Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: The epidemic of the Plague has always been of interest to me, and this book brings the facts together with compelling fictional characters to make an excellent work of historical fiction. The story is narrated by a young women and she tells the story of how the plague affected her village. I couldn't put this book down and found it to be an easy read. I can't wait for the author's next book! Highly reccommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Loved this book!
Review: A great read from start to finish, I want more! Beautifully written, thought provoking tale of madness and survival. Love life, breathe deep and enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: What a great book!
Review: I have been to the village of Eyam,UK several times and thought I knew the story. But this book, although fictionalized, really brought the times, the people and their fears to life. Well written and a very easy read. Although it is a very heavy subject, (not too many musical comedies about the great plague!), this book is not morbid or depressing. I have recommended it to many friends and even bought several copies to give away
Rating: 
Summary: SORT OF A NOVEL OF THE PLAGUE
Review: An incredible event for Reformation era England, in that an entire village took it upon themselves to quarantine their village to prevent the further importation or exportation of the plague. Amazing stuff - PBS recently aired a special on the village of Eyam and explored possibilities of why there were so many survivors. One curious explanation was that they had immunities that others didn't. DNA was extracted from the many descendants still living in Eyam to confirm - inconclusive, I think was the final verdict. At any rate, what this village did was nothing short of amazing - too bad this book didn't spend much time with it.
Oh sure, there are people who get sick, people who profit from other's misery, but the main thrust of this story is told and seen through the eyes of our heroine, Anna Firth. A major gripe of mine is that these "historical fiction" novels use their version of history as simply a backdrop to tell a modern story. At face value there is nothing wrong with that, but it seems like a waste of time. If you're going to tell a story you might as well make the most of it. I'm absolutely certain that there was enough drama during 1666 Eyam, Derbyshire to create a good tale.
The ending of this book might as well have been a Victorian romance.
I'm giving this book 3 stars because I always enjoy a good Afterword that explains the true history and the vision of the author.
Rating:
Summary: Anna is a proto feminist
Review: There are many reasons to like this book. I enjoyed the unusual "out of order" sequence of events. The story starts after the worst of the plague has passed. We find the rector a widower, and Anna very worried about his state of mind. He is grieving, and appears to have lost his faith. Then the story backtracks to a time when Anna has a content life with husband and boys. Then the plague appears, and finally the story catches up to the beginning, with Anna watching as Montpellior sinks deeper and deeper into his own pity. I thought that the sequence of events in that fashion made for a very entertaining story line.I loved some of the language used: "one and twenty years old", "my feet are unlovely". These are unusual constructions and words in today's English, and it was refreshing to hear them. Another thing that I really appreciated (and that I wish more authors would do) are the author's notes at the end. Of course, after finishing the book, I had questions about the plague, about Puritanism and so forth. On the notes, Geraldine Brooks explains how she came to the true story of a village in England which decided to lock itself in as to avoid spread of the plague. She explains some things about the disease, and has a chance to talk about why she decided to have the characters do this or that in the book. That was very satisfying. I have to admit to be rather surprised with the events that take place in the end. Yes, some of the imagery would be perfectly at home in a romance novel. So what? As lurid as some of those scenes are, they do not detract enough from the book as to make anyone toss it into the fireplace. Also, the motivations of Anna and Montpellior to behave a certain way are perfectly clear: no, they were not hypocrites. Montpellior was blinded by his own faith, and Anna decided to be Anna, not to try to emulate her soulmate Elinor. Fate or serendipity or whatever you want to call it placed her into a path that truly allowed her to become her own person. I'd be hard pressed to say this was a beautiful book, but there were many beautiful moments in it. The friendship of Anna and Elinor is reason alone to read it.
Rating:
Summary: enjoyable read.....
Review: I enjoyed this book. I guess because I didn't go into it expecting a historically accurate setting and plot. ( I honestly wouldn't know if there was anything false about the time period of the top of my head) The story was well paced, vividly described, and enough action to keep the reader interested. I think the language could have been a bit more elevated. The story line could have become somnolent after the affair but it didn't. I disagree with the other reviewer that the heroine was out of her time. I imagine there are liberal minded people in any time period. I think given the things she had already seen and her faith in God she would not be swayed by much. I liked the book and would read other writings by Brooks in the future.
Rating:
Summary: genuine and inspirational
Review: It wasn't only the premise and the story that was enthrolling, but the style of writing. It really made it very personal to the reader. I started feeling with the main character. I highly recommended it.
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous...until the ending (lots of spoilers)
Review: I absolutely loved this book until the ending. While reading it, I kept on telling everyone who would listen how good it was-I loved the writing, the subject matter, the characters, the history, the mood, the tone, the title. And then I read the last section and epilogue and cringed as a great story became nothing more than a soap opera. Survival isn't just staying alive, it's keeping the values of your society intact and passing on the learnings from one generation to the next. With her botched ending, Brooks undercut this theme and destroyed Anna's integrity as a character. I wish I could rave about this book-and I can, three-quarters of it is outstanding-but Brooks fell down on the last part and shortchanged her readers.
---------------------------------- Most haunting image--when Anna described her mother looking through the bars of the branks that her father put on her for cursing him in public. It is for images like this that I can still recommend this flawed book.
Rating:
Summary: This is what all books should be
Review: This is a riveting fictional account of what could have happened in a small town during the black plague. It was incredibly well researched, and I found it to be unputdownable. Fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent - Truly enjoyable
Review: I couldn't put this story down and read the whole book in one day. The story just grabbed me. I was worried it would be so much of a 'downer' reading about all the death but the pace of the narrative kept the story moving forward. Anna Frith was a convincing and fresh voice throughout the book. One of the best books I've read in a year. Highly recommended.
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