A review by waclements7
The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats
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.