Book Fourteen.

 [Mini Challenge I: Book One] (see end of this blog)

Title: Sorceress
Author: Celia Rees
Summary: Alison Ellman is still searching for information about Mary Newbury. She has a diary and some scattered information about Mary's life, but Mary has disappeared into the forests of New England and Alison has no way of following her across the centuries. Then Alison meets Agnes Herne, a descendant of Mary's who has a special skill that allows her to contact Mary in the spirit world. Now at last we hear Mary's story after her ill-fated time in Beulah - a story that takes her across the New World in an epic search for a home.
Genre: Adventure
Time Started: 18th March, 7:30pm.
Time Ended: 7th April, 8:10pm
Page Count: 303
Age Rating: 11+
Warning: Violence, mention of sex, character death.
Appeal Rating: 8/10

It was a good book and, I hate to bring it down, but the reason it took me so long was because I just didn't want to read the present day bits with Agnes and Alison. It's not because they were poorly written or boring or anything of the like, I just really only cared about Mary. So, instead of pushing through to get to Mary's parts, I just left the book, bookmark at the start of a new chapter involving Alison and Agnes until I was forced to pick it back up again (We read for half an hour every Thursday English lesson). Then I noticed how long it had been since I last read it, and I set out to change that. So for about a week, I've been pushing through to the end, trying to read the present day chapters as fast as possible to get to the parts I really wanted to read. Personally, I think Celia Rees should have spent less time focusing on Agnes and Alison, and more time on Mary. But, on with the review ...

I enjoyed this book; I loved reading about the Native ways, and trying to pronounce all their odd names was a laugh. I love how it doesn't dwell on time, how years can pass in one paragraph, yet a day could pass in an entire chapter. Celia Rees spaces it out well, leaving out parts where nothing majorly interesting happened, informing us of only the important parts of Mary's life. We don't want to read about the pattern she repeats every day, the chores and clothes she make in her spare time - we want to read about the tribe being ambushed, and Mary being mistaken for a captive. And that's exactly what Rees provided us with.

Black Fox, Mary's son, is a fantastic character - one of my favourites - but I doubt anyone can beat Ephraim. He's such a realistic character, young but determined, flawed but strong. While Black Fox was raised to be a hunter, passionate about fighting, Ephraim was just a boy that got caught up in the battle, thrown into the ways of the tribe without any preparation. And it showed, and that's why I like him. Of course, Mary was great, too.

I love how the book kept me on my toes. So much happened to Mary, and all so quickly. She constantly had to relocate, jump from tribe to tribe, village to village. It was hard to keep track of it all, but the quick-fire pace made it better, as if I were with Mary throughout her journey. By the end of the book, Jaybird and Speckled Bird* were the last people on my mind; I didn't even think of the people in Beulah until I read Alison's extra notes about them. I was wrapped up in Black Fox, Mary, the Mohawks. Actually writing this review is somewhat of a challenge for me; I am positive that I'll leave something out, and so I'm purposely keeping it vague.

Overall, it was a good book and I definitely recommend it - though, of course, you'll have to read Witch Child first to make any sense of it.

I've set myself a mini-challenge, in case you're interested, because I've been slacking with my reading lately** ... I've challenged myself to read three books this half-term (this week and next week; until 19th April), and this will be included in that since I've read over half of it since Friday. So, if I spare the time to read two more books over the course of the next week and a half, I'll have completed that mini challenge. Every now and then, when I feel like I'm not doing well enough, I'll set myself more mini-challenges, and I'll let you know when I do.

*I had to look through the start of the book because I had forgotten Speckled Bird's name. Heh.
**No sh*t, Sherlock.