Alis by Naomi Rich
14-year-old Alis has always been happy with her life in the community of believers. She has always assumed that she would marry, have children, and become a respected Elder like her mother...until her parents tell her that she must marry the Minister, a stern man more than twice her age.
Alis runs away from her small community, and falls in love with a boy named Luke. Then her circumstances change again, and she runs again, this time to a bigger city to seek her older brother. Life in the big city very different from anything she has known, and eventually she returns to the smaller town looking for Luke...but circumstances have changed again.
This novel seems to be trying a little too hard to be a story about questioning faith, finding oneself, the strength of love, and half-a-dozen other things. Alis tries to be loyal and intelligent, but she makes a lot of really dumb mistakes, and even when she was certain to be sentenced to death by hanging, I wasn't very worried about her. With all the books written recently about a young girl forced by her religion to marry an older man,Alis will probably be overshadowed by similar and stronger stories.
I can appreciate the blogger's POV, but I had a greater appreciation for ALIS. I was drawn to the dystopian world created by Naomi Rich--in the strange way we can be drawn to read about something which is also repellent. Perhaps my attraction relates to having written and published a novel in which the reverse occurs: my main character is in love with a minister more than twice her age. It's called SIMPLE TWISTS OF FAITH by Judy Dearborn Nill. I would be happy if you would consider reviewing it on this site.
ReplyDeleteHi Judy,
ReplyDeleteWe'd be delighted to take a look at your book, however, KCLS doesn't own it and neither does Einstein Middle School.
If you send a review copy to the Richmond Beach library (address listed below), we'll put it on the stack for read-and-review.
Best wishes,
Aarene
Richmond Beach Library
19601 21st Ave NW
Shoreline WA 98177