Book Review: A Northern Light

TITLE: A Northern Light (or A Gathering Light in some instances)
AUTHOR: Jennifer Donnelly
PUBLISHED: 2003
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: historical fiction, drama
PREMISE: Maddie wants to go to college in a time when educated women are not appreciated.
MY REVIEW: I have mixed feelings about this book, but ultimately I think it's very good. On the very plus side. The writing is great, even if the author does use the annoying present tense that feels out of place in an historical novel. There are some very nice lines. It was nice seeing an intelligent heroine for once who was worried about more then just who to date. The book also made you think which as we know is a rarety in YA.
However, the story is a tad bit dull and predictable. Maddie is not very interesting. Even the slight mystery of Grace's murder is pretty easily solved so that becomes boring and so pointless you wonder why the author bothered with it at all. I also sort of think the awards this book got are stretching things just a bit because while it was very good, I wouldn't really call it an award winning book, you know?
But all in all it's still very good. A nice solid historical novel that does everything historical books are supposed too and it's thought-provoking and well written. I just wish the author had made the storyline a bit more interesting. I reccomend this to all historical fiction readers.
WHO SHOULD READ: historical fiction fans, fans of Revolution (the author's newest book)
MY RATING: Four out of Five diaries