Rebel Angels

Bray, Libba. Rebel Angels. Book 2 of the Gemma Doyle series. 2005. ISBN 978-0-385-73029-2. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

In A Great and Terrible Beauty, Gemma Doyle discovered that she is a priestess in the Order, a group of women who throughout history harnessed the magic of the realms and protected the world from outsiders. She and her friends traveled often to the realms, and that is where Pippa was ultimately lost. Gemma, Felicity and Ann agreed not to go back.

Now, however, things have changed. Gemma is plagued by the ghosts of three girls who appear almost angelic. They reveal a vision of themselves running on a beach with rocky cliff, with a fourth girl behind. Suddenly, a woman wearing a green cloak guides the fourth girl towards the water where a horrific aberration emerges from the water, ready to consume her. Gemma is certain it is Circe, formerly known as Sara, a student at Spence twenty four years ago. Gemma can't figure out what the ghosts are trying to tell her, but she knows this information could save her life.

At Spence, the girls are readying themselves for Christmas vacation. All of them, except Ann the scholarship student, are returning home to be with family. Gemma is eager to experience all that the season offers, from balls and large gatherings of folks hoping to be seen to operas and gift giving. But it will be bittersweet, the first Christmas without her mother, while her father continues to sink in his own pit of despair fueled by opium.

At the last minute, Felicity invites Ann to stay with her, and the three girls look forward to spending time together in London, away from their chaperones. The arrival of a new teacher, however, upends their plans. Miss McCleethy is here to replace Ms. Moore, who was terminated for leading the girls to the cave where they first discovered how to enter the realms, and she seems to have an unhealthy interest in Gemma. Before leaving, the three of them visit the realms, and Gemma notices that Pippa has not crossed over to the realm of the dead, but is instead lingering. She's happy to see her old friends, but Gemma notices that her condition seems to have deteriorated. Pippa makes them promise to return and tell her about their vacation in London.

At Victoria train station, Gemma's brother is late to pick her up, and she is followed intently by a member of the Rakshana. Attempting to escape him, she runs into a gentleman, Simon Middleton, who is both a viscount and a friend of her brother's. Gemma is quite smitten by him, and is thrilled that he invites her family to dinner. While in London, Gemma reconnects with Miss Moore, and she tells her more about their ordeal and the realm.

As Gemma and her friends keep traveling to the realms, they notice that things are getting worse. It is untended and growing wild. When Gemma shattered the seal that contained the magic, it released it and now it is corrupting everything. Gemma, Felicity and Ann must locate the Temple, where the magic can once again be safely contained, before Circe or her agents discover it. Who will pay the high price necessary to bring hope back to the realms?


 Gemma and her friends from the Spence Academy return to the realms to defeat her foe, Circe, and to bind the magic that has been released.   

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty. Book 1 of the Gemma Doyle series. 2003. 404p. ISBN 0-385-73028-4. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

It is 1895, and Gemma Doyle longs to see London. Born in India of an English mother and father, Gemma has read extensively about London, and has always wanted to visit. Now that she's 16 years old, Gemma feels that it is time for her to experience her debut in London's fashionable society, and she's been badgering her mother to take her there. Her mother has always refused, however, much to Gemma's chagrin and incomprehension. During an outing, Gemma and her mother are separated. Lost and wandering the crowded streets, Gemma has a vision of her mother being attacked and willingly killing herself. But it was not a vision, but it really happened, and now Gemma's mother is dead.

Her mother's suicide unhinges her father, and the family returns to London, where her brother now studies. Gemma is enrolled in Spence, a boarding school for proper young ladies. Still hurt that her mother died because she was searching for her, Gemma tries to find comfort in the friendship of others. She meets mean girls Felicity and Pippa, and her roommate Ann, who is a scholarship student at Spence. At first Felicity and Pippa are mean to Gemma and Ann, but they soon come to see that Gemma possesses strange powers. Gemma's visions continue, and soon she and her friends find themselves in a cave, guided there by a teacher. She also encounters Kartik, a strange Indian teen who has followed her all the way from India to protect her. He was there when her mother died, and now he's here too.

When Gemma discover an old journal of two girls, who were members of the Order and who perished in the flames when Spence's East Wing burned down in 1871, Gemma is spurred on to explore the spiritual world, and discover what happened to her mother and to the two girls who perished in the fire. As she spends more time in the spiritual world with her friends, however, Gemma realizes that there are other forces at play, forces that could very well lead to her demise and that of her friends.

Fans of Bray's The Diviners series will enjoy this paranormal tale taking place in a Victorian era of repressed sexuality where presentation is everything. The story continues in Rebel Angels.

Native American Resistance

Deibel, Zachary. Native American Resistance. Part of the Primary Sources of Westward Expansion series. 2018. 64p. ISBN 978-1-50262644-8. Available at 970 DEI on the library shelves.

The history of relations between Native American and the residents of the expanding United States is fraught with thievery, violence, forceful removal and acculturation, and even genocide, with the Native Americans as the vast majority of victims. From the Revolutionary War to the building of the Transcontinental Railroad the end of Homesteading, Native Americans were pushed away from the best lands and forced to move to reservations. Despite efforts to fight back, Native American resistance was doomed to fail due to overwhelming superiority of U.S. military force.

Hoping to retain their ancestral lands and the lifestyle that defined their identities, various Native American nations resorted to different means to accomplish this. The Cherokee and their allies adopted a constitution and developed institutions like schools and a newspaper. The Sioux and the Dakotas offered active resistance and fought against settlers and U.S. military forces. Other groups attempted to adapt to changing local circumstances through passive resistance. All of them however, assumed that the agreements they negotiated with the United States would be honored, but that was never the case as the U.S. violated every one of them in order to seize land.

Fans of American history will appreciate the details provided on some of the conflicts that affected the Westward expansion of the United States and will become witnesses to how badly the Native population was treated and continues to be impacted to this day.

Books in the Primary Sources of Westward Expansion series include Native American Resistance, Homesteading and Settling the Frontier, The Gold Rush, The Transcontinental Railroad, Lewis and Clark and Exploring the Louisiana Purchase, and Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War.

These Shallow Graves

Donnelly, Jennifer. These Shallow Graves. 2015. 487p. ISBN 978-0-385-73765-4. Available at FIC DON on the library shelves.

Jo Montfort, a member of New York City’s social elite, is soon to be married to a wealthy young man from an upstanding family. Jo, however, has ambitions that don’t fit very well with her family’s desire for this perfect union. She wishes to become a writer, and joins the rank of upstanding reporters like Nellie Bly, making a difference in the lives of poor and unfortunate people. There is no way, however, that her family will allow her this choice.

Tragedy strikes with the death of Jo’s father, Charles Montfort, partner in a shipping company. When the death is ruled a suicide, more questions arise than are answered. Jo decides to investigate her father’s death. Digging and uncovering clues, she runs into Eddie Gallagher, a young reporter at her father’s newspaper. Igniting an infuriating friendship, the two of them expose a conspiracy aimed to protect a family secret. As they get closer to this buried secret, however, they have to dig deeper and the stakes get deadlier. With a killer on the loose and the city’s criminal underbelly involved, Jo and Eddie’s quest to discover the truth could cost them everything.

A great mystery taking place during the height of investigative journalism, fans of suspenseful novels will appreciate Jo Montfort’s tale that begins with her and Eddie digging up a grave at New York’s insane asylum, and then flashes back to how they got there. A great page turner that will have the reader worried for Jo’s sanity and for her very life!

The Awakening

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 2008. 282p. 283 mins. 978-1-51817167-3. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Edna Pontellier and her husband Léonce are spending the summer months with their children at  a resort at Grand Isle, not far from New Orleans where they reside. Léonce is here for the weekend, and returns to the city for business during the week. As a woman, her roles are seen by society as caring for her children and supporting her husband. Edna chafes under these strictures, however, and does not feel fulfilled by the two traditional roles of mother and wife. On Grand Isle, she meets Mrs. Ratignolle, a woman with many children who enjoys motherhood very much. She also meets Mademoiselle Reisz, a gifted pianist who doesn’t care what society expects of her and instead marches to her own tune. She’s comfortable in her own skin and likes her single lifestyle.

More importantly, Edna meets Robert LeBrun, son of the resort’s owner, and, quite by accident, falls in love with him. Unfortunately, respectable life the 1890s New Orleans precludes divorce and frowns upon an extra-marital affair, especially for a woman. Scared that their relationship might grow, Robert takes off for Mexico, leaving Edna behind. Returning to New Orleans, Edna realizes that she’s tired of being someone she’s not, and she slowly emanciates herself from society’s demands. Léonce is concerned enough to contact a doctor, who tells him his wife is not mentally ill.

Needing to travel to New York for business, Léonce sends the children to his mother outside of New Orleans to give them a country holiday. Suddenly Edna finds herself alone for the first time, able to enjoy herself. She decides to move out of the house, and rents a small residence nearby. Still in contact with Mademoiselle Reisz, she reads the letters Robert sends to the piano player, and longs for him. The letters make it clear that Robert still has feelings for Edna. When Robert moves back to New Orleans, the two are reunited, but as love can be ephemeral, so too can it be fatal …

Over a hundred years old, The Awakening represents one of the first novels ever written to support a woman’s choice of seeking self-fulfilment, and presents an honest view of female sexuality. An early feminist novel, The Awakening continues to foster discussions about what it means to accept or refuse the roles society assign to women in general, and mothers in particular.

Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini

Fleischman, Sid. Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini. 2006. 210p. ISBN 0-06-085094-9. Available at B HOU on the library shelves.

Dead for almost a hundred years, Harry Houdini remains one of the greatest magicians to ever practice the art of the illusion. Known for his escape artist routine, Houdini was also an accomplished pilot (the first one to fly a plane in Australia), a movie pioneer, a debunker of pseudo-scientific experiments, and a self-taught didactic individual who took the world by storm and never accepted “no” as an answer.

Erik Weisz was born to a Jewish family in Budapest in 1876 in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Emigrating to the United States in 1878 to rejoin his father, who had arrived earlier, they settled in Appleton, Wisconsin. Already a showman by age 9, Weisz changed his name to Houdini to honor his role-model, Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin and performed anywhere he could. Working with his younger brother, he met his wife, Bess, and soon the two were married and part of an act called the Houdinis. His escape routine finally attracted the attention of a show promoter, and soon the Houdinis were traveling throughout the United States and Europe.

While in Europe Houdini continued to study locks and perfected several acts. Returning to the United States, he started a magic monthly, the Conjuror’s Monthly Magazine, filled the house wherever he performed, and became involved in making movies to promote his act. During one of these movies he learned to fly a plane. He then purchased an aircraft, shipped it to Australia, and became the first one to fly a plane down under.

Always protecting his brand, Houdini sued his imitators, and sought to debunk spiritualists. Still touring in the 1920s, Houdini was stricken by a ruptured appendix and died in Detroit. An avid collector of all things magical throughout his life, Houdini left his collection of books and pamphlets to the Library of Congress. The greatest escape artist could not escape from death, but left behind an impressive legacy.