The Night Strangers

 The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian  378 pages

Summary from publisher: In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts. 

           
The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain after double engine failure. Unlike the Miracle on the Hudson, however, most of the passengers aboard Flight 1611 die on impact or drown. The body count? Thirty-nine - a coincidence not lost on Chip when he discovers the number of bolts in that basement door. Meanwhile, Emily finds herself wondering about the women in this sparsely populated White Mountain village - self-proclaimed herbalists - and their interest in her fifth-grade daughters. Are the women mad? Or is it her husband, in the wake of the tragedy, whose grip on sanity has become desperately tenuous?   

And here's what I thought: I have read other books by this author that I enjoyed, and I liked this one --- although not as much as some of the others, admittedly. This is a ghost story combined with a creepy haunted-house seeming story, combined with herbal lore. The characters are interesting and I liked that sometimes, I couldn't quite tell if they were reliable narrators or not. It's clear that something is wrong with Chip, since he seems to be seeing and hearing dead people. And some of the women in the town definitely seem to be hiding something --- are they witches? Maybe just weird women? I liked some of the elements of the story, although I sometimes became a little impatient with some of the characters. And, there were some surprises here -- and I was definitely surprised by the ending and had expected something different.  

Alchemy's Daughter

 

Alchemy’s Daughter by Mary A. Osborne    268 pages

Santina Pietra is a seventeen-year-old living in 14^th-Century Italy; San Gimignano to be exact. There aren’t many alternatives for young adult women at this time. The two best options are marriage or the convent. She can stay at home as a spinster and take care of her father; her mother having died many years ago.

Santina’s father has his eye set on a much older man for her husband. But she doesn’t even like him, much less love him. She loves Calandrino, a scholar and friend of her father’s.

Santina is no ordinary woman. She wants to follow her love of knowledge and be something more than a brood mare. She spends her day studying, looking forward to her weekly lesson with Calandrino. However, when he seemingly abandons her for studies at a far-away university, she is devastated.

Instead of capitulating to her father’s wishes that she marry like her sisters, Santina leaves home to study with the local midwife Trotula. In the small cabin, she learns how to fend for herself, how to help deliver the villages babies, and cure the population’s sicknesses. Santina thrives in this role, no matter that both she and Tortula are considered witches.

This story may be set in the 1340s, but Santina resembles a 21^st –Century woman. She is fearless, modern, intelligent, and strong. I feel that the young adult women who read this will find not only inspiration, but role models in both women.

The story was rather slow in the beginning, but quickly moved into a can’t-put-it-down tale of strong women. That’s why I gave Alchemy’s Daughter four out of 5 stars.