This is the second in the "Mary" series, the story of an orphan girl who travels to the New World, only to find it a harsh and unforgiving place, which bears the many prejudices and failings of the world she left behind. When Mary is expelled from her brutal and judgmental community, she is taken in by the native people and marries Jaybird, choosing to live with his people and to become one of them. War is never far away, however, and she finds herself and her family caught up in the conflict, struggling to survive.
This volume focuses more on the search for her by one of her distant descendants, a native girl, Agnes, who is having difficulty fitting into a world she's not comfortable in, either. She reaches out to Alison, a researcher, who found Mary's diary in a quilt, and is trying to track her down to finish the story. In truth, I liked the first one much more, mostly on account of the rich detail and descriptions of daily life, even objects. The author seems far more familiar with that material than here, however, so it wasn't nearly as descriptive.
Another aspect of the first novel I appreciated, as I noted in the last review, was that it kept the fantastical elements to a bare minimum, focusing instead on character development, which is rather rare for YA novels, but that wasn't really the case in this one, which was disappointing. Also: pet peeve of mine: having indigenous ancestry myself, it's always somewhat frustrating when authors feel the need to incorporate fantastical "spiritualistic" elements into stories of native peoples, like the shape-shifting, becoming "animal spirits," "visions," and the like, as if a story about indigenous people isn't complete without it. Yes, that's an aspect of "native" culture, but it's usually, as here, rather cliche, and a not a little denigrating. Seeing as that's pretty standard, however, I suppose it's a forgivable sin, and it was worthwhile reading, if only to finish an otherwise thoroughly capable story.
This volume focuses more on the search for her by one of her distant descendants, a native girl, Agnes, who is having difficulty fitting into a world she's not comfortable in, either. She reaches out to Alison, a researcher, who found Mary's diary in a quilt, and is trying to track her down to finish the story. In truth, I liked the first one much more, mostly on account of the rich detail and descriptions of daily life, even objects. The author seems far more familiar with that material than here, however, so it wasn't nearly as descriptive.
Another aspect of the first novel I appreciated, as I noted in the last review, was that it kept the fantastical elements to a bare minimum, focusing instead on character development, which is rather rare for YA novels, but that wasn't really the case in this one, which was disappointing. Also: pet peeve of mine: having indigenous ancestry myself, it's always somewhat frustrating when authors feel the need to incorporate fantastical "spiritualistic" elements into stories of native peoples, like the shape-shifting, becoming "animal spirits," "visions," and the like, as if a story about indigenous people isn't complete without it. Yes, that's an aspect of "native" culture, but it's usually, as here, rather cliche, and a not a little denigrating. Seeing as that's pretty standard, however, I suppose it's a forgivable sin, and it was worthwhile reading, if only to finish an otherwise thoroughly capable story.
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