pollyroth's review
I don't know if it's fair to judge a book after 27 pages... But I could not torture myself any longer. [b:The Wicked and the Just|12180253|The Wicked and the Just|J. Anderson Coats|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328908675s/12180253.jpg|15093451] is boring. Completely not exciting. There was nothing even slightly compelling within those first pages. All I got was a snobby narrator who I wished would fall into a ditch because she was so obnoxious.
snazel's review
5.0
VERY good historical fiction, written from two points of view, about ten years after the english conquest of Whales. Learned a lot about that time period, but it also made me think a lot about how people can get punched down by a political system and look for any outlet to punch down themselves, not realizing how much further crushed a person can be. Our english character is pretty fairly punched by the system — is being told what to do by almost everyone she meets, is desperately missing her home and friends, is being told she doesn't measure up by everyone in a position of power over her— but when she finally finds someone she can express her power over she doesn't realize that she is actually holding someone's life or death in her hand, someone who's already bereaved and starving. There's a bigger arc about the difference between justice and vengeance, about seeing an oppressed people as still people, but that internal arc about being careful what you do with the power you have over a person really stuck with me.
Author is one to watch, for sure.
Author is one to watch, for sure.
jbojkov's review
5.0
On the 2014 Tayshas top ten. Historical fiction set in 13th Century Wales as the English King Edward tries to bring about the taming of the Welsh people. Follows two girls- one English and one Welsh in alternating chapters. Very difficult book to read about the hardships of the times. But worth the read!
ajworkman77's review
3.0
A wonderful historical novel set in a time and place rarely written about. My only issue is that this book needs desperately a glossary of unknown terms and a pronunciation guide! The damn boy's name was GRIFFITH! Of course.
oliviadaily's review
4.0
Very good historical novel. Refreshing to see a YA book that's not about romance.
taliac36's review
3.0
i finally finished it!! it took me 2 weeks to finish reading this freeeeeaaakiiing book!!!!!!! this was good in a really historical way because it sets time along time ago and is about justice being served according to Cecily but more importantly on how the socialism works. i liked it,
abigailbat's review
3.0
This is very well done historical fiction set in 13th-century Wales. It's a book to immerse yourself in and teens who love detailed historical fiction will love this one. It does start out sounding like Catherine Called Birdy, but it's much bleaker. We get the story through the eyes of Cecily, a young lady who's just moved to a Welsh city with her father who is a new burgess there, and Gwinny, a Welsh maid at Cecily's new home. Thus, we get the English perspective and the Welsh perspective as the English "settle" the "uncivilized" Welsh lands, profiting wildly by extorting the Welsh.
I found the Gwinny bits a little confusing because I had no knowledge of medieval Wales and a lot of Welsh names are thrown around, etc. But the story is definitely richer for having the Welsh point of view.
I found the Gwinny bits a little confusing because I had no knowledge of medieval Wales and a lot of Welsh names are thrown around, etc. But the story is definitely richer for having the Welsh point of view.
waclements7's review
3.0
The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Book Group
Pub. Date: 4/17/2012
eBook courtesy of NetGalley
***Does contain spoilers***
The Wicked and the Just takes place in Wales during the late 13th Century, a period of time during which the English were “expanding” into new territory and forcing the Welsh into being governed by the English King. As is usually the case with oppressed individuals being told their loyalty is now to a foreign King, events simmer under the noses of the English who govern the Welsh, in the town of Caernarvon in this case, until eventually erupting into an explosion.
This is the town a young girl/young woman, Cecily, goes to live in when her father is given a position there. She regards it as temporary, until her Uncle dies and she and her father can return to England to the house and land she believes are properly theirs. Thrust into a place where even the language is incomprehensible to her, she is at loose ends. Cecily is a character that is sometimes very hard to like—she can be kind one moment and then terrible the next. She doesn’t understand the politics behind why life is the way it is in Caernarvon, that the young woman who is her servant was once just as proud and free as Cecily but is now living at Cecily’s whim. Gwenhwyfar is the flip side of Cecily, Gwynhyfar the oppressed, Cecily the oppressor. Cecily’s age is unclear, but in the 13th century, girls were treated as women much earlier than they are now. Cecily is a girl trying hard to be a woman but not succeeding. She is selfish and mostly blind to the plight of those around her. If she does see some wrong, she will sometimes address it, but sometimes will not even question it.
Gwenhwyfar, on the other hand, has been forced into reality and adulthood very early on. She and her younger brother Gruffydd have only each other—their mother is slowly dying through the course of the book. Their father has already died fighting the insurgence against the English when they originally occupied Caernarvon. Gwenhwyfar, aka Gwinny, has known what it is like to be the one at the top of the rungs as well. She knows exactly what is going on in Caernarvon, and is frustrated and worried that her brother Gruffydd’s involvement in rebellious groups will more than likely get him killed, the same thing that happened to their father.
An extreme example of Cecily’s self-indulgent, childish whims is her treatment of Gruffydd when he comes to work at their home and she recognizes him as the one who “looked” at her when she and her father first came to town—how dare a Welshman look at her, someone as low as him, daring to look at her. She treats him terribly and he ends up being terrified of her—she literally holds his life in her hands if she decides to complain to her father of him. The situation is more complicated than she realizes, and sends her and Gwinny into a tailspin of back and forth attempts at revenge, mostly on the part of Cecily setting out the cruelest tasks she can think of for Gwinny.
Cecily never quite sees what is wrong with the system in Caernarvon, that they aren’t taxed and the Welsh are, the Welsh have to pay a toll to get into the market, the English don’t. The Welsh are punished for any crime, where the English can literally get away with murder, especially if the person they’ve murdered is a Welshman. The English men rape the women and get away with it, something made painfully clear to her, and a situation Gwinny saves her from when the man in question starts to court Cecily.
When the Welsh do revolt, it is a hideous, bloody, and terrifying time. Cecily escapes, most of the English do not. Ironically, she is rescued by Gwinny and Gruffydd, the tables are turned, and Cecily is their slave, though she is allowed to send someone to try to contact her cousin to come and get her.
It is this experience, finally, that forces Cecily to finally understand and see what the English have done to the Welsh. Gwinny knows that the English will return, but hopefully they will be people who “see” as Cecily does now.
Cecily is presented at the end of the book as a young woman who has changed and been forced to grow. It is sad that the situation around her had to reach such an extreme peak before she could change. Gwinny, in the sections from her point of view, calls her “the brat,” and she is absolutely correct. It makes it hard to like her, connect with her, or identify with her. I do think it would have been easier if the sections coming from different characters’ points of view had been indicated, those are the sections of the characters I felt for the most. These characters, from whose point of view we see so little, are easier to identify with and care for than Cecily is. When I saw the world through Gwinny’s eyes, it only casts Cecily in an even worse light.
I have read books where the protagonist isn’t necessarily a very nice person, but as a reader I would struggle and try to find some redeeming qualities somewhere. Cecily does have a few of those moments, but not enough of them to make me like her better at the end of the book, or even feel badly for the way she is treated by Gwinny. I kept hoping I would like her, that she would do something bold and daring, but I think in the end she is most likely an accurate portrayal of many of the girls in her situation. By the end, it was truly a puzzling question—who was wicked and who was just? It seems as though the answer is no one. If that was Coats’ intention, then the book was very successful at carrying the point across—I felt a little numb at the end of it. Horrified to know that this took place, sickened by the politics that brought it about, while admiring the fact that Coats managed to evoke those emotions so effectively.
Maybe I am out of touch with other books specifically aimed at this age with similar content, and I know children are exposed to a much wider spectrum of violence that I was at 12, but I question the recommend age given in the book. If this were a movie, I think it could very possibly, given some of the situations (rape, beatings, hangings, the revolution at the end), be rated R. This is largely due to the level of description. I do know that I have read other books aimed at this age range that depicted similar types of events but not in such detail. I don’t disagree with the detail at all, just the recommended age.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Book Group
Pub. Date: 4/17/2012
eBook courtesy of NetGalley
***Does contain spoilers***
The Wicked and the Just takes place in Wales during the late 13th Century, a period of time during which the English were “expanding” into new territory and forcing the Welsh into being governed by the English King. As is usually the case with oppressed individuals being told their loyalty is now to a foreign King, events simmer under the noses of the English who govern the Welsh, in the town of Caernarvon in this case, until eventually erupting into an explosion.
This is the town a young girl/young woman, Cecily, goes to live in when her father is given a position there. She regards it as temporary, until her Uncle dies and she and her father can return to England to the house and land she believes are properly theirs. Thrust into a place where even the language is incomprehensible to her, she is at loose ends. Cecily is a character that is sometimes very hard to like—she can be kind one moment and then terrible the next. She doesn’t understand the politics behind why life is the way it is in Caernarvon, that the young woman who is her servant was once just as proud and free as Cecily but is now living at Cecily’s whim. Gwenhwyfar is the flip side of Cecily, Gwynhyfar the oppressed, Cecily the oppressor. Cecily’s age is unclear, but in the 13th century, girls were treated as women much earlier than they are now. Cecily is a girl trying hard to be a woman but not succeeding. She is selfish and mostly blind to the plight of those around her. If she does see some wrong, she will sometimes address it, but sometimes will not even question it.
Gwenhwyfar, on the other hand, has been forced into reality and adulthood very early on. She and her younger brother Gruffydd have only each other—their mother is slowly dying through the course of the book. Their father has already died fighting the insurgence against the English when they originally occupied Caernarvon. Gwenhwyfar, aka Gwinny, has known what it is like to be the one at the top of the rungs as well. She knows exactly what is going on in Caernarvon, and is frustrated and worried that her brother Gruffydd’s involvement in rebellious groups will more than likely get him killed, the same thing that happened to their father.
An extreme example of Cecily’s self-indulgent, childish whims is her treatment of Gruffydd when he comes to work at their home and she recognizes him as the one who “looked” at her when she and her father first came to town—how dare a Welshman look at her, someone as low as him, daring to look at her. She treats him terribly and he ends up being terrified of her—she literally holds his life in her hands if she decides to complain to her father of him. The situation is more complicated than she realizes, and sends her and Gwinny into a tailspin of back and forth attempts at revenge, mostly on the part of Cecily setting out the cruelest tasks she can think of for Gwinny.
Cecily never quite sees what is wrong with the system in Caernarvon, that they aren’t taxed and the Welsh are, the Welsh have to pay a toll to get into the market, the English don’t. The Welsh are punished for any crime, where the English can literally get away with murder, especially if the person they’ve murdered is a Welshman. The English men rape the women and get away with it, something made painfully clear to her, and a situation Gwinny saves her from when the man in question starts to court Cecily.
When the Welsh do revolt, it is a hideous, bloody, and terrifying time. Cecily escapes, most of the English do not. Ironically, she is rescued by Gwinny and Gruffydd, the tables are turned, and Cecily is their slave, though she is allowed to send someone to try to contact her cousin to come and get her.
It is this experience, finally, that forces Cecily to finally understand and see what the English have done to the Welsh. Gwinny knows that the English will return, but hopefully they will be people who “see” as Cecily does now.
Cecily is presented at the end of the book as a young woman who has changed and been forced to grow. It is sad that the situation around her had to reach such an extreme peak before she could change. Gwinny, in the sections from her point of view, calls her “the brat,” and she is absolutely correct. It makes it hard to like her, connect with her, or identify with her. I do think it would have been easier if the sections coming from different characters’ points of view had been indicated, those are the sections of the characters I felt for the most. These characters, from whose point of view we see so little, are easier to identify with and care for than Cecily is. When I saw the world through Gwinny’s eyes, it only casts Cecily in an even worse light.
I have read books where the protagonist isn’t necessarily a very nice person, but as a reader I would struggle and try to find some redeeming qualities somewhere. Cecily does have a few of those moments, but not enough of them to make me like her better at the end of the book, or even feel badly for the way she is treated by Gwinny. I kept hoping I would like her, that she would do something bold and daring, but I think in the end she is most likely an accurate portrayal of many of the girls in her situation. By the end, it was truly a puzzling question—who was wicked and who was just? It seems as though the answer is no one. If that was Coats’ intention, then the book was very successful at carrying the point across—I felt a little numb at the end of it. Horrified to know that this took place, sickened by the politics that brought it about, while admiring the fact that Coats managed to evoke those emotions so effectively.
Maybe I am out of touch with other books specifically aimed at this age with similar content, and I know children are exposed to a much wider spectrum of violence that I was at 12, but I question the recommend age given in the book. If this were a movie, I think it could very possibly, given some of the situations (rape, beatings, hangings, the revolution at the end), be rated R. This is largely due to the level of description. I do know that I have read other books aimed at this age range that depicted similar types of events but not in such detail. I don’t disagree with the detail at all, just the recommended age.
eline_berk's review
4.0
I liked this, I liked this a lot!
I write for a blog and I reviewed this book on there, so if you want to see more of my thoughts, it'd be lovely if you could check it out! :D
http://www.librarianlavender.com/2015/04/welsh-week-wicked-and-just-by-j.html
I write for a blog and I reviewed this book on there, so if you want to see more of my thoughts, it'd be lovely if you could check it out! :D
http://www.librarianlavender.com/2015/04/welsh-week-wicked-and-just-by-j.html