Friday 16 August 2013

Review: Born Wicked

 Born Wicked
Author:
Release date: February 7th 2012 

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.

Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word... especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.


If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.


After the Cahill Sisters mother dies, all responsibility is passed down to the oldest, Cate. She takes it upon herself  to raise her little sister, to keep the middle child out of trouble, to watch out for them to the best of her ability. There's a reason, besides the obvious, that Cate takes it very seriously. They're witches, and in New England,  in an alternate history, that's a very bad thing. Though basically, being born female is a bad thing. If you're found guilty of witchcraft, you're trialled (sometimes), sent away to an asylum, ship worked, or you just...disappear. Just like magic. Poof.  New England never used to be like this,  witches had control, and religion was a choice as was freedom. Threatened, the Brotherhood rose with the first Terror, casting out the witches, controlling everything and suffocating them, and God forbid you don't do as they say or you'll be acting against the Lord and  perceived as a witch. The brotherhood prefer their women weak, uneducated, obedient and as dull as dishwater.