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A review by truestorydesu
Ransacker by Emmy Laybourne
5.0
If you haven’t read the first book in the Beserker series, er, Beserker, then its sequel, Ransacker won’t make a lot of sense. So, maybe you should go read Beserker. Or you could read about it in the review that I wrote a while back! It’s got Henrik Ibsen references... Go ahead, I’ll wait.
So its two years after the events of Beserker and now we're focusing on now 16 year old Sissel. Sissel is sick and tired of being treated like a little weakling, with Hanne hovering over her all the time and everyone else making decisions that directly affect her without her input. The Hemstads and Owen, now engaged to Hanne, live in a timber house on a farm outside Carter Montana. Unfortunately, and I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but during the summer, the entire Western half of the United States catches fire. Like, all of it. So a giant fire sweeps through the community, destroying the Hemstad's farm - with no hope of enough income to afford to marry, Hanne and Owen take off to join a cattle drive, Knut goes off to work as a laborer on an unaffected farm, and Steig, now the local schoolteacher, and Sissel go to live in the town hotel, managed by the hunky 20-year old Isaiah McKray.
While the Hemstads are enjoying these relatively normal 19-century-Western-immigrant life problems, they have no idea they're under constant Pinkerton surveillance, led by Mr. Peavy and a kid he hired to pretend to be his son, James. The Pinkertons were hired by the evil Baron Fjelstad from the first book and he seems obsessed in knowing about Sissel. James's one job is to woo Sissel, be her suitor and get her to spill her secrets. But the thing is, of course, James actually likes Sissel and is a bit wary of the intentions of the Baron and the Pinkertons.
Poor James has zero idea about the whole Nytte thing, by the way.
At first it seems like Sissel has no Nytte, until a funeral after the fire when she starts to feel something in the Earth calling to her... turns out Sissel is a ransacker, a very rare nytte in which a person can sense metals and draw them to themselves. Like gold. Gold is good. Have I mentioned that Isiah McCray also owns a gold mine outside of town? Yeah, he would very much like someone of Sissel's talent to work for him. And so would the Baron. Sissel has to keep her new gift a secret, but her family needs money and she can sense gold so...what could possibly go wrong?
Lots of things, as it turns out.
Beserker and Ransacker are both the sorts of book that I just start reading and then just breeze through - again, I’m a slow-ass reader, I take breaks, get distracted easily, have to work while at work and do housework while at home...I’m lucky if I can manage 1 book per week (maybe 2 if I have an audiobook on-hand), but with both Beserker and Ransacker, I’d start and then find myself having to drag myself away. Nooo, I don’t want to do dishes, I want to read more about magical 19th Century Norwegian immigrants! That’s way more fun than scrubbing bits of cat food off the cat dishes. You know who’s really good at getting the bits of dried cat food off the cat dishes? The dog. Why can’t he just do those dishes and don’t say it’s because he doesn’t have opposable thumbs...
I was going to have this review done sooner but I'm currently at ALA midwinter, drowning in all the books they just give out for free. FREE. the two sweetest words in the English language: free books. Either way: though it may not work as a standalone book, Ransacker is an excellent sequel, and gives a highly satisfying conclusion to the story of the Hemstads. I’m not sure if this series is meant to be a duology or a trilogy or what, but I do know that Ransacker delivers one hell of an ending. I cried. It was great.
So its two years after the events of Beserker and now we're focusing on now 16 year old Sissel. Sissel is sick and tired of being treated like a little weakling, with Hanne hovering over her all the time and everyone else making decisions that directly affect her without her input. The Hemstads and Owen, now engaged to Hanne, live in a timber house on a farm outside Carter Montana. Unfortunately, and I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but during the summer, the entire Western half of the United States catches fire. Like, all of it. So a giant fire sweeps through the community, destroying the Hemstad's farm - with no hope of enough income to afford to marry, Hanne and Owen take off to join a cattle drive, Knut goes off to work as a laborer on an unaffected farm, and Steig, now the local schoolteacher, and Sissel go to live in the town hotel, managed by the hunky 20-year old Isaiah McKray.
While the Hemstads are enjoying these relatively normal 19-century-Western-immigrant life problems, they have no idea they're under constant Pinkerton surveillance, led by Mr. Peavy and a kid he hired to pretend to be his son, James. The Pinkertons were hired by the evil Baron Fjelstad from the first book and he seems obsessed in knowing about Sissel. James's one job is to woo Sissel, be her suitor and get her to spill her secrets. But the thing is, of course, James actually likes Sissel and is a bit wary of the intentions of the Baron and the Pinkertons.
Poor James has zero idea about the whole Nytte thing, by the way.
At first it seems like Sissel has no Nytte, until a funeral after the fire when she starts to feel something in the Earth calling to her... turns out Sissel is a ransacker, a very rare nytte in which a person can sense metals and draw them to themselves. Like gold. Gold is good. Have I mentioned that Isiah McCray also owns a gold mine outside of town? Yeah, he would very much like someone of Sissel's talent to work for him. And so would the Baron. Sissel has to keep her new gift a secret, but her family needs money and she can sense gold so...what could possibly go wrong?
Lots of things, as it turns out.
Beserker and Ransacker are both the sorts of book that I just start reading and then just breeze through - again, I’m a slow-ass reader, I take breaks, get distracted easily, have to work while at work and do housework while at home...I’m lucky if I can manage 1 book per week (maybe 2 if I have an audiobook on-hand), but with both Beserker and Ransacker, I’d start and then find myself having to drag myself away. Nooo, I don’t want to do dishes, I want to read more about magical 19th Century Norwegian immigrants! That’s way more fun than scrubbing bits of cat food off the cat dishes. You know who’s really good at getting the bits of dried cat food off the cat dishes? The dog. Why can’t he just do those dishes and don’t say it’s because he doesn’t have opposable thumbs...
I was going to have this review done sooner but I'm currently at ALA midwinter, drowning in all the books they just give out for free. FREE. the two sweetest words in the English language: free books. Either way: though it may not work as a standalone book, Ransacker is an excellent sequel, and gives a highly satisfying conclusion to the story of the Hemstads. I’m not sure if this series is meant to be a duology or a trilogy or what, but I do know that Ransacker delivers one hell of an ending. I cried. It was great.