Release Date: March 7, 2011
Publisher: Harcourt
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 304
Source: Bought.
Summary:
The summer of 1889 is the one between childhood and womanhood for Amelia van den Broek-and thankfully, she’s not spending it at home in rural Maine. She’s been sent to Baltimore to stay with her stylish cousin, Zora, who will show her all the pleasures of city life and help her find a suitable man to marry.
Archery in the park, dazzling balls and hints of forbidden romance-Victorian Baltimore is more exciting than Amelia imagined. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset-visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies. Newly dubbed “Maine’s Own Mystic”, Amelia is suddenly quite in demand.
However, her attraction to Nathaniel, an artist who is decidedly outside of Zora’s circle, threatens the new life Amelia is building in Baltimore. This enigmatic young man is keeping secrets of his own- still, Amelia finds herself irrepressibly drawn to him. And while she has no trouble seeing the futures of others, she cannot predict whether Nathaniel will remain in hers.
When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia’s world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she’s not the seer of dark portents, but the cause. (From
the author's website.)
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The Vespertine in three words = mischievous, creepy, and gorgeous.
The mischief starts with the first sentence: "I woke in Oakhaven, entirely ruined." This sentence could lead to a cautionary and/or steamy tale of a young, imprudent Victorian woman, but--thankfully--it introduces the reader to Amelia van den Broek, an only slightly imprudent young Victorian woman, who is locked in the attic of her brother's house in Maine. Author Saundra Mitchell goes on to allow Amelia to tell the reader how she came to be there, transitioning back to her brother's house--from the events to their aftermath, and back again--a couple times throughout the story.
Amelia recounts her arrival in Baltimore, and how she makes friends with Zora, who she is staying with, and Zora's friends, Sarah and Mattie. (I have to mention their names because I feel I know them so well; there are no small parts in
The Vespertine.) Zora's family hosts a dinner party shortly after Amelia arrives. Unfortunately, one of the guests cancels at the last moment, leaving thirteen people at the table. Thirteen is an unlucky number, so Zora's parents hire a young man to round out the party. His name is Nathaniel, and he is a starving artist. Of course, he's attractive, and Amelia is instantly captivated and self-conscious. Starving artists are not, of course, marriage material, but Mitchell avoids a cookie cutter forbidden romance by adding a supernatural twist. Nathaniel seems to be everywhere and anywhere, and he seems to appear out of nowhere; he has a secret.
Amelia has a secret, too. On the night of the dinner party, she sees figures in the sunset outside the window. Her vision comes to pass, and soon she and her new friends are testing the limits of her gift. Word travels, and soon Amelia and her friends are entertaining legions of callers and telling their fortunes over tea. It's all good fun until Amelia stops seeing wedding dresses and spies disasters instead. A tangled web of different people's emotions and agendas makes for an intense resolution.
The Vespertine isn't completely dramatic, though; it's fun and funny, too. Amelia and Zora peek at Zora's crush through fence posts, giggle over late night conversations, hold boys' hands without wearing gloves (oh, the scandal!), practice archery, and get up to all sorts of hijinks. And they do it all in tight-fitting, movement-constricting corsets in Mitchell's gorgeous and atmospheric prose. Seriously, nearly every sentence of
The Vespertine is a treat to read. I wasn't always glued to the plot, but I was always in love with the language.
I recommend
The Vespertine to readers who enjoyed Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy (
A Great and Terrible Beauty, etc.) as well as those who enjoy a dash of the supernatural with their historical fiction. As far as I can tell, Mitchell allows her characters to enjoy unusual adventures without ignoring the realistic consequences of their behavior within late nineteenth-century social rules. I am eagerly looking forward to
The Springsweet, a companion novel to
The Vespertine, which is due to be released next spring.
