Chains: Seeds of America -- Laurie Halse Anderson

Although Miss Mary Finch's will stated that her slaves were to be freed, the will was nowhere to be found after the funeral, and Miss Mary Finch's brother wasted no time in selling 13-year-old Isabel and her sister to the first available buyers.  So Isabel and Ruth are sent to New York City.  Life in the Lockton household is very different from life back in rural Rhode Island.  For one, Madam Lockton (unlike Miss Mary Finch) is vicious.  For another, New York City is smack dab in the middle of the American Revolution.

Within an hour of arriving in the city, Isabel is asked to spy on her Tory owners.  It isn't long before she finds herself caught in the middle of what seems like everything and everybody -- but no one, Rebel or Tory, seems to be interested in answering her question:  In this fight for freedom, when and how will she gain her own?

Like Octavian Nothing, Chains explores the complexities and contradictions of the American Revolution from a slave's perspective.  Chains, though, is a much more accessible read and would also work for a younger audience.  The characters -- all of them -- were three-dimensional and real, I didn't feel that anyone (Tory, Rebel, slave-owner or not) was demonized, the situations and choices that Isabel has to deal with and make are never easy ones, and the book itself has a great design.  (Pick it up in a bookstore or library and check out the font.  Way cool.)  It's an extremely tense read, and I was unable to put it down*.

What's odd is that I didn't ever really connect with the characters -- but that, I think, might be all on me.  I know that when I suspect a book might be devastating, I have a tendency to hold myself back a bit emotionally.  So there's that.  Then again, I've never really connected with any of Anderson's characters in her other books, either.  So there's that as well.  But that didn't detract from my enjoyment, my interest or from my Need To Know What Happened Next.

My only real gripe about the book was the suddenness of the ending.  If it had been made clear on the cover that it was the first in a series, that would have prepared me...

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*Literally -- I held it and continued reading while I made and ate lunch one-handed!

Comments

[reader]

It's funny that you can have no connection to the characters and still give the book a good review. A lesser reviewer would have ripped it for that, and the balance you portray is why I like coming here.

I've never understood the hoopla over LHA books, for that similar reason -- I feel no pull toward her characters, at all. Trust me, I've tried. It just isn't there. For me, the characters are the only reason I bother with a book, so thank you from sparing me from having to slog through this and wonder why everyone adores this writer but me.

(kudos to her for the National Book Award nom, anyway. To each his own. though I often wonder if "name" authors get a free ride sometimes -- people expect them to be good and give them the benefit of all kinds of doubt. i felt a twinge of this reading john green's last book, too, no real motivation for the mc to find margo, and no concrete motivation for margo to leave elaborate clues and "want" for this kid she hasn't talked to since she was nine, to find her. i have a feeling if he hadn't written the stellar LFA first reviewers would've killed him for that lack of character motivation.)

[Libby]

I had the same frustration with the sudden ending, and, I think, the same lack of connection. I do feel it with Melinda in Speak, but less so with other LHA characters.

[Jennifer]

While I can empathize with your not feeling anything for the characters (I too felt that way about the characters in "Twisted" and "Catalyst", and to a lesser extent, Melinda in "Speak" and Mattie in "Fever 1793"), I didn't feel the same way about Isabel (Sal) in "Chains". Her character spoke to me, in the way she protected her sister, remembered her mother and her history, tried to keep her dignity (and her temper) and kept her wits about her in this remarkable story of the Revolutionary War. I think the characters in Twisted and Catalyst reminded me too much of characters in other books who although they do change by the end of the book, seem much more contrived and unfortunately contemporary - Isabel's character was strong, passionate, and eager to learn, even at her young age. Thought I usually much prefer something more modern, this book really spoke to me and Anderson's writing gets better with every book. I can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy because like the author of this blog, it was a "couldn't put it down" er.