A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Publisher: Harcourt Books

Release Date: April 1, 2003

Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis:

"Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey had big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown asks her to burn a bundle of secret letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers the letters reveal the grim truth behind a murder.

Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, this astonishing novel weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, real, and wholly original."

Review:

To start off, the synopsis for this book is nothing like the book. It doesn't really talk about the murder, only in a couple of chapters. But I still loved the story and the characters!

The one thing that I really liked about this book was how real the characters and the plot was. When you were reading it you could really feel like you were there with the characters and experiencing everything that they were.

It is about a girl named Mattie who everyone depends on in the family. Her mother died and she has to take on the responsibility that most mothers would normally do. Her one safe haven is school, she is the one of two people who ever graduated from her school and she has big dreams. To be a writter.

Her father doesn't want her to go. (I can see why he doesn't want her to go but it kind of annoyed me because he should let his daughter do what she wants and make a real life for herself) In the end she goes to work at the Glenmore because her dad lets her (yay!) but only so that she can help pay of somethings at the farm.

I loved this book, each chapter had something that you weren't really expecting and the ending was a complete shocker. I highly recommend this book to everyone and hope that you all enjoy it as well!