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A review by carley
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Hester tells the fictional story of the woman who inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
Isobel has seen the colors since she was a child. Voices, sounds, letter, all have colors for Isobel. But with her mother’s warning and her family’s magical past, Isobel hides what she sees, all the way across the ocean from Scotland to Salem, Massachusetts. But when she meets the mysterious Nat and must work to keep herself alive in the new world, she finds her colors may do more good than possible harm.
Hester was a beautiful novel. The descriptions of the character’s synesthesia was intricate and as a reader, you begin to associate the colors through the novel in the same way as Isobel. I liked all of the sociopolitical issues Albanese tackled within 19th century Salem.
My only critique is how quickly the climax and conclusion happen. It felt slightly jarring compared to the slow explanation of the rest of Isobel’s story. But that could have been a very conscious choice by the author.
Isobel has seen the colors since she was a child. Voices, sounds, letter, all have colors for Isobel. But with her mother’s warning and her family’s magical past, Isobel hides what she sees, all the way across the ocean from Scotland to Salem, Massachusetts. But when she meets the mysterious Nat and must work to keep herself alive in the new world, she finds her colors may do more good than possible harm.
Hester was a beautiful novel. The descriptions of the character’s synesthesia was intricate and as a reader, you begin to associate the colors through the novel in the same way as Isobel. I liked all of the sociopolitical issues Albanese tackled within 19th century Salem.
My only critique is how quickly the climax and conclusion happen. It felt slightly jarring compared to the slow explanation of the rest of Isobel’s story. But that could have been a very conscious choice by the author.