|
|---|
Sunday, October 3, 2010
title: Incantation
author: Alice Hoffman
genre: YA fiction
published: 2006
pages: 166
first line: If every life is a river, then it's little wonder that we do not even notice the changes that occur until we are far out in the darkest sea.
rated: 4 out of 5
I'm a fan of Alice Hoffman's work, especially since reading Practical Magic and The Ice Queen.
I picked up Incantation several months ago, and being busy with other reads, I put it down and never got back to it. I didn't want to give up on it though, so I picked it up again and this time around I found myself being immersed in this story.
Incantation is a story about a 16 year old girl named Estrella deMadrigal, and the long hidden secret she finds out about her family. The family lives in a little village in Spain around the
1500's.
Estrella's nickname is Raven, for her long black hair and her best friend Catalina is nicknamed Crow. The two girls are inseparable, until they get a bit older and Catalina's jealousy over Estrella's beauty and possessions emerges.
Estrella falls in love with Catalina's cousin Andres. The love is kept secret because Catalina herself plans on marrying him one day.
You can't tame something that doesn't want to be tamed, any more than you can make someone love you. All you can do is wait and see what will happen.
Estrella knows that she and her family have special names, secret ones only used in their home, hers being Esther. She also knows that in public her family appears to be Christian, yet they have customs that are a bit different than most.
When she sees decrees that are placed in the town square, stating what to look for in order to find out who is a false Christian, Estrella starts to wonder if her family is hiding something from her. When she learns that her family is really Jewish, her whole world is rocked to its core.
The Spanish Inquisition is taking place and false Christians are charged with heresy, tried as guilty, then sentenced to death.
The day when the arrests began reminded me of the day of the burning books, when the air was filled with sparks, when something bad crept out onto the Plaza from the deep, evil place, something that would become so strong no one could catch it or beat it down or lock it away.
Soon Estrella's family is in danger and before she knows it her worst fears are coming true. Her grandfather, a doctor, is accused of practicing sorcery. Her mother, who uses herbs to heal, is accused of being a witch. Estrella must figure out what to do to help save her family and herself.
Incantation is a moving story. You get a glimpse of the horror during the Spanish Inquisition through a 16 year olds eyes. It's a story about love, betrayal and family. I think Alice Hoffman did a wonderful job writing about this tragic time in history. As usual her writing is beautiful and poignant. When I finished reading this book, I just sat back and thought about it. It's one of those books I won't soon forget.
I thought about how the soldiers had burned the books first. How the pages were like doves. Everything we knew condemned us, and our questioning condemned us most of all. Knowledge was the way of our people, and knowledge was dangerous. It was the thing that freed you and the thing that put you in peril. It was the key to the ten gates. I saw them clearly now, each and every one, the gates that were there for me. Ashes, Bones, Grass, Heart, Stone, Love, Sorrow, Blood, Earth, Sky.
As a novelist, I am constantly reinventing entire worlds. Every book is a new beginning, but as with Estrella, at the core of every novel are the themes closest to me: love and loss.
-
Alice Hoffman
