The Vespertine [Hardcover]

Saundra Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2011

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. During the summer of 1889, Amelia travels to Baltimore to live with her wealthy cousin, but soon after her arrival she begins having strange visions of the future.

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset—visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies. However, a forbidden romance with Nathaniel, an artist, threatens the new life Amelia is building in Baltimore. This enigmatic young man is keeping secrets of his own—still, Amelia finds herself irrepressibly drawn to him.

When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia's world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she's not the seer of dark portents, but the cause.

 

Q&A with Saundra Mitchell

Q: Historical fiction meets paranormal romance in your newest book, The Vespertine. This is a bit of a departure from your last book, Shadowed Summer, which was more of a mystery/thriller. Where did you get the idea for The Vespertine and why did you decide to make the switch?

Mitchell: If I'd managed to write my original version of The Vespertine, it would have been a lot more like Shadowed Summer! It started out as another contemporary southern gothic novel--still about a girl who could see the future in the sunset. Her prophecies were supposed to set off a chain of modern-day Salem Witch Trials. It was definitely meant to be a thriller.

I got about sixty pages into it, and it just didn't work. So I tried moving the same idea to a still-contemporary boarding school in Maine. I only got about 30 pages into that. I was starting to think it was just a bad idea, and I should move on.

Shortly after abandoning version two, my best friend and I watched the new BBC adaptation of Wuthering Heights. And then suddenly, I had a first scene in my head--Amelia van den Broek, half-mad, returning to her ancestral home in the dead of night, and being locked in an attic by her furious brother. I have to admit, I intended for someone in The Vespertine to be a serial killer--right up until the third chapter, I still thought I was writing a thriller. Then said character decided he'd rather be a painter, and the rest is paranormal romance!

Q: Did you always know you wanted to write for young adults? What do you enjoy the most about it?

Mitchell: Writing YA novels is actually my second writing career--my day job is screenwriting and producing. For fifteen years, I've worked with Dreaming Tree Films on various teen filmmaking programs. I've written screenplays based on teen ideas, and have seen at least four of the young screenwriters I have taught go on to careers in film! It's extraordinary to me how talented, and how dedicated, teens are--and I love the richness and rawness of their emotions and their experiences. Everyone's so passionate and so real.

And now it's an extraordinary pleasure to write books for teens, and connect with them directly, author to reader. I didn't grow up thinking that I wanted to write for young adults--but my whole life has been dedicated to doing just that. I wouldn't want to write for anyone else.

Q: The city of Baltimore in the late 1800s, where The Vespertine takes place, offers a rich and dynamic historical backdrop for your story. Were you always interested in Victorian Baltimore? Why did you choose to set your story there?

Mitchell: Once I realized The Vespertine would be a historical novel, I knew it had to be set in Baltimore. The city has a great history--their soldiers fought in the American Revolution, then in the Civil War, the city offered up both Union and Confederate troops. Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" about a flag that yet waved over Baltimore's Fort McHenry. Edgar Allen Poe died there, as dissolute as any gothic hero. And Baltimore is also home to one of the first free public libraries in the United States.

Since I wanted to write about middle class girls, I wanted to set the novel in an integrated city. Baltimore has had a free black middle class for three hundred years, neighborhoods that overlap, people from a myriad of cultures and backgrounds working and playing together. It's a major world port, and a working-class city.

Other people have done more than enough justice to the white elite upper class in Gilded-Age New York. With The Vespertine, I wanted to explore the kind of American city that many of the rest of us came from. The fact that Baltimore has fabulous parks and monuments and architecture to set beautiful scenes didn't hurt, either.

Q: Amelia, the book’s protagonist, leads a very different life than most young girls of today; however, a lot of the things that she experiences--friendships, romance, social class issues--have not changed much over the last 100 years! What can a sixteen-year-old girl of today take from Amelia’s experiences?

Mitchell: I know when I was sixteen, I was a lot like Amelia--I didn't know who I was, or what I really wanted. I just wanted my life to be exciting, so a lot of times, I just went along.

Amelia definitely goes along--telling fortunes to get popular, not actually her idea. Sneaking to see Nathaniel in Annapolis, also not her idea. But even though she didn't actively make those choices, those choices have a huge impact on her life and the lives of everyone around her. Amelia ultimately has to own up to the fact that not deciding her own fate is still a decision.

I really feel like this is a book about making a transition from being someone that things happen to, to becoming someone who makes things happen. And I think young women today still need to be reassured that they are their own person, they have agency to make decisions, and they should be the heroes of their own stories!

Review

Praise for The Vespertine:

"[A] richly conceived historical romance. . . . Fans of Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty will find themselves enchanted by this atmospheric tale."
—Bulletin

"Equal parts vivid period detail, gothic melodrama, and foreboding premonitions coming true . . . an absorbing tale."
—Booklist

"Written in a passionate, inviting voice, The Vespertine is a rich, historical novel of otherworldly power, forbidden romance, and questionable motives."
—Aprilynne Pike, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Wings and Spells

"Sheer pleasure from beginning to end."
—TeenReads.com

"I savored every word of The Vespertine; I knew it was an amazing book from the first page and I was entranced until the very last."
—Carrie Ryan, New York Times Bestselling Author of the critically-acclaimed The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves

Praise for The Springsweet:

"A lovely historical romance. . . . The author conjures a convincing picture of life on the Oklahoma prairie, painting an absorbing portrait of the landscape and of the people there. . . . A high-quality, absorbing drama."
—Kirkus Reviews

"The Springsweet will steal your heart. Zora is a wounded heroine who had me cheering as she rediscovers the strength she thought she'd lost. Blend in a smoldering, yet refreshingly subtle hero, and add a twist of magic and you have a perfect romance in the Old West with another of Saundra Mitchell's signature rich and nuanced historic settings!"
—Aprilynne Pike, #1 NYT best-selling author of the Wings series

"I didn't think YA historicals could get better than The Vespertine. The Springsweet proved me wrong. This is a gorgeous, unputdownable book that will stay with you long after it's through. Saundra Mitchell just gets better and better."
—Sarah MacLean, NYT and USA Today Bestselling Author of Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake and Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord

"With Saundra Mitchell’s trademark evocative and gorgeous language, The Springsweet takes us across the plains, where the people thirst for love just as the land thirsts for water. I never wanted this book to end!"
—Carrie Ryan, NYT best-selling author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth series

 

 

Praise for The Elementals:

"In The Elementals the worlds of The Vespertine and The Springsweet collide with glass-brittle hopes and devastating consequences. The children of the supernatural must learn what their parents have long known, that even the most innocent magic demands a cost. A sumptuous read, as bittersweet as it is beautiful."
—#1 NYT Bestselling Author Aprilynne Pike

"Saundra Mitchell pulls off a thrilling conclusion to a mesmerizing series! She just gets better and better!"
—NYT Bestselling Author Carrie Ryan

"Mitchell convincingly portrays the glittering, raucous L.A. of the burgeoning movie industry and the oppressive unease of looming war."
—Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1 edition (March 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547482477
• ISBN-13: 978-0547482477
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #992,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She's dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. She teaches herself languages, raises children, and makes paper for fun. She's the author of Shadowed Summer, The Vespertine, The Springsweet, and the forthcoming The Elementals and Mistwalker. She's also the editor of the forthcoming YA anthology Defy the Dark. She always picks truth; dares are too easy.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wind feeds the Fire April 8, 2011

By Amy Willingham VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

`The Vespetine' by Saundra Mitchell is a slightly haunting but beautiful story set in the late 1800s with a Gothic twist. Amelia van den Broek has been sent to Baltimore to find a husband and not to disgrace herself in the process. Amelia is sent to stay with cousins whose daughter, Zora, and her become fast friends. Even though her family might not be considered high class there are still rules to be followed and certain level of expectations put onto to her of whom she can marry. But everything seems to be blown with the wind out of open windows as she sets eyes on Nathaneil. Nathaniel is what they refer to as a "fourteenth", a man who makes his money for paint and canvass, so of course Amelia can have nothing to do with him.

Her world is filled with making new friends, going to school, trying to become a lady and going to the occasional dance. But that all changes when the sun sets, for that is when the Vespers come to her. As the sun sets into her eyes a fire burns inside her, and she sees visions of her friends or acquaintances. At first it is thought of as great fun and when one such vision comes about to save the beauty of a friend her life is then skyrocketed into Baltimore's true Mystic. Cards coming flowing in from people all over wanted to have their fortunes told and her time comes in high demand. With Zora acting as her `manager' in all of her dealings she takes tea parties around the city giving her innocent prophecies thinking only of them as pure and helpful to those around her.

Everything seems to change around her suddenly when her vespers seem to take on a mind of her own. In one such sitting she is asked to write instead of speak what she says and unknown to her within her vision her hands fly across the page giving a detail and harsh account for everything that she sees in a fast manner. Later on Amelia sits with many calling cards face down on a table and then as she is awakened from her 'trance' finds that she has written on every card. Does knowing the future mean that you can change things? Or is that Amelia knowing what is to come the cause of things to happen?

As Zora develops a relationship with a young man named Thomas Rae, a tall, blond, handsome and extremely gentlemanly man, Amelia is thrown into a deeper love for Nathaniel. Secrets are revealed that go against everything that she was brought to be but he is the wind that feeds her fire.

Filled with many twists that will pull at your heart strings, and shocks that will make you re-read to make sure that you have read things correctly! It is a story that will leave you wanting more once you finish and I can only hope to see another! The writing style was fresh and new and very easy to follow, and I just adored the mystery of it. I would have to recommend this to older teens as it does go at a pace that a young audience might find a little slow and also some of the subject matter.

Today in the vespers I see a sequel coming out....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical/Paranormal YA - gotta love it April 1, 2011

By Chrystal (Snowdrop)

Format:Hardcover

I kept seeing this book everywhere and I loved the look of the cover - so pretty. And well, I love historical and paranormal books, so it's right up my alley.

The story is interesting because I haven't really read that many books that dealt with someone having visions, so I found this topic quite entertaining. The story started a little slow, but once the visions started it picks up quickly.

Amelia - the seer in question - is supposed to be in Baltimore to make a suitable match and find herself a husband. But with her unknown supernatural ability coming to light, eveything changes.

She is drawn to an unsuitable man - one who is below her, yet she cannot stop thinking about him. He's the historical romance version of todays stereotypical bad boy. Nathaniel tries to make it known that he is beneath her and she should really try to find someone better, so he tends to let her instigate all of their meetings. Amelia, however, is a woman on a mission and wants to be with him no matter what the cost.

Zora - her new best friend - seems a little naive when it comes to Amelia and her visions. She sees it as a great way to meet people from better classes and doesn't realize that by Amelia seeing the future, it's not always sunshine and rainbows to be predicted. Though Zora seems to love Amelia regardless and doesn't want to know her own future - though Amelia has alredy learned a part of it.

I love the way that Amelia sees the visions at sunset through the vespers and it almost takes her over - and how some of the visions are absolutely wonderful and exciting, yet others are terrifying and disheartening. And then how horrifying to learn that some of her unpleasant visions actually come true - making people more wary of her than before.

During one the sweeter moments in the book I came across this passage that made me smile: I had never known it before, how the glow of someone else's joy could reflect so completely as to be shared.

I actually was sad when the book ended, I was hoping it would go a little longer and explore some more about what happens to Amelia after all is said and done with her trip to Baltimore. The ending is quite short and wrapped up I suppose to let you decide the rest of her future - though you do get a taste - it just leaves you wanting to know a little more. I wonder if there will be a sequel to explore her life now?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars In the evening, magic happens March 2, 2011

By Madigan McGillicuddy

Format:Hardcover

The Vespertine combines historical fiction, with just a touch of mystery, supernatural occurrences and romance. In 1889, Amelia van den Broek is sent for the season from her small village in Maine to the relatively young city of Baltimore to stay with her cousin Zora, hopefully to entice a suitor for an appropriate match. While Amelia is a bit shy and overwhelmed by the city sights, Zora is exuberant and the two of them quickly become best friends. As was traditional during the time, the girls share a bed, meaning that each evening feels like a slumber party, as they whisper secrets to each other all night.

This is a world of such courtly and restrained manners that merely accidentally brushing wrists while seated next to a handsome dinner guest is enough to create a flurry of passionate feelings and enamored confusion in Amelia. Women must be tightly chaperoned at all times, and simply sneaking away to walk a few blocks down the street fills Amelia with a delicious, delirious sense of danger.

The girls make their rounds, collecting visitor's cards, attending dinner parties and balls, flirting and dancing. Zora quickly sets her heart on Thomas Rea, a doctor's son, a less than ideal, but not inappropriate choice while Amelia makes the socially disastrous mistake of becoming smitten with Nathaniel Witherspoon, an impoverished artist who makes his living as a professional party guest.

I was intrigued by the idea of the professional fourteenth guest, hired specifically as to avoid unlucky dinner parties of 13 members. It turns out this is based on a real tradition, originating in France, called a quatorzieme.

The plot thickens when Amelia's psychic gift begins to present itself. She has the ability to see the future, in absorbing visions which strike her just at the moment of sunset, or "the vespers" of the early evening. In an era when seances and mediums were all the rage, Amelia quickly is informally billed as, "Maine's Own Mystic" and soon finds herself and her cousin Zora very much in demand in society circles, as all the young women in town are eager to have their fortunes read.

I loved the scene where a rich heiress peremptorily calls Amelia for an audience, and presents her demands for fortunes to be told for her and all her party guests. As Amelia explains the limits of her gift - she can only see the future just at sunset, and only for one person at a time, she tells her, "Only a fraud can promise you everything, it's truth that has limits." I thought it made sense that Amelia becomes nearly drunk with the feeling of power her gift has given her. Towards the very end of the book, Amelia discovers she does have the ability to tell more than one fortune at once, by "spirit writing" as she goes into her evening trance, which made me curious how else the limits of her gift could be pushed.

I was happy to see that the cover of the book had been changed from the ARC. The ARC cover hints at her sunset abilities with it's rich orange tones, but the character's face is hidden by the font, and the necklace seems overly important. I thought the new cover, with it's dark, rushed, desperate feel was much more appropriate.

The only thing that marred the book for me was the discordant timeline. The story begins in the fall of 1889, with Amelia as a ruined madwoman, being kept in her brother's attic. In flashbacks, we learn the story of her wonderfully adventurous summer in Baltimore. While reading the story, it was hard to immerse oneself in the surroundings and enjoy the gaiety of the parties and balls knowing that Amelia has such a terrible future ahead of her. I was surprised and delighted then, by the ending of the book, which really turns everything around for Amelia and Nathaniel. The ending answers a lot of questions, and leaves the reader feeling very satisfied, yet with just enough mystery to warrant a sequel. This is a beautifully written book, with rich, lyrical prose that transports you to another time. I highly recommend it.