Book of Shadows | |||||
Paula Brackston | |||||
Snowbooks, 384 pages | |||||
A review by Katherine Petersen
Elizabeth learned the art of healing from her mother and continues this aspect of her gift whenever she can. In
her latest move, she befriends a lonely teen named Tegan whom she hopes will become her pupil. For the first time
in many years, she allows herself to have a friend. The reader learns of her experiences as Dr. Eliza Hawksmith
in Victorian London and as nurse Elise Hawksmith at the front during World War I as she tells these tales to
Tegan. But Gideon, who always knows how to hurt Elizabeth most, has also befriended Tegan. To protect her
young protégé, Elizabeth must face off one final time against Gideon.
In Book of Shadows, Paula Brackston gives readers a beautifully written and heart-wrenching novel. Her
format of stories within stories to share Elizabeth's life works well, giving us an intimate picture of
Elizabeth's life experiences. Her descriptions brim with detail, so the reader can hear the villagers' jeers
at her condemned mother and the artillery fire and cries of wounded soldiers at the front. There are a few
words here and there that don't fit and a few images such as numerous sparkling fairies and hideous monsters
in a couple places that feel as exaggerations compared with the rest of the novel, but these are minor quibbles.
Much of the beauty in reading a novel is feeling at one with the characters, and it's this visceral
response that Brackston evokes in her debut. The story compels readers to feel emotions along with Elizabeth
from joy to sadness to fear to grief. We empathize with her inability to trust and her sense that loneliness
was a high price to pay for such a long life. For most of us, much of our joy in life stems from interactions
with people: family, friends and strangers who will become friends. Would living such a long life be worth
giving up the closeness of those relationships? This story can stand alone, but there is room for a
sequel that I'd be please to read should Brackston write it.
Katherine Petersen started reading as a young child and hasn't stopped. She still thinks she can read all the books she wants, but might, at some point, realize the impossibility of this mission. While she enjoys other genres, she thrives on fantasy, science fiction and mysteries. |
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