Book Review - Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Title: Year of Wonders
Author: Geraldine Brooks
Publication Date: July 13th, 2001
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 321 pages
Rating: 4/5 stars
Buy It Now: https://amzn.to/2KyKA5e
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Goodreads Blurb:
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."
Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history.
My Thoughts:
First off, I think it's important (and terrifying) to acknowledge that while this is a fictional book, it's based on the real village of Eyam and their selfless decision to quarantine themselves to stop the spread of the Plague to the surrounding areas. In the notes after the novel, the author mentions that not much correspondence or information exists from their period of isolation, but you can tell that the author did extensive research into the village and its history.
This is my second novel by Brooks, and much like the first, the writing is absolutely fantastic. Her style melds modern prose with period-appropriate dialogue in a way that makes perfect sense. In less capable hands, it could easily feel clumsy or disconnected, but Brooks handles it beautifully. Her characters are incredible. In this one, the female characters were especially intriguing. Seeing Anna's growth through the hardships she faces is by far the best part of the novel, and the relationship between her and Elinor is beautiful. It's refreshing to read a historical novel where the female characters are so front and centre without romance being the driving force, especially one as well written as this one.
The only thing preventing this from being a five-star read for me is the ending. Things go so far off the rails in the last 50 or so pages that there's just no recovering. The author takes one of the main character and completely destroys anything redeeming about that character in the span of a single chapter. It felt so disconnected from the rest of the novel, and Anna's ending is incredibly unsatisfying. It was that much more disappointing because of how fantastic the rest of the novel was.
Given that this was Brooks' debut novel, it's not too surprising that it has some shortcomings over The People of the Book. All in all it's an incredibly well written debut, but the ending undid a lot of the amazing work she did in the first 200+ pages, and took away from my enjoyment of the novel.
This is my second novel by Brooks, and much like the first, the writing is absolutely fantastic. Her style melds modern prose with period-appropriate dialogue in a way that makes perfect sense. In less capable hands, it could easily feel clumsy or disconnected, but Brooks handles it beautifully. Her characters are incredible. In this one, the female characters were especially intriguing. Seeing Anna's growth through the hardships she faces is by far the best part of the novel, and the relationship between her and Elinor is beautiful. It's refreshing to read a historical novel where the female characters are so front and centre without romance being the driving force, especially one as well written as this one.
The only thing preventing this from being a five-star read for me is the ending. Things go so far off the rails in the last 50 or so pages that there's just no recovering. The author takes one of the main character and completely destroys anything redeeming about that character in the span of a single chapter. It felt so disconnected from the rest of the novel, and Anna's ending is incredibly unsatisfying. It was that much more disappointing because of how fantastic the rest of the novel was.
Given that this was Brooks' debut novel, it's not too surprising that it has some shortcomings over The People of the Book. All in all it's an incredibly well written debut, but the ending undid a lot of the amazing work she did in the first 200+ pages, and took away from my enjoyment of the novel.
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