It seems like it's taken me forever to finish the first book in the series, but I finally did! That being said, I'm still processing how I feel about it. While I really started getting into the book and caring about what happened to the characters, I also found much of it extremely strange. Apparently the characters in medieval France that the novel kept flashing back to are actually connected to the current characters (Holly and Jeraud). The medieval souls are attached to Holly and Jeraud and basically reenact their tragic love story in modern-day times. Holly and Jeraud (and their counterparts, Isabeau and Jean) are members of warring families, the Cahors and the Deveraux. These two families are witches and warlocks, respectively. Despite the hatred between these two Covens, Isabeau and Jean are in love with each other, but their families' feud ends up killing Isabeau (in medieval France). Basically, in an effort for both Isabeau and Jean's souls to be at rest, the horrible fire that was started by Isabeau's family (and ended up killing Isabeau, as well as much of Jean's family) was renewed during Holly's cousin's school play (of course, the play is Romeo and Juliet). It was almost like history repeating itself. However, rather than killing Holly, the fire kills Jeraud instead. Now, one would think that everything would be fine now that Isabeau has "avenged" her death because Jeraud is dead, but it's not that simple (because then there wouldn't be another book in the series). So at the end of the book, we find out that things aren't always as they seem and that Jeraud's father, Michael, is plotting even more evil directed at Holly and her twin cousins, Amanda and Nicole. (Note: Amanda and Nicole are also part of the Cahors family, so all three girls are descendants of the medieval French coven of witches. However, none of the girls are aware of this fact at the beginning of the novel.)
I hope all of the above summarization makes sense; it was extremely difficult to speak briefly about this novel, both due to its length (361 pages) as well as its content.
In all, I'm glad I stuck it out and continued reading, in spite of my extreme confusion and uncertainty. While there's quite a bit of gore and evil referenced considering this is supposed to be a book for teens, I can understand the overall appeal of the novel. Not only is the love story aspect of the novel similar to Romeo and Juliet, but it is also reminiscent of the Twilight series. In fact, the series seems very similar to Twilight, given the romance and the supernatural elements. However, those who do not like Twilight, rest assured; this novel has certain elements that seem familiar, but it is a completely different series. Personally, I am not a huge fan of vampires (and I was completely Team Jacob when reading Twilight). I have always found stories about witches fascinating though. As a child, I watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch and wanted so much to be able to do magic like her. As a teen, I enjoyed reading The Crucible (I think I was one of the few who did), and thought about visiting Salem, MA. Possibly due to these experiences, I generally found myself enjoying Wicked: Witch more than Twilight.
While I am still upset about the ending (which I'm not going to spoil for any of you), I feel the need to read the next book in the series in order to determine what happens next. I believe there are at least three, maybe even four, books in the Wicked series, and I plan on reading them all. While it was a complete fluke that I found this book and decided to read it, I am extremely happy that I took a chance on it. Maybe Nancy Holder will come to TBF someday (or at least to Rochester) so I will be able to meet her.
No comments:
Post a Comment