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Conversion Katherine Howe 9780399167775 Books

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Conversion Katherine Howe 9780399167775 Books

Until I sat down to write this review, I didn't realize how annoyed I was with this book. I'm very disappointed because it had so much potential and it fell completely flat for me. From the beginning I found it hard to like with Colleen and I really struggled to stay invested. While I don't want to sound overly critical, I had a lot of problems with this story.

Colleen's behavior ranged from annoying to infuriating. Throughout the book I thought of her more as Cher from Clueless rather than a girl fighting for the top spot in a private school. While we are reminded over and over again that Colleen is very intelligent, she isn't written that way. There are many things Colleen ignores or is oblivious to, and while the reader puts the pieces together, Colleen takes much longer. This makes the story drag!

For me the biggest problem in this book was I didn't believe any of it. I didn't believe Colleen would be oblivious to all the things she was. I do not see how it was possible the student body didn't have any real sympathy for their classmates and instead viewed each other only as rivals for college admissions. Colleen was entirely focused getting into Harvard while her classmates were dropping to this illness like flies. I understand Howe was trying to create a competitive atmosphere between the students. However, it felt like she was writing down to her audience the whole time and didn't believe they could figure anything out.

Throughout the book I was much more interested in the Mystery Illness and the focus didn't shift to that until much later in the book. This didn't track for me. I thought this was going to be the main plot line of the whole book and Mystery Illness never became the sole focus of the story. I was compelled to keep reading, but only to find out what the Mystery Illness was. That explanation didn't give me many answers though so I was just frustrated overall by this book.

Am I the only one though? I haven't heard many people talk about this and I feel like I'm picking apart this book. I was this frustrated while reading, but am I the only one who had issues with this book?

Quick Thoughts: Though this book was based on true events, I didn't find the characters very believable. The budding romance in this book was cute, but even puppy love couldn't offset the other problems I had with this book. By the end of the story I was annoyed with everyone and the ending did not give me any answers.


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Conversion Katherine Howe 9780399167775 Books Reviews

I am not usually a fan of young adult fiction, probably because I'm no longer a young adult. But a good story is a good story. And this is a good story. It is a comparison of young girls in the same location in two time periods, 1706 and 2012.
In 1706,the circumstances that led to the Salem witch trials are the focus. In 2012, a tony private girl's school, and a Mystery Illness afflicting a growing number of the student body. Is it hysteria born from a spiteful bunch of girls or something more other worldly? Is it really just drama or is it something more sinister?
I read this more as a sort of fictional case study.I enjoyed the characters and the comparisons drawn between the past and the present. The ground zero characters in each time period were very different in life circumstances but twins in their ability to garner attention and create mayhem. And I was amused at how easily the adults in both time periods were seduced into believing and acting on what was truly unbelievable.
Sadly though there are very real consequences to all these behaviors and innocent people in both time periods lose their jobs,reputations and in the 1700's their lives. Depending on where the reader falls in the belief spectrum of witchcraft the book ends on an ambiguous note. Was it all fake, a psychological phenomenon, witchcraft or a combination of it all? The author lets the reader decide.
The Salem Witch Trials, as fictionalized by Arthur Miller in "The Crucible", was an object lesson in the twisting and denial of the life energy of young girls by an entire society. Revisiting of the power of the psyche on mass hysteria events have been popular. Sometimes this is induced by society itself as in the mass orgies of "Brave New World" or in the preternatural crowd events of Hitler. Still the true conversion reaction has been relatively scarce among adolescent girls. We think them free in many ways and thus immune to the need for hysteria. The term conversion itself, once a huge message in Freud's theory, is rarely invoked but almost always a diagnosis of the individual in the far more popular diagnosis post traumatic stress disorder.

In New York, a group of girls displayed the symptoms noted in this novel. An event of altered perception of reality and physical palsies draws into question the very ability of the society to protect its girls. In this narrative, the speaker is invoked as a close friend of the afflicted girls. In a literate move, she is assigned to study "The Crucible" and slips further into the observer stance. Alternately, we read the confession of Ann Putnam who did in fact admit to her conscious part in the hysteria of Salem.

This book ably and simply puts forth the conflict of the microcosms of afflicted girls. It brings into question the strictures of privilege and expectation. In a world of mystery illness such as autoimmune spectrums and the publishing of other syndromes by pharma intent of selling us the cure, this book reminds us of the steel bound link of body and mind. While doing so, the story of Colleen is clear and beguiling. The author resists the temptation to take the incidents to causes of undue pathos or unneeded drama leaving Colleen's observations to shine in unity with Ann Putnam from years ago.
Until I sat down to write this review, I didn't realize how annoyed I was with this book. I'm very disappointed because it had so much potential and it fell completely flat for me. From the beginning I found it hard to like with Colleen and I really struggled to stay invested. While I don't want to sound overly critical, I had a lot of problems with this story.

Colleen's behavior ranged from annoying to infuriating. Throughout the book I thought of her more as Cher from Clueless rather than a girl fighting for the top spot in a private school. While we are reminded over and over again that Colleen is very intelligent, she isn't written that way. There are many things Colleen ignores or is oblivious to, and while the reader puts the pieces together, Colleen takes much longer. This makes the story drag!

For me the biggest problem in this book was I didn't believe any of it. I didn't believe Colleen would be oblivious to all the things she was. I do not see how it was possible the student body didn't have any real sympathy for their classmates and instead viewed each other only as rivals for college admissions. Colleen was entirely focused getting into Harvard while her classmates were dropping to this illness like flies. I understand Howe was trying to create a competitive atmosphere between the students. However, it felt like she was writing down to her audience the whole time and didn't believe they could figure anything out.

Throughout the book I was much more interested in the Mystery Illness and the focus didn't shift to that until much later in the book. This didn't track for me. I thought this was going to be the main plot line of the whole book and Mystery Illness never became the sole focus of the story. I was compelled to keep reading, but only to find out what the Mystery Illness was. That explanation didn't give me many answers though so I was just frustrated overall by this book.

Am I the only one though? I haven't heard many people talk about this and I feel like I'm picking apart this book. I was this frustrated while reading, but am I the only one who had issues with this book?

Quick Thoughts Though this book was based on true events, I didn't find the characters very believable. The budding romance in this book was cute, but even puppy love couldn't offset the other problems I had with this book. By the end of the story I was annoyed with everyone and the ending did not give me any answers.