When Edyth and her brother Henry become orphans in 1349, Edie is sent off to a priory to alleviate the hardship that she creates at home. Edie has synesthesia, which is a condition where she sees color in response to hearing sounds or through another sensory input (other than vision). These visualizations are depicted in the book through illustrations by the author. Edie makes a friend in Alice, has a love subplot with stonemason Mason, and deals with the flat villain characters Agnes de Guile and her crony Felisia, the latter of whom sees visions that predict dark things to come.

Overall, I didn't care for this title. I'm still not sure exactly what the plot is meant to be. I didn't find myself caring for the characters and some characters were very underdeveloped. At the end of the story when Edie confronts Agnes about Agnes' terrible behavior, Edie brings up a component from Agnes' past that is supposed to explain why Agnes is the way she is. The problem with this is that the reader is unknowing of this portion of Agnes' past until this point. There are also loose ends that aren't explained, such as Edie's baby sister back at home. We don't know who is taking care of the baby. It would seem the baby's only role is to be the downfall of Edie's mother.

I'm going to add this to my library's collection because of the merit of the author's first novel. If not for that, it would go in the "give away" pile. Not recommended. ( )

My favorite parts were the illustrations; Vesper’s style is somewhat simplistic, but flowing and colorful. Several of the prints throughout the book would look excellent framed. I always appreciate when books are illustrated, especially if they’re YA or adult – who says older readers can’t enjoy illustrations!?

Unfortunately, the story just didn’t capture me. I did like that the main character had synesthesia; to my recollection, I’ve never read a book where any character had synesthesia. It added a lot of color to the story and really helped integrate the illustrations. Overall though, I wasn’t very interested in Edyth’s journey.

At times the conversations and tone also felt a little too modern. When Edyth and her boyfriend were speaking to each other, they felt more like modern teens than kids living in the like…1300s or something. There was also a conversation about some peasants who were gossipy and mean. Not saying that peasants couldn’t have been mean back then, but my guess would be they would likely be too busy trying to survive to spend a lot of time gossiping. Little details like that brought me out of the setting.

Also, I know the book follows a girl who works in a priory, but she’s not actually on the path to becoming a nun, so when the religious element really picked up in the end, it threw me up a bit. Just not my cuppa.

This is by no means a bad book, it just wasn’t the right book for me. If you’re looking for a historical YA set in a priory, and/or a book with a MC who has synesthesia, then you might want to check this out. ( )

An excellent example of historical fiction with a touch of magical realism. Not only does it give readers a look at the grim reality of what the plague did to communities, it also shows them how politics in religious orders affected everyone in a convent as well as how powerful belief were in earlier times. Definitely a great read and one deserving of a place in many school and public libraries. ( )