A review by the_book_tale
The Cassandra by Sharma Shields

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

From the description of the book I was expecting a novel about a woman, capable of seeing the future, who attempts to stop an atomic war from happening. My expectations were far from the reality. 

Plot:

The issue with the plot was that there wasn’t one. There was a vague, undefined direction the novel headed toward, but I would not call it a plot. 

Milly joined Hanford Research Center after a prophetic vision of the destruction the Product made there would cause. She did so not knowing what Hanford was creating or how she was going to stop her vision from coming true. Actually — she never tried to stop her caisson from coming true at all. She worked for the head physicist making the plutonium, respected him, and loved her job. She had ample chance to sabotage Hanford, but she never even considered it because then she would lose her job. Right before the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan she told the physicist she worked for what would happen (like he didn’t know) which deterred him in no way. The last 100 or so pages didn’t even have anything to do with the nuclear bombs or the fallout. They were about Milly recovering from nearly being beaten to death, randomly murdering someone for no reason, returning to work for a short amount of time before cutting her tongue off purposely so she could live at a sanatorium. I was highly disappointed in the lack of plot. I could have loved The Cassandra if it had actually been about a woman attempting to sabotage the nuclear weapons research before the bombs could be dropped, but, sadly it wasn’t.

Writing:

The writing was brilliant. It was eerie, odd, uncomfortable, and descriptive — just the way I like. The writing was definitely the best thing about the book. I’m much more willing to give other books by this author a chance because she clearly possess the skill to write well.

Characters:

Milly was well written and possessed a clear, sharp personality. While I can’t relate to the way Milly thinks or makes decisions she reminds me of people in my life. A lot of care went into creating Milly and it is obvious throughout the book. 

All of the other characters were well written, but generally treated Milly horribly. Even those who claimed to care about her never spoke to her after she was in the hospital. They checked in on her very occasionally and was always disappointed when she wasn’t doing better. Sadly, Milly’s relationships with the other characters felt very realistic.