Shelf Awareness--Vespertine

YA Review: Vespertine

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson (Margaret K. McElderry Books, $18.99 hardcover, 400p., ages 13-up, 9781534477117)

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson (An Enchantment of Ravens) is a splendidly dark story of a reclusive young woman struggling to control a powerful revenant.

Artemisia, like all Sighted people, is vulnerable to possession. As a child she was controlled by a spirit which left her so badly scarred--physically and emotionally--she wants only a cloistered life in the convent, "tending to the dead." There she and the other novices are tested for their ability to sense ghostly entities and Artemisia discovers she has "an extraordinary talent for wielding relics." When possessed soldiers attack, Artemisia is tasked with watching over the convent's "greatest weapon": the holy relic of Saint Eugenia, a finger joint from the Sister of the Gray Lady of Death who martyred herself to "bind a Fifth Order spirit to her bones." To save the Sisters now, Artemisia takes the bone's fettered revenant into her body. She is able to wield it successfully, despite its great power, and decides she must use it to learn why a rising number of Dead are attacking the living. Artemisia is forced to trust the revenant, a dangerous--and sarcastic--entity she has no idea how to control.

Rogerson's third YA novel contains a wonderfully ghastly mythology, and a plot that crackles with tension. Reluctant "Saint" Artemisia charges forth in her quest to solve the mystery and save humanity, even as her beloved solitary existence is wrenched from her grasp. At its heart, Vespertine is a satisfying friendship story about the ability to trust other people--and revenants--enough to share one's burdens. Vespertine is an excellent bet for fans of Robin LaFevers's Assassin Nuns and Garth Nix's Old Kingdom. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.

Discover: Reclusive novice Artemisia struggles to control a spirit of great power to vanquish rising hordes of the Dead in this darkly splendid novel.