awaters336's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
juliechristinejohnson's review
3.0
The Wolves of Andover didn’t capture my imagination nearly to the degree of Kathleen Kent‘s first novel about her ancestors in Puritan New England: The Heretic’s Daughter. The potential for 5-star historical fiction abounded. Kent creates settings and characters that reek, glow, clang, shift and connive with all the hardscrabble ferocity of pre-Industrial London and a filthy merchant vessel, and the pastoral beauty of 17th century New England. But I felt that Kent was trying to tell too many stories in too short of space. Thomas Carrier/Morgan was by far the most interesting character and the hunt for his head the more tense and dynamic story, but we were instead forced to spend much of our time with the busy-body handwringer, Martha.
In reflecting on the novel, I keep coming back to two incidents that knocked against the authenticity of the story and its central character: the wolf bite and Martha’s recording of Thomas’s story in her red diary. Kent carefully constructs Martha to be a woman of uncommon independence, wit and intelligence. Then, the author has her 1) stick her face into an enclosure holding ferocious, bloodthirsty wolves and 2) put into writing a story that many had given their lives to protect and hold secret. Neither incident was necessary to the story and both undermined the gravity of the plot.
Kent writes beautifully but I hope she regains the intensity and integrity of The Heretic’s Daughter. I recommend the outstanding novels of Kate Grenville, another who writes of colonial Britain and the frontiers crossed by those who seek to escape British tyranny (in Grenville’s case, Australia).
In reflecting on the novel, I keep coming back to two incidents that knocked against the authenticity of the story and its central character: the wolf bite and Martha’s recording of Thomas’s story in her red diary. Kent carefully constructs Martha to be a woman of uncommon independence, wit and intelligence. Then, the author has her 1) stick her face into an enclosure holding ferocious, bloodthirsty wolves and 2) put into writing a story that many had given their lives to protect and hold secret. Neither incident was necessary to the story and both undermined the gravity of the plot.
Kent writes beautifully but I hope she regains the intensity and integrity of The Heretic’s Daughter. I recommend the outstanding novels of Kate Grenville, another who writes of colonial Britain and the frontiers crossed by those who seek to escape British tyranny (in Grenville’s case, Australia).
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