Source: Library

Review: The Runaway Quilt, Jennifer Chiaverini

Posted on by Dana
Review: The Runaway Quilt, Jennifer ChiaveriniThe Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
Series: Elm Creek Quilts #4
Published by Plume on January 1, 2002
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
five-stars

After learning of her family’s ties to the slaveholding South, Sylvia Compson scours her attic for clues and discovers a window into the world of her the memoir of her great-grandfather’s spinster sister, Gerda Bergstrom. Gerda’s memoir chronicles the founding of Elm Creek Manor and the tumultuous years when Hans, Anneke, and Gerda Bergstrom sheltered fugitive slaves within its walls, using quilts as a signal of sanctuary. But little did the staunchly abolitionist Gerda know that a traitor was among them, placing the Bergstroms in grave danger and leading to family discord, betrayal, and a secret held for generations.

With the help of the Elm Creek Quilters and clues hidden within antique quilts discovered in the manor’s attic, Sylvia stitches together the pieces of her past and decodes the true nature of the Bergstrom legacy.

There is debate about whether quilts were used as signals on the Underground Railroad. There is not a great deal of evidence to support the theory that quilts served as signals to those escaping slavery, but I think many people want it to be true because it makes a compelling story. One argument people who believe in this theory often use is that evidence doesn’t exist because the quilts were secret signals. I’m not sure that argument holds much water. Jennifer Chiaverini acknowledges this lack of evidence in her book and even has one of her characters, a quilt historian, make the skeptic’s argument. However, in this novel, she imagines that at least a couple of houses in Pennsylvania used quilts to signal that their homes were stations on the Underground Railroad.

Sylvia Bergstrom Compson, the main protagonist of the Elm Creek Quilts novels, uncovers a journal in her attic. Gerda, her great-grandfather’s sister, wrote the journal, and it details the role the Bergstrom family played as stationmasters on the Underground Railroad and their experiences with one particular woman who escaped enslavement. The book alternates between past and present as Sylvia reads Gerda’s journal. If Gerda’s journal is not very realistic for the time, I can forgive it because the story is captivating and touches on several interests of mine: reading, writing, quilting, and family history. This particular volume in the series is light on descriptions of Elm Creek Quilts’ quilt camp and the other quilters, focusing instead on Sylvia and her discovery. It’s not too hard to believe Sylvia would find a journal and quilts in her attic, given the age and prominence of her house.

I enjoyed this one a great deal. It’s rare for series to continue to be this good as they continue, but I’d say this is one of those rare series.

five-stars

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Review: A Couple of Elm Creek Quilts Titles

Posted on by Dana

I’m so glad I discovered this series. It scratches a couple of itches for me: reading and quilting. I find them to be well-written, but more than anything else, I feel Jennifer Chiaverini understands character. Her characters are real, and they react in ways that don’t feel like fiction. Dan Brown could learn a thing or two.

Review: A Couple of Elm Creek Quilts TitlesRound Robin (Elm Creek Quilts, #2) by Jennifer Chiaverini
Series: Elm Creek Quilts #2
Published by Plume on April 4, 2000
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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Goodreads
five-stars

Round Robin reunites readers with the Elm Creek Quilters in this poignant and heartwarming follow-up to The Quilter's Apprentice, Jennifer Chiaverini's acclaimed debut novel. "She chose green and blue for the colors of Elm Creek Manor. She chose blue for truth and green for new beginnings . . ."

The Elm Creek Quilters have begun a round robin...a quilt created by sewing concentric patchwork to a central block as it is passed around a circle of friends. Led by Sarah McClure, who came to Waterford, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Matt, a few years ago, the project is to be their gift to their beloved fellow quilter Sylvia Compson. But like the most delicate cross-stitch, their lives are held together by the most tenuous threads of happiness...and they can unravel.

As each woman confronts a personal crisis, a painful truth, or a life-changing choice, the quilt serves as a symbol of the complex and enduring bonds between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends. In weaving together the harmonious, disparate pieces of their crazy-quilt lives, the Elm Creek Quilters come to realize that friendship is one of the most precious gifts we can give each other, and that love can strengthen understanding, lead to new beginnings, and illuminate our lives.

One thing I liked about this particular book was the camaraderie of the Elm Creek Quilters. Chiaverini shares the personal stories of many of the quilters. I enjoyed seeing their personal stories fleshed out a bit more.

Review: A Couple of Elm Creek Quilts TitlesThe Cross-Country Quilters (Elm Creek Quilts, #3) by Jennifer Chiaverini
Series: Elm Creek Quilts #3
Published by Plume on 2002
Pages: 368
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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Goodreads
five-stars

Julia, Megan, Donna, Grace, and Vinnie are cross-country friends who are about to begin work on a challenge quilt. A piece of fabric is divided among the women, with the understanding that the following year they will all meet at the Elm Creek Quilt Camp to sew the sections together into a single quilt. But the friends have set themselves a special challenge: no one can start working on her block until she has taken steps to solve her problems and achieve her personal goals.

Although they share a common creative objective, the Cross-Country Quilters find their friendship tested by the demands of everyday life. Yet despite differences in age, race, and background, the women's love of quilting and affection for one another unite them. The quilt they create becomes a symbol of the threads that hold their lives together-a glorious patchwork of caring and loyalty that brings home an enduring truth: Friends may be separated by great distance, but the strength of their bond can transcend any obstacle.

This one might be my favorite in the series so far. I really liked the characters, and it was fun to get a glimpse into what going to “quilt camp” might be like. I enjoyed the friendship these women developed, and I really hope to meet them again in the series.

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Review: The Union Quilters, Jennifer Chiaverini

Posted on by Dana
Review: The Union Quilters, Jennifer ChiaveriniThe Union Quilters (Elm Creek Quilts #17) by Jennifer Chiaverini
Series: Elm Creek Quilts #17
Published by Plume Books on February 1, 2011
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 370
Format: E-Book, eBook
Source: Library
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Goodreads
four-stars

"Chiaverini has once again written an intense and beautiful book-so much so that readers will almost hear the hollow echo of the fife and drum as they immerse themselves in every compelling page . . . Truly unforgettable."-- BookPage

In 1862, the men of Water's Ford, Pennsylvania, rally to President Lincoln's call while Dorothea Granger marshals her friends to "wield their needles for the Union." Meanwhile, Anneke Bergstrom hides the shame she feels for her husband's pacifism; gifted writer Gerda Bergstrom takes on local Southern sympathizers in the pages of the Water's Ford Register; and Constance Wright struggles to help her husband gain entry to the Union Army—despite the color of his skin. As the women work, hope, and pray, the men they love confront loneliness, boredom, and danger on the battlefield. But the women of the sewing circle also forge a new independence that will forever alter the patchwork of life in the Elm Creek Valley.

I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this installment of the Elm Creek Quilts series, but the story picked up considerably in the second half of the book. In the end, I enjoyed it as much as the others, although I think I prefer the characters in the modern-day stories. This story centers on the ancestors of Sylvia Bergstrom, a master quilter and one of the founders of Elm Creek Quilts. It was well-researched and effectively captured the Civil War era. On a few occasions, it seemed as though Chiaverini let the forward motion of the plot stall at the expense of capturing period detail, but it wasn’t often, and I didn’t mind it. I enjoyed the character of Gerda Bergstrom. She takes no shit! Dorothea was another favorite character of mine. It was interesting to go back in time and see Sylvia’s ancestors. I would have enjoyed having a family tree in the book so I could figure out all the connections, but I purchased a copy of An Elm Creek Quilts Companion to examine the character relationships more closely. In part, it’s my fault that I’ve had trouble making connections, as I’ve been reading the series out of order. I think I’ll try to read the other books in order from now on. This volume in the series could easily stand alone, and anyone who enjoys Civil War-era historical fiction might like this book.

four-stars

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Review: World War II Quilts, Sue Reich

Posted on by Dana
Review: World War II Quilts, Sue ReichWorld War II Quilts by Sue Reich
Published by Schiffer on May 28, 2010
Genres: Craft, History
Pages: 192
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
four-stars

Many American women made warm and attractive quilts to honor and benefit US soldiers during the period 1940-1945, either as outright gifts or as raffle items to raise money for the war effort. This book reflects extensive original research of newspaper and magazine articles of the era, and authenticates the patterns and designs available to quiltmakers, anchoring the quilts historically in time. Color photos and descriptive text identify many patriotic quilts made for donation to the Red Cross and organizations such as Bundles for Britain. When possible, original patterns and designs that inspired the quilts are included. The quilts can now be interpreted from factual and objective perspectives, enhancing their historic and emotional importance.

This book was fascinating and featured many great photographs. Before reading this book, I didn’t know about the Changi Prison, described by Mary Thomas, a British woman imprisoned there and quoted in this book:

At last the grey walls and roofs of the prison appeared on a small hill to our right. We were hot and tired and glad to see them. As we drew near, some of the women felt a gesture of defiance was needed and they began to sing. We had left Katon singing Tipperary and we walked into Changi singing There’ll always be an England… (146).

I loved the story of these spirited women creating a quilt to document their experience. Learning about the patterns and fabrics was also interesting. There was a short piece in the book about the feuding Hatfield and McCoy families uniting for a quilting bee. I loved seeing the creativity of these women on full display in these pages.

On the other hand, I caught a few typos or proofreading errors, and I question whether including any of the truly terrible poetry written by amateur poets during the War added much of anything to the book.

It was a worthwhile read, thanks to the well-researched information and photographs.

 

four-stars

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Review: A New Deal for Quilts, Janneken Smucker

Posted on by Dana
Review: A New Deal for Quilts, Janneken SmuckerA New Deal for Quilts by Janneken Smucker
Published by International Quilt Museum on 2023
Genres: Nonfiction
Pages: 250
Format: Paperback
Source: Library
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Goodreads
five-stars

During the Roosevelt administration’s efforts to combat the Great Depression, the quilt became an emblem for how to lift one’s family out of poverty, piece by piece. A New Deal for Quilts explores how the U.S. government drew on quilts and quilt-making, encouraging Americans to create quilts individually and collectively in response to unemployment, displacement, and recovery efforts. Quilters shared their perspectives on New Deal programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the National Recovery Administration, which sent quilts as gifts to the Roosevelts and other officials. Federal programs used quilts’ symbolic heft to communicate the values and behaviors individuals should embrace amid the Depression, perceiving the practical potential of crafts to lift morale and impart new skills. The government embraced quilts to demonstrate the efficacy of its programs, show women how they could contribute to their families’ betterment, and generate empathy for impoverished Americans.

With more than one hundred period photographs and images of quilts, A New Deal for Quilts evokes the visual environment of the Depression while conveying ways craft, work, race, poverty, and politics intersected during this pivotal era. Accompanying the book is a fall 2023 exhibit at the International Quilt Museum, featuring 1930s quilts drawn from its renowned collection.

I picked up this book because I’m doing a Block of the Month quilting challenge focused on different decades each month. I enjoyed this glimpse into quilts of the 1930s. It was interesting to learn that documenting quilts and creating quilts were part of the WPA, which is something I never knew. I was also fascinated by the political quilts created in honor of the Roosevelts. In our polarized country now, it’s hard to imagine a President with that much popularity. I learned at one point that Roosevelt had over a 70% approval rating. It’s also a bit sad to read the author’s hopes for the Green New Deal and the comparisons made between the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Depression. I’m continually impressed by quilters’ commitment to social justice, and it was interesting to read about how that commitment manifested in the 1930s. This book might be a bit niche for the average person, but if you’re interested in quilting history or even just women’s history in the 20th century, check it out.

five-stars

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Review: The Winding Ways Quilt, Jennifer Chiaverini

Posted on by Dana
Review: The Winding Ways Quilt, Jennifer ChiaveriniThe Winding Ways Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
Series: Elm Creek Quilts #12
Published by Simon & Schuster on January 1, 2008
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 310
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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Goodreads
four-half-stars

Jennifer Chiaverini's bestselling Elm Creek Quilts series continues with The Winding Ways Quilt, in which the arrival of newcomers into the circle of quilters heralds unexpected journeys down pathways near and far.

Quilters have flocked to Elm Creek Manor to learn from Master Quilter Sylvia Compson and her expert colleagues. There's Sarah, Sylvia's onetime apprentice who's paired her quilting accomplishments with a mind for running the business of Elm Creek Quilts; Agnes, who has a gift for appliqué; Gwen, who stitches innovative art quilts; Diane, a whiz at the technicalities of quick-piecing; and Bonnie, with her encyclopedic knowledge of folk art patterns. But with Judy and Summer, two other founding members of the Elm Creek Quilters, departing to pursue other opportunities, will the new teachers be able to fill in the gaps created by the loss of their expertise—and more important, their friendship?

"When I think of all the different paths I could have followed in my life, all the twists and turns that could have led me anywhere," muses incoming teacher Gretchen, "it's something of a miracle that I ended up here, surrounded by loving friends."

But what of friends departed? As Sylvia contemplates a tribute to the partnership of the Elm Creek Quilters, she is reminded of a traditional quilt pattern whose curved pieces symbolize a journey. Winding Ways, a mosaic of overlapping circles and intertwining curves, would capture the spirit of their friendship at the moment of its transformation.

Will Sylvia's choice inspire the founding members to remember that each is a unique part of a magnificent whole? Will the newcomers find ways to contribute, and to earn their place? The Winding Ways Quilt considers the complicated, often hidden meanings of presence and absence, and what change can mean for those who have come to rely upon one another.

I discovered the Elm Creek Quilts series from fellow quilters in a Facebook Block of the Month group I’m participating in. The block for May was a Winding Ways block, which inspired the story in this novel. It was fun to read the book at the same time as I made my own Winding Ways block.

It seems that this novel doesn’t appeal to all fans of the series, and I can understand why. It’s different from the other two books I’ve read in that it’s not a story so much as a series of backstories about each of the Elm Creek Quilters. I liked that aspect of it. I don’t necessarily think there is a lot of action in these books, but they’re fun to read because I actually learn a little bit more about quilting with each one, and the characters are fully realized and feel a bit like friends. I enjoyed the metaphor of the Winding Ways block, which connects all the quilters.

I enjoyed making my own Winding Ways block as well. This block is so interesting in that when you make a larger quilt, you start to see circular patterns emerge. You can see parts of the circles emerging in my Winding Ways block below. I was inspired by the colors in the Rosie the Riveter poster, as the theme for this Block of the Month focuses on quilting and history for a different decade each month, starting with the 1930s and ending with the 2010s. The Winding Ways block is the 1940s block, so the fabrics I chose evoke the 1940s era.

Winding Ways four-block quilt made with white fabric with cherry designs, yellow fabric with white polka dots, and blue fabric with star designs.

four-half-stars

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Review: Time is a Mother, Ocean Vuong

Posted on by Dana
Review: Time is a Mother, Ocean VuongTime Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Published by Penguin Press on April 5, 2022
Genres: Poetry
Pages: 114
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
three-stars

In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother's death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. Shifting through memory, and in concert with the themes of his novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong contends with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the cost of being the product of an American war in America. At once vivid, brave, and propulsive, Vuong's poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration as well as the epicenter of the break.

The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize, and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. These poems represent a more innovative and daring experimentation with language and form, illuminating how the themes we perennially live in and question are truly inexhaustible. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time Is a Mother is a return and a forging forth all at once.

I borrowed this collection from the library after encountering a poem from the collection, “Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker.” After reading the collection, I still think that poem is the best in the collection. It’s a found/catalog poem that asks the reader to sift through purchases to assemble an entire life. It tells a fascinating story, and I think I’d like to share it with my students.

There were some other gems in the collection, including “Dear Rose,” “The Punctum,” “Toy Boat,” “Reasons for Staying,” and “Küntslerroman.” The imagery is strong, and I appreciated Vuong’s diction and structure. Overall, I would not say this collection is one of my favorites, but it was well worth a read.

three-stars

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Review: Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar

Posted on by Dana
Review: Martyr!, Kaveh AkbarMartyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Published by Vintage on January 23, 2024
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 352
Format: E-Book, eBook
Source: Library
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
five-stars

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Martyr! is probably one of those books I’m going to think about for a long time. I appreciated how complex and real the characters were. There are some moments of exquisite writing, which is no surprise given Akbar’s background as a poet.

Cyrus wants his death to mean something, so he researches martyrs.

If the mortal sin of the suicide is greed, to hoard stillness and calm for yourself while dispersing your riotous internal pain among all those who survive you, then the mortal sin of the martyr must be pride, the vanity, the hubris to believe not only that your death could mean more than your living, but that your death could mean more than death itself—which, because it is inevitable, means nothing.
It is an interesting treatise on life, death, and making sense of a nonsensical world. It also asks a lot of the reader, namely, the ability to sit in ambiguity, to understand that we will not get the answers we seek. Keats called it negative capability. A fascinating book, and I can see why it was mentioned on all the Best of 2024 lists.

five-stars

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Review: Crook Manifesto, Colson Whitehead

Posted on by Dana
Review: Crook Manifesto, Colson WhiteheadCrook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
Narrator: Dion Graham
Series: Ray Carney #2
Published by Random House Audio on July 18, 2023
Genres: Historical Fiction
Length: 10 hours 47 minutes
Format: Audio, Audiobook
Source: Library
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
four-stars

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning Colson Whitehead continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.

It's 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It's strictly the straight-and-narrow for him—until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated—and deadly.

1973. The counter-culture has created a new generation, the old ways are being overthrown, but there is one constant, Pepper, Carney's endearingly violent partner in crime. It's getting harder to put together a reliable crew for hijackings, heists, and assorted felonies, so Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, and celebrity drug dealers, in addition to the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters, and hit men. These adversaries underestimate the seasoned crook—to their regret.

1976. Harlem is burning, block by block, while the whole county is gearing up for Bicentennial celebrations. Carney is trying to come up with a July 4th ad he can live with. (Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!), while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A. and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney's tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it. Our crooked duo have to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent, and the utterly corrupted.

CROOK MANIFESTO is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family. Colson Whitehead's kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem is sure to stand as one of the all-time great evocations of a place and a time.

I really enjoyed this second book in the Ray Carney series. It is decidedly NOT The Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys, but I think that’s the point. It feels like Colson Whitehead wanted to write something fun and interesting but not as heavy. This is not to say there are not heavy moments—crime, crooked cops, murder, arson. There is a thread of dark humor underneath all the violence, and as a reader, it was easy for me to see how much Whitehead enjoyed bringing this world of 1970s Harlem to life. I actually think this book was a bit better than the first in the series, Harlem Shuffle. It’s the second in a planned trilogy, but it’s not really necessary to read Harlem Shuffle to enjoy this book. However, as the second of three, it does feel like it ends with unfinished business. My favorite character was probably Pepper. Whitehead seems to enjoy Pepper enough to let him run away with the book. 

four-stars

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Review: How to Hang a Witch Series, Adriana Mather

Posted on by Dana

I discovered Adriana Mather’s book through the Salem Witch Museum. The museum is terribly cheesy, but they have a good social media presence, and they recently shared a picture on Facebook of books written by Salem Witch Trials descendants that are available in their gift shop. I’m not sure if Adriana Mather is a direct descendant of Cotton Mather, but she’s definitely related. Cotton Mather notoriously played a role on the wrong side of history in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. I’m not sure if Adriana Mather plans to write more books in this series, but I’d read them. I think a good description of these books might be Twilight, but with witches and ghosts instead of vampires. I will read practically anything set in Salem. I’ve spent a good bit of time there and know it fairly well. It is a cute little town that takes its history in weird, kitschy directions. One caveat I feel like I must share: it’s not weird at all in New England to be a descendant of one or even several of the players in the Salem Witch Trials, and it bugged me a bit that the notion of being descended from an accused witch or other players in the trials was somehow unique enough to set “the Descendants” apart. But if you lay that quibble aside, the idea of them wafting through the hallways of Salem High School wearing black from head to toe is fun. Adriana Mather has a fascinating family history, and she was lucky to be able to mine it for her fiction.

Review: How to Hang a Witch Series, Adriana MatherHow to Hang a Witch (How to Hang a Witch, #1) by Adriana Mather
Series: How to Hang a Witch #1
Published by Knopf on July 26, 2016
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 359
Format: E-Book, eBook
Source: Library
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
four-stars

It's the Salem Witch Trials meets Mean Girls in a debut novel from one of the descendants of Cotton Mather, where the trials of high school start to feel like a modern day witch hunt for a teen with all the wrong connections to Salem’s past.

Salem, Massachusetts is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?

If dealing with that weren't enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with The Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it's Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.

I believe this book is the stronger of the two, but that’s partly because Samantha Mather, the protagonist, is more of an outsider, and all the world-building in this book is pretty interesting.

Review: How to Hang a Witch Series, Adriana MatherHaunting the Deep (How to Hang a Witch, #2) by Adriana Mather
Series: How to Hang a Witch #2
Published by Knopf on October 3, 2017
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 344
Format: E-Book, eBook
Source: Library
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
four-stars

The Titanic meets the delicious horror of Ransom Riggs and the sass of Mean Girls in this follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller How to Hang a Witch, in which a contemporary teen finds herself a passenger on the famous “ship of dreams”—a story made all the more fascinating because the author’s own relatives survived the doomed voyage.

Samantha Mather knew her family’s connection to the infamous Salem Witch Trials might pose obstacles to an active social life. But having survived one curse, she never thought she’d find herself at the center of a new one.

This time, Sam is having recurring dreams about the Titanic . . . where she’s been walking the deck with first-class passengers, like her aunt and uncle. Meanwhile, in Sam’s waking life, strange missives from the Titanic have been finding their way to her, along with haunting visions of people who went down with the ship.

Ultimately, Sam and the Descendants, along with some help from heartthrob Elijah, must unravel who is behind the spell that is drawing her ever further into the dream ship . . . and closer to sharing the same grim fate as its ghostly passengers.

I said I’d read anything set in Salem, and I’m also a sucker for books about Titanic, though, to be honest, I’m not sure I’ve read a good one. I liked the movie when it came out, and I used to play a video game set there that was a ton of fun. I figured out who the antagonist in this book would be early on, but their motive doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.

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