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From Amazon:

An invisible, uncrossable physical barrier encloses the Unified States. The Line is the part of the border that lopped off part of the country, dooming the inhabitants to an unknown fate when the enemy used a banned weapon. It’s said that bizarre creatures and superhumans live on the other side, in Away. Nobody except tough old Ms. Moore would ever live next to the Line.

Nobody but Rachel and her mother, who went to live there after Rachel’s dad died in the last war. It’s a safe, quiet life. Until Rachel finds a mysterious recorded message that can only have come from Away. The voice is asking for help.

Who sent the message? Why is her mother so protective? And to what lengths is Rachel willing to go in order to do what she thinks is right?

Review:

I enjoyed The Line, but it left me a bit disappointed at the same time.  This is another case of the book not having a concrete ending, and it feels very incomplete because of it.  Many more questions were raised, especially at the end, than were answered, and that left me feeling a little frustrated, knowing that I will have to wait until September to pick up where the author left off.  I don’t feel that the book stands well on it’s own, so if you are interested in reading it, I would suggest holding off until Away, the next book in the series, hits store shelves later this year.

Rachel is a great character.  She is intelligent and hard working, and she wants to understand the world that she lives in.  That’s not going to be an easy task, because the government censors and controls most of the information available to her.  Her mom home schools her, and tries to keep her curiosity in check. Rachel’s mom has a few secrets that she is desperate to keep from everyone. When her past starts to catch up with her, it’s Rachel’s turn to be supportive  and brave, and believe me, she is.  At first she is upset with the furtive, almost cowardly woman  her mother has become, but then she realizes that all her mom is trying to do is protect her.  Everything she has done since the death of her father was all designed to keep her safe.

I found the world of The Line a very fascinating place.  To keep the border closed from an invading army, the government secretly erected a barrier to keep everyone out.  It also serves to keep everyone in.  All the better to oppress the populace.  The people on the other side of The Line were abandoned in Away, left to deal with a war that they were not expecting.  Terrible things happened in Away, and that is the story that interested me the most.  Too bad I have to wait for the next book in the series to have some of my curiosity satisfied.

The events unfolding in The Line are all character driven, so it is a good thing that I liked all of the main cast.  Even the stern Ms. Moore became more sympathetic, after bits and pieces of her past are slowly revealed during the course of the narrative.  Though the pacing is a bit slow and the narrative a tad dry at times, my attention never wandered from the story.  I thought The Line was a very compelling dystopian, and I am looking forward to reading more about Rachel.

Grade: I am waffling between a B and a B- because I was disappointed with the abrupt ending

Review copy purchased from Amazon

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Based on true events, THE MOURNING WARS is a gripping, powerful, and utterly memorable historical novel. In 1704, Mohawk Indians attacked the frontier village of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 50 and kidnapping 112 more, including John Williams, a Puritan minister and prize hostage, and his children.

This is Eunice’s remarkable story, fictionalized but based on meticulous research, about a seven-year-old girl’s separation from her family, harrowing march to Canada, gradual acceptance of her new Native American life, and ultimate decision at 16 to marry an Indian and reject her stern father’s pleadings to return to the fold.

Review:

When I saw this book, I immediately wanted to read it.  I love books about Native Americans, and the setting looked like something right up my alley.  I admit that reading it was rough going at first, because I found it difficult to immerse myself in the third person, present tense narrative, but as I continued to read, I was caught up in Eunice’s new life with the Mohawk family that adopted her.  This was a great read, and Eunice’s struggle to understand who she is and where she belonged was very, very compelling.

When Eunice was 7, the small settlement of Deerfield is attacked by a group of Mohawks warriors.  During the nightmare journey that follows, she loses her mother and several of her siblings as they are marched to Canada through the freezing snow.  Eunice is separated from her father, a preacher and esteemed member of the Deerfield community, and she’s adopted by Atironta and Kenniontie.  The couple lost their daughter to an illness, and the raid was sanctioned by the tribe’s leaders to replace people who died from sickness or from the clashes between the warring French and British colonists whose European war has trickled to the colonies. 

Eunice at first waits for her father to pay a ransom for her and take her home, but as the years stretch forward and she hears nothing from her English family, she begins to settle into her new life.  She is always troubled by her feelings of abandonment, and this continues to eat away at her, even as she finds contentment with her new family and friends.  As she begins to feel comfortable and at home, she begins to fear that her father will come and get her.  This constant internal struggle was heartbreaking.  Even though Atironta and Kenniontie love her unconditionally, Eunice is still stung by the thought that her father has forgotten her.  There is an emptiness inside of her that nothing can fill, and this emotional turmoil kept me glued to the pages.

The Mourning Wars unfolds through little slice of life activities.  They slowly build together to create a fascinating snapshot of what life might have been like before Twitter, Facebook, and, heck, even the USPS.  Though occasionally the narrative was a bit too textbookish, I enjoyed this story.  A lot.  There is so much emotion packed into these pages, as a brave young girl works through who she is, and where she’s meant to be. 

Grade:  B+

Review copy provided by publisher