July 2014, Gollancz, 320 pages, Ebook, Review copy
Psst: the ebook is on a special price £1.99 until 7th August! Go get it now!
Summary from Orion
Rebecca, a 15-year-old American, isn't entirely happy with her life,
comfortable though it is. Still, even she knows that she shouldn't talk
to strangers. So when her mysterious neighbour Miss Hatfield asked her
in for a chat and a drink, Rebecca wasn't entirely sure why she said
yes. It was a decision that was to change everything.
For
Miss Hatfield is immortal. And now, thanks to a drop of water from the
Fountain of Youth, Rebecca is as well. But this gift might be more of a
curse, and it comes with a price. Rebecca is beginning to lose her
personality, to take on the aspects of her neighbour. She is becoming
the next Miss Hatfield.
But before the process goes too
far, Rebecca must travel back in time to turn-of-the-century New York
and steal a painting, a picture which might provide a clue to the
whereabouts of the source of immortality. A clue which must remain
hidden from the world. In order to retrieve the painting, Rebecca must
infiltrate a wealthy household, learn more about the head of the family,
and find an opportunity to escape. Before her journey is through, she
will also have - rather reluctantly - fallen in love. But how can she
stay with the boy she cares for, when she must return to her own time
before her time-travelling has a fatal effect on her body? And would she
rather stay and die in love, or leave and live alone?
And
who is the mysterious stranger who shadows her from place to place? A
hunter for the secret of immortality - or someone who has already found
it?
Nayuleska's thoughts
I thought Miss Hatfield (6th one) was
going to end up being really evil, a liar, and mess things up for the 7th Miss
H right up until the end of the book. I'm not entirely sure where I got that
idea from! Maybe I was expecting a major baddie to appear. There is quite a bit
of character conflict, but no outright enemy. That, along with my other preconception
that the 6th Miss H would appear lots to order the 7th Miss H around, die, or
cause the younger one hassle were false. It didn't stop me from enjoying the
book!
I loved the way that Cynthia, the 7th
Miss H assimilated the role. It was a lot for a young teen to deal with, but it
totally felt like she had the strength of character from the deceased Miss
Hatfield's fill her with courage and a bit of risk taking. I obviously saw the
romance that unfolded, and, as I had a habit of doing for this book presumed it
would end happily for a while and then some major happened. Well, scratch out
the happy ending part. I wasn't bothered as romance isn't what draws me into a
book.
No, I adored all the different outfits
the 7th Miss H wore, the luxuries she was showered with which didn't make her
conceited-she realised the maids were just like her and refused to treat them
as inferior. I ended up loving Nellie and Hannah so was rather glad she didn't
go hopping through various times and got to stick around in the start of the
20th century. Maybe in the next book the 6th Miss H will reveal her evil side,
or vanish-I'm certain something will happen, probably nothing that I've
imagined though!
Find out more on Anna's website.
Suggested read
Another fun mystery read is Jewel of the Thames by Angela Misri (Young Adult, 10E/10E)
Question & Answer with Anna Caltabianco
It's with great pleasure that I'm hosting Anna on this Q&A about her book, The Seventh Miss Hatfield which I think everyone ought to read.
Nayu 1) I'd
somehow expected Miss Hatfield to make more of an appearance throughout
the story to Cynthia-what were your reasons for having her appear
infrequently and not
suddenly disappear like the other Miss Hatfield?
Anna: As
a teenager, I think it’s important to learn to make our own decisions
and to live with the consequences of those decisions. We need to be
given room to fail, and to pick ourselves back up.
Similarly, Cynthia needed room to make her own decisions, even if that
meant stumbling at times.
That
being said, we also need a support structure, someone to turn to before
we learn the ropes of being an adult. Miss Hatfield is Cynthia’s
support structure.
Nayu 2)
I promise I don't usually make so many assumptions about characters at
the start of the story, but I was convinced right until the end that
Miss Hatfield was evil and telling Cynthia a bunch
of lies. What made you pick the time travel itself the enemy for
Cynthia? At least that's how I perceived it.
Anna: In
our everyday lives, I think we often think of people as “evil” or “bad”
when we don’t like them. It’s easy to reduce people to one--dimensional
properties, when in reality, people seldom
do things just to spite others; they have motives, like any other
person. Miss Hatfield can seem tense, and in the beginning, doesn’t even
tell Cynthia everything. It can be easy to assume that she’s the
antagonist. Time travel, like other face--less troubles
we encounter in our everyday lives, is unyielding and unsympathetic.
Nayu 3)
It is extraordinary how strikingly accurate Cynthia's view of her
previous self sees things as a dream, a bit separate from who she
becomes, especially as that type of perspective tends
to come as people get older. How did you find placing that distance for
Cynthia-was it from personal experience or from witnessing others'
experiences?
Anna: I
think it was a little bit of both. When I remember my younger self,
whether its when I was five or me a year ago, it doesn’t feel quite like
myself. I saw a similar thing when I saw my grandparents
looking at old photos of themselves in their twenties. It wasn’t as if
they were looking at a stranger, but someone they used to know. I think
this distancing of your former self and your current self is just an
inescapable part of growing older. We all have
it.
Nayu 4)
Unlike a lot of readers I know, romance isn't a reason why I read
books. I really enjoyed the fact that Cynthia didn't spend all her time
swooning over Henley - is there a reason why the
love was unrequited? Had you ever considered a temporary happily ever
after for the duo, as there seemed to me hints Henley could have been
suited to immortality?
Anna: As
a member of the teenage female population, I love reading a good
romance. It’s not the main reason I read books, but if it’s an
occasional thing, it can’t hurt. However, it does irk me when
a female character is reduced to swooning over her love interest. As a
girl, I’d like to think that we’re worth more than that, and can have
our own identities outside of our relationships.
As
for a temporary happily ever after for Henley and Cynthia, it did cross
my mind more than a few times, but I also saw that the book needed to
end the way it was supposed to end, rather than
me forcing it to end a certain way.
Nayu 5)
If you were the 8th Miss Hatfield, where would you most like to go?
What were the reasons for sending Cynthia to the early 20th century?
Anna: That’s
such a hard question! I think I’d love to go into the future…maybe
3014? I’m sure a lot would have changed, but don’t they say that the
more things change, the more they stay the same?
The
turn of the century seemed to me to be a really exciting time period.
So much was happening in New York all at once. Old traditions were
meeting
new innovations. It was a period of head on collisions and wonderful
confusion…much like the experience of adolescence is to most teenagers.
Thank you for stopping by Anna, I know I'm not alone in being eager for book 2!
No comments:
Post a Comment