The Vespertine
A Young Adult Novel
By Saundra Mitchell
Expectations: Beyond minimal. I randomly grabbed this book off the shelf at the library, purely because I needed something, anything to read, and I didn’t care what it was. Let me just say, that this is new for me, since I usually have a list of books to read. Alas, I was on waiting lists. I was cautious while starting this book because the last couple times I’ve blindly picked up books at the library they have been atrocious, and I haven’t even bothered to read more than a chapter or two. Also, did I mention that I didn’t even read the book flap? I checked the book out, and started reading it without knowing a thing about it. I fly by the seat of my pants.
From the book flap: 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 of the pleasures of city life and help her find a suitable man to marry.
With diversions ranging from archery in the park to 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 of them.
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I wanted to love it, I really did. Instead, I can only say that thought it was okayand was somewhat entertained by it, rather than enthralled. Firstly, Mitchell’s prose is unmatched. Never before have I read a Victorian-era novel that actually felt like a Victorian novel, rather than a modern one. The descriptions were beautiful. The metaphors (which I’m always a sucker for) were enticing. However, I believe that Mitchell’s inclination to this sort of flowery talk made her, probably unwittingly; sacrifice other storytelling necessities on the altar of super-cool-Bronte-styled-descriptions.
Anyone who has ever worked me with me on anything storytelling related knows that I am majorly into two things: Characters and their motivation. Characters drive a story and their motivation is the vehicle that carries them through. This is something I found majorly lacking. Firstly, I completely forgot the narrator’s name during the book, it was so rarely said. I can’t tell you what hair color Amelia has. I can’t tell you her eye color, her favorite color, her hobbies (besides unwarranted visions, which isn’t so much a hobby but an inconvenience) or a single personal thing that transforms a character into a living being. In fact, it took 150 pages before Amelia bothered to tell us about the fate of her parents at all. Then there is her brother, August. In the brief times we see him, the impression is given that he is a big, fat jerk. And yet, the author decided not to give us any background on him at all. There wasn’t a single childhood memory recounted to the readers. It seems that Mitchell forgot that no character, no real-life person, does things without motivation. Even the craziest serial killer had a life event that pushed him into insanity and murder. So, what was Amelia’s motivation? While I was initially swept away by the beautiful writing I soon noticed that Amelia was incredibly empty.
Let’s talk about romance. Who doesn’t like to talk about L-O-V-E? Teenagers certainly can’t get their fill of forbidden romances and love-at-first-sight. Well, neither can I, but that’s not the point. If you want to have a forbidden, Victorian romance between a middle-class girl and lower-class artist boy, by all means, go for it. I just think that it is important that you, I don’t know, make them have a real conversation before they profess their love to one another.
Oh, Amelia and Nathaniel have plenty of encounters. But they spend these encounters gazing into one another’s eyes and making veiled references. Where was the part where they talked about their past (an important part of any character and if I may so, we never learned anything about Nathaniel except that he likes to paint pretty pictures) and their interests? Make no mistake: they fell into infatuation. Personally, I feel incensed when teenagers are being encouraged on every forefront to stroll outside, meet some sexy bad boy, and fall in “love” with him. Bella, I’m looking at you.
Then there is the paranormal aspect to examine. Mitchell did a good job of picking a particular time period in which Spiritualism was the reigning trend, and therefore Amelia wouldn’t have been declared a witch a ‘la Salem. I find the part where Amelia has her first vision a little hard to swallow. She looks into the sunset and bam! It’s vision time. Surely she’s seen sunsets before, so why was this one different, and every one afterward? There is a sequel to this novel, so maybe these questions get answered, but I highly doubt it. In fact, Amelia didn’t seem interested in discovering the source at all.
The current year is 2012 and the social customs for dating in this day-and-age are considerably different than they were in 1889. My ignorance of these rules and Mitchell’s elaborate narrative made me lose my bearings during certain moments, especially near the end. As far as I know, the only way a girl can be “shamed” in Victorian era is to have sex before she’s married. I’m sure there are lots of other silly things that could shame a young girl back then. Silly things like wearing your gloves inside out, spilling ink on your dress, or flashing your bare ankle while climbing out of your carriage. But it is important that the readers are not left completely ignorant of social customs. So, in a certain point in this book, I felt that Mitchell just shuffled on past an important social faux pas without explaining the full effect of the action to the readers. Not to mention the fact that random characters seemed to be in trouble for something that I’m not even sure of.
If you want to read a book that is a pristine example of beautiful imagery, Victorian-era prose, and just plain gorgeous then read this book. If you want to read a book to connect to characters and discover an engaging and relatable romance, skip this one. Although, to my fellow writers, let me encourage you to read this book so that you may be enlightened to the pitfalls to avoid.
Nice review, Kenley. :D
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sandy! :D
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