Well, now I'm half way through my required YA reading and each book keeps getting better. I can only hope the next three books I need to read are as enjoyable as the first three. This review is of the second book in the "Who Can You Trust" theme and it was a great one. I love discovering books that I probably would never have picked up on my own.
(MacMillan, 2015)
Faith's world has always been a rather limited one. The adolescent daughter of a Reverend in Victorian England, the world does not contain many open doors for her. But all of that changes when her family moves to a small island in the English Channel under the pretense of her father, a respected natural scientist, joining a fossil expedition.
On the journey to the island, Faith discovers the first of many secrets that will soon be revealed to her. Desperate to know the truth, to not be shut out from the world simply because she's a girl, Faith resorts to stealth and prying. It isn't long before she finds herself in the middle of events far more complicated than she could've imagined.
This is a very well written piece of literature. On the surface, it's a murder mystery involving religious and scientific intrigue. Under the surface, it's a compelling story about a young girl who refuses to accept the place of women in her society, and a revelation that there were many women working very hard within those rigid rules to circumvent them. In many ways, it's a feminist text, turning ancient religious stories condemning female curiosity (Pandora's box, Eve and the Tree of Knowledge) while turning them on their head.
Absolutely engrossing and clever.
I enjoyed reading this
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