#YABookReview 'Wuthering High' by Cara Lockwood

Wuthering High by Cara Lockwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this from Better World Books because it combines two things I love: Cara Lockwood's writing and what's probably my all-time favorite book, Wuthering Heights. I've previously enjoyed Lockwood's Every Demon Has His Day and Can't Teach an Old Demon New Tricks (you can read my expanded review here on this blog), both of which were silly, fun chick lit and fairly quick, easy reads. This was similar, except the protagonist is 15 years old, placing it more in the young adult than chick lit categories (not that the two are mutually exclusive).

Teenage Miranda has made some bad choices, including one that resulted in her father's BMW colliding with a tree. As a result, Miranda's dad sends her off to a mysterious island. No, the plot doesn't exactly mirror Shakespeare's The Tempest, nor is it a modern retelling of Wuthering Heights like The Heights.

Instead, what this book has is some startling appearances of long-dead novelists, Heathcliff emerging from the pages of the novel from whence he came, a missing girl who may or may not be a modern incarnation of Catherine Earnshaw, a serial arsonist who seems strangely like Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre, a Satan-worshiping roommate, and possibly a vampire.


This book reminded me a little of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a little of Eileen Favorite's The Heroines (another book in which Heathcliff comes out of the novel and into reality - read the review here on this blog), and a little of Marlene Perez's "Dead Is" series. I like all those things. When I read the first few pages, I wasn't sure I was going to like Miranda (she seems a little spoiled at first, but she's really misunderstood), but she quickly grew on me. I wasn't sure I would like a young adult book that had the MTV logo on the front cover, but it was better than expected. In fact, I think I liked this even better than Lockwood's chick lit series.

This is the first in a 4-part series by Lockwood. I haven't yet decided whether or not I'll go on the read the rest of the series.

I purchased this book with my own funds and was not asked or obligated in any way to review it. This review represents my own honest opinion.

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Review of 'The Heroines'

The cover of my edition portrays a woods in which great heroines of fiction are lounging. Hester Prynne (with Pearl) and Scarlett O'Hara are the easiest to discern. The concept behind the book is something like Inkheart: the Heroines appear to Anne-Marie Entwhistle, take up residence in her inn and subsequently torment and fascinate her 13-year-old daughter Penny. Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina each make an appearance, as do J.D. Salinger's Franny and Emily Bronte's Catherine Earnshaw.

Catherine was the most problematic for a teenage Anne-Marie; for Penny, it's Deidre, the tragic Heroine of a Celtic ballad. Each of these Heroines brings with them a Hero, and this complication causes Penny's life to become more like a chapter from Girl, Interrupted.

The author, Eileen Favorite, is an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. That in itself appeals to me, as does her fictional blend of whimsy, second wave feminism and angsty YA soul-searching. The novel questions the nature of reality itself in an almost Buddhist fashion, giving it fascinating depth. I expected something more humorous, less tragicomic, but I'm pleasantly surprised.



I also like the opening quote, from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: "Alas, if the heroine of one novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?"

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Image: Mary Hallock Foote, 1878 (public domain).

Everand (Scribd): https://www.everand.com/audiobook/1039689816/The-Sisters-Bronte

Kobo, Walmart: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/sisters-bronte-the?sId=6a01a41a-6954-46e2-92b7-715ecb984101&ssId=rkt46HsVt7MIaCMsbQc2V&cPos=1