Vespertine
By Carrie R. Wheadon,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Possessed nun fights dangerous ghosts in exciting read.
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Good Book!
What's the Story?
In VESPERTINE, Artemisia wants nothing more than to live out her life in a convent attending to the dead and steering clear of the other novices who gossip about her shyness and her disfigured hands. That's before a group of soldiers possessed by the dead attack the convent and try to take their most precious relic, a finger bone of Saint Eugenia that binds a powerful and dangerous Fifth Order spirit. Artemisia runs to warn the ancient nun guarding the crypt and finds her dead. Now she's forced to wield the relic to save the sisters, but isn't trained, and the powerful possession she endures to save them nearly kills her. As she slips out of consciousness, the sisters tell her help is on the way. Only help is in the form of shackles and a trip to the city of Bonsaint for an exorcism. When ghosts attack them on the journey, she escapes while saving many more possessed soldiers and innocent refugees with the help of the spirit, who suspects there are darker forces than him out there, and that they are converging on Bonsaint. That's when Artemisia makes the radical decision to trust the ghost -- somewhat. She sneaks into the city to confront the mysterious evil at its source.
Is It Any Good?
Fans of ghost stories and rough-around-the-edges female heroes will devour this fantasy read faster than a revenant can devour a lesser spirit. Vespertine builds a world around a Medieval-style religion with nuns, monks, saints, and marauding ghosts set loose by hidden evil forces. And Artemisia, a survivor of childhood possession who burned her own hands to save her family, is the outcast hero this bleak world needs. She's completely untrained to wield any kind of relic, let alone one of the most powerful, and it's only through her sheer survivor resilience that she's able to keep it from consuming her. From there, her relationship with the revenant inside the relic, and now inside of herself, builds into something quite fascinating. Their forced bond drives the story to more profound places, especially as they realize what they have in common.
Author Margaret Rogerson doesn't always dig deep into her characters, however. So much seems left to the imagination about Leander. The shady confessor many not be as bad as he seems at first, but he's also still a big mystery by the end. And Marguerite, Artemisia's former roommate, is a delight and full of surprises without enough time on the page to really get to know her. Here's hoping a series develops with more time exploring these characters and this fascinating world.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what Artemisia learns about grace in Vespertine. She says about the Lady, "She has shown me Her grace in a drink of water when I was thirsty and bread when I was hungry... it is through the hands of strangers that She has carried out Her will." If you have a religious practice, how does this revelation jibe with teachings in your religion?
Do you think it's possible for fantasy books with made-up religions to bring people closer to ideas in the religion they practice? Have you read any other stories with fictional religions? What ideas in these books were familiar, and what ideas were not?
Would you like to read more about Artemisia? Do you think she will ever be comfortable being so famous? What doesn't she like about the way others perceive her?
Book Details
- Author: Margaret Rogerson
- Genre: Fantasy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
- Publication date: October 5, 2021
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 14 - 18
- Number of pages: 400
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: December 10, 2021
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