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A review by hima_gobb
Conversion by Katherine Howe
4.0
For the most part I loved this book.
It's basically about how a girls school, St. Joan's, comes down with a "Mystery Illness." On one normal Wednesday, Clara just randomly starts twitching and later on she describes it as some force that took over her body. Then more girls start doing things randomly. One looses her hair then one can't feel her legs so she's put on a wheelchair, and more and more girls start getting random symptoms. This even causes most of the girls to quit school.
The news of this illness goes to the local news and soon it receives national attention. The school nurse says that it's some sort of allergic reaction and another scientist says that it's PANDAS which is some other weird disease. Another person comes in and says that there are some fumes coming in to the school from an old building that's been replaced by the school. Scientists say their theories but nothing is making sense to Colleen (the protagonist).
At the very end, it is revealed what this Mystery Illness but I thought the book ended right when it was revealed. There should have been a complete resolution for another 20 or so pages.
Another thing I didn't really like was the protagonist herself. She really wasn't all that like able because she is overall great and she knows it. She wants to be the best but I just felt she was too over the top. There is nothing wrong about a protagonist not being an underdog but I felt this character was way to confident. Her life seems pretty much awesome because she is set for Harvard and is extremely smart (she cares about her GPA so much throughout the book she complains if she's a tenth off from her goal), she is pretty popular and has a great friend group. Everyone loves her and she is still complaining about her life which I don't understand.
The town where this takes place is where the Salem Witch Trials took place long ago which I thought was an awesome connection. This book goes back in forth between what's happening at St. Joan's and an event during the witch trials which I thought was kinda useless sadly and in my opinion, it didn't enhance the book at all.
All in all, it's pretty good book :)
It's basically about how a girls school, St. Joan's, comes down with a "Mystery Illness." On one normal Wednesday, Clara just randomly starts twitching and later on she describes it as some force that took over her body. Then more girls start doing things randomly. One looses her hair then one can't feel her legs so she's put on a wheelchair, and more and more girls start getting random symptoms. This even causes most of the girls to quit school.
The news of this illness goes to the local news and soon it receives national attention. The school nurse says that it's some sort of allergic reaction and another scientist says that it's PANDAS which is some other weird disease. Another person comes in and says that there are some fumes coming in to the school from an old building that's been replaced by the school. Scientists say their theories but nothing is making sense to Colleen (the protagonist).
At the very end, it is revealed what this Mystery Illness but I thought the book ended right when it was revealed. There should have been a complete resolution for another 20 or so pages.
Another thing I didn't really like was the protagonist herself. She really wasn't all that like able because she is overall great and she knows it. She wants to be the best but I just felt she was too over the top. There is nothing wrong about a protagonist not being an underdog but I felt this character was way to confident. Her life seems pretty much awesome because she is set for Harvard and is extremely smart (she cares about her GPA so much throughout the book she complains if she's a tenth off from her goal), she is pretty popular and has a great friend group. Everyone loves her and she is still complaining about her life which I don't understand.
The town where this takes place is where the Salem Witch Trials took place long ago which I thought was an awesome connection. This book goes back in forth between what's happening at St. Joan's and an event during the witch trials which I thought was kinda useless sadly and in my opinion, it didn't enhance the book at all.
All in all, it's pretty good book :)