Wednesday 19 May 2010

To Spoil the Sun - Book Review

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To Spoil the Sun by Joyce Rockwood

What is it about:
It is the sixteenth century and Rain Dove, a young Cherokee girl, lives in Mulberry Town. If things continue the way they always have, she can look forward to choosing a husband (her grandmother advises picking a young warrior) and raising a family. But after smallpox strikes, life for the people of the Seven Clans will never be the same.

What did I think of it:
This is a beautiful and sad story. It's a YA novel, but I can certainly recommend it to adults too. Rain Dove is a likable character who struggles with making the right choices and failing at that from time to time. The threat of doom to come hangs over the entire story, but in such a way it makes you want to read on and hope there will be some happiness for all those involved in Rain Dove's life.

Why should you read it:
It's a beautiful, well written historical. It might be hard to find as it's not in print anymore as far as I know, but well worth the read.

*The picture shows the Dutch version of this book

2 comments:

Rebecca @ DSB said...

I'm always on the lookout for books with non-white heroines, but it's hard for me to jump into a story that's sad the whole way through. I think the last one I tried like that was The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and I'm still recovering. I enjoyed your short review though - you said everything I needed to hear and I didn't have to skip and skim to figure out your main points.

Sullivan McPig said...

Thanks :-)