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A review by lory_enterenchanted
The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
"The weather is not just what we are subjected to outside, he thinks, we carry it within us. Passion, love, despair, male or female, it fogs all rational thought."
The Weather Woman is one of those historical romances (both in the sense of a love story and a heightened, not entirely naturalistic form of reality) that incorporates present-day concerns and mores into the trappings of the past. The central character Neva, who can predict the weather by "walking the clouds" and singing the rain, talks about how the weather is influenced by human activity, how people need to see it and themselves as a web of living activity and not a mechanism. But nobody wants to hear this, and her foster father fears she'll be laughed at, exploited, or thought mad. So he creates a mechanical woman to make her predictions, which becomes a sensation. Yet Neva chafes at the turning of her talent into entertainment rather than the life-saving information it could be. And she also chafes at her limitations as a woman, and devises an alternate identity that gives her freedom but also leads her into danger.
It was an enjoyable romp through an oft-visited time and place from a rather unusual point of view. The love story was a case of love at first sight, followed by agonizingly unnecessary separation and obstacles, which is not my favorite romance trope, so I wish that could have been different. At times the story rattled on too quickly from incident to incident; I would not have minded more thoughtful reflection about the weather and life, like the one quoted above. But otherwise I enjoyed spending time with Neva and her found family, and took satisfaction in their happy ending.
"The weather is not just what we are subjected to outside, he thinks, we carry it within us. Passion, love, despair, male or female, it fogs all rational thought."
The Weather Woman is one of those historical romances (both in the sense of a love story and a heightened, not entirely naturalistic form of reality) that incorporates present-day concerns and mores into the trappings of the past. The central character Neva, who can predict the weather by "walking the clouds" and singing the rain, talks about how the weather is influenced by human activity, how people need to see it and themselves as a web of living activity and not a mechanism. But nobody wants to hear this, and her foster father fears she'll be laughed at, exploited, or thought mad. So he creates a mechanical woman to make her predictions, which becomes a sensation. Yet Neva chafes at the turning of her talent into entertainment rather than the life-saving information it could be. And she also chafes at her limitations as a woman, and devises an alternate identity that gives her freedom but also leads her into danger.
It was an enjoyable romp through an oft-visited time and place from a rather unusual point of view. The love story was a case of love at first sight, followed by agonizingly unnecessary separation and obstacles, which is not my favorite romance trope, so I wish that could have been different. At times the story rattled on too quickly from incident to incident; I would not have minded more thoughtful reflection about the weather and life, like the one quoted above. But otherwise I enjoyed spending time with Neva and her found family, and took satisfaction in their happy ending.