Rating: 
Summary: A Study in Death
Review: Based on an actual event and real persons, author Geraldine Brooks tells a fascinating tale of a village in rural 17th century England that experiences a sudden outbreak of plague. The citizens seal themselves off from the outside world to avoid spreading the disease to neighboring villages and to give themselves up to God's mercy. The "year of wonders" experienced by the residents of this stricken community is told through the eyes of an intelligent and couragous young widow, Anna Frith. Brooks' imagery is bright and alive - the reader experiences the sights and smells of this world, the hope and despair of the characters and the gradual disintegration of their faith. The plague brings out the noblest and the basest of human behavior and Anna herself achieves things she never would have attempted in any other circumstances. Because the majority of this book was so well written, I was quite disappointed in the ending which seemed rushed and contrived, almost as if the publisher had grown impatient and directed Brooks to wrap it up by the end of the day. I won't spoil the ending, but readers of Albert Camus' novel on the same subject will groan inwardly at Brooks' little joke in her placement of the final scene. Despite the ending, I recommend this book highly for its clear, concise style, vivid imagery, and realistic portrayal of human beings immersed in a long and tragic fight for survival and search for meaning.
Rating: 
Summary: BOOK OF WONDERS!
Review: What a great book! Year of Wonders is excellent in every way. It is beautifully written. Every page has some delicate description that made me stop to think of the simple grace words can have when they are in the hands of a talented writer. The story is powerful from beginning to end as we watch what happens when plague ravages a small, isolated village northwest of London in 1666. It is based on a true story and told through the fictional character, Anna Frith. She was a woman on an ordinary path in life who finds herself surrounded by death and discovers her own extraordinary strength. The story is well developed and builds with every page. There are unexpected and exciting twists in the end that lead to a very satisfying conclusion which holds up until the very last sentence. I was only sad the story ended and can only dream of what happened next to my beloved heroine. I say encore! What will Geraldine Brooks write next? I will definitely read it.
Rating:
Summary: Just what I wanted to read...
Review: Everything about this book, 'Year Of Wonders,' went together like the perfect meal...true, I probably eat more than I read novels, but, that's another thing -- this is the first story to grab me in a long time. I LOVED it! And what beautiful, artistic language, from the pen of Geraldine Brooks. Flowed right along. There's an especially good balance of historical/factual bits with the more emotional, personal details of the heroine. Wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: Great historical fiction
Review: This books paints a brilliant picture of the life of the main character,Anna. Geraldine Brooks is a beautiful writer and brings the reader into a plague ridden village in England in the 1600's. Interesting characters and side stories that weave the novel together. Also, I recommend The Dress Lodger.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Novel
Review: Powerful. Evocative. Emotional.
The textured landscape of the Plague Village and the bizarre cast of characters come alive in this masterfully written novel. Anna Frith, the heroine, is an insightful woman, humble and honest. Her integrity is inspiring and her development throughout the story is climactic. She breathes--and the reader exhales. This is a beautiful and believable story--flawlessly written. I anticipate reading more from Geraldine Brooks.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful but rushed
Review: Geraldine Brooks starts this novel off with care, she takes effort to develop the characters into complex people. It is a rich and intimate novel, one that makes you feel personally connected to the main character. However, while Brooks spends most of the novel nursing her characters along, the ending seems rushed, as though Brooks decided she needed to finish and did so without the care she took with the beginning. The pace speeds up unnaturally. Still, it is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Historical Fiction
Review: Since I was young I have always loved historical fiction and this book is one of the best I have ever read. Brooks creates an engrossing and enthralling world through the eyes of maid Anna Frith as she sees her rural english village ravaged by the plague. While some scenes are rather graphic about what the plague actually does to your body, they were done tastefully and in a way that is not meant to disgust, but simply to inform the reader. The plot is excelent, both interesting and well written. My one slight complaint is the ending which seems a bit unbelievable, but with the greatness of the rest of the novel, it is easily compenstated for.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book
Review: "Year of Wonders" was a great read. It's one of those books that sticks with you and you continue to think about long after you are finished. Anna Frith is an inspiration in that she continues to help others even after suffering so much.
Rating: 
Summary: Year of Wonders: A Soap Opera of the Plague
Review: It is difficult to categorically damn such a well respected book as Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders as a completely futile effort in the mealy, airless medium of melodramatic pulp fiction, but that is the image I have in my mind after reading the book, and it is not one of those confused images that will be shaken off by contemplating the work or by a second reading, as there is nothing substantial to think about. It is impossible to think that the author did not have a good deal of knowledge about the Black Death and medieval culture, but it almost appears that her apparent goal to portray the life of a simple peasant during the great plague was a coldly disingenuous ploy to tell a lurid and totally unbelievable tale.
Use of facts about that period of history were heavy-handed and appeared to be stuffed into the narrative until every available character and event had been gorged with contradictory and unexplained caricatures of historical events. In one completely isolated mining village there arise flagellants, witch-drownings, saccharine oaths among the dying to not spread the plague and to remain steadfastly in their village, men and women driven mad and to witchcraft, the arrival of science and medicine, maps drawn by a lightly educated preachers wife showing how the plague spread, a stunning appearance of the belief that God was not the author of the plague and that maybe he did not exist, and so on. This may represent an unmagnified picture of the year 1666 were the stage expanded to include most of Europe, but in the confines of a small village, they are laughable. The heroine begins superstitiously leery of medicine and herbs, but, in the course of the year, becomes a master healer and pharmacist. The preacher has time to reason that the plague is carried by the people's belongings which must be burned or boiled, but he still has time to endlessly tend to his flock, prepare fiery and lucid sermons, regain and lose his faith, lose his wife, administer justice by force and by words throughout the town and fall madly in love with the heroine.
As if to hide her garish literary showmanship, the author narrates as a simple peasant in a small village and does not reveal herself beyond her characters. This decision proves fatal, though, since Brooks has a great deal more to say than a medieval peasant could ever comprehend and with every lofty contemplation or ridiculous action, the character becomes more and more transparent and silly. The real intention of the book becomes clear at every turn of the page. Brooks is looking at history and the ignorance of the people and, with 20-20 hindsight, she commands her literary time machine to take her back to plague-riddled England and runs wild in the ever-popular daydream of how great one would be if one could exercise his too-common 20th century knowledge in ages past before the awed primitives. She, of course, cannot make this journey alone lest the superhuman aspects of her heroine become too clear so she brings along a strong, handsome, equally wise, philosopher-king of a preacher to help her hide among the serfs. The whole narrative smacks of politically correct feminism (Which has an important and vital place, but not in medieval minds) and totally worthless PC theology. The characters, particularly the female characters are obviously 20th century figures hammered into the story like the old square peg in a round hole. In addition, there are a number of "sex scenes" which I have nothing against in principle, but these were torn right from the pages of those books with shiny airbrushed covers depicting muscular long-haired heroes and glamorous heroines on a four-post bed draped with pink satin - true verbal garbage.
Brooke's heroine, a bright but illiterate, superstitious maid, blends beautifully with the narrative in the early chapters while the story talks of apples tumbling into apple bins and the smells of Autumn and the simplicity of medieval life. It seems as though the Author might have started along a safely navigable course or, perhaps, was wise enough to lure readers in with a genuine setting before subjecting them to the most finely written episode of "Days of Our Lives" ever penned. What better setting could she have chosen? The plague swoops in and out of her story killing children so that the mothers can eloquently weep and run about howling fury at God. It takes a potential husband away from the widow that loves him the moment after they first admit their mutual love. It clears away wives and husbands so that the chosen characters may follow their passions. It provides a fittingly terrible, awe-inspiring background to allow these stomach-turning scenes to blend into an emotional and colorful stew rather than standing out as repugnant trash reserved for popular bestsellers, romance novels, and daytime television.
In trying to look at the Black Death from the perspective of one who lived through it, it is possible to imagine a story far darker and far more compelling than this blunt caricature. I am tempted to judge this book as somewhat allegorical, but it lacks the power and ambiguity in language that might have made it rise above a paperback love story.
On the whole, I think this book wildly and inexcusably distorts any view of real life in 'The Plague Years.' A reader who has no knowledge of the historical background of the book will have a tremendously skewed perspective of the condition of the people who lived in those times and a reader with even a modicum of knowledge must either laugh at it or choose to simply note the brief glimpses of reality found in the pages. In my own experience, I found the text to be so shallow that I was able to read it in one sitting without pausing once or re-reading any section and I arose from the experience with no lasting thoughts beyond the idea that maybe I should be a writer if this nonsense gets such a pretty cover and sells so many copies. But, of course, so do Tom Clancy books and romance novels, so I must content myself with warning off any reader with even a stub of intellect from this tepid verbal diarrhea.
Rating:
Summary: Sucks you in and then spits you out
Review: I got glued to this book. It's a pleasure to read and there isn't a lot of silly, unecessary language. Brooks' style has a great clarity to it. I did like the book, for the most part. But the ending was so strange and didn't follow logically or believably from the rest of the story. Also, it got redundant at times, like ok this person dies and now this one dies and now this one... going to die....Oh, and there are also a lot of typos, which annoys me. Despite all that, though, I recommend it. It is quite captivating.
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