Customer Reviews

We Hear the Dead

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We Hear The Dead was not what I expected. This is an intelligent, well developed story that takes place in the mid 1800's and chronicles the emergence of the Fox sisters into the the spiritualism craze of the period. The writing reflects the time, adding charm to the characters and a real sense of the period.

Maggie and Kate are quite young when they first decide to play a trick on a visiting relative that they don't like. How their simple prank escalates into a sensationalistic career for them both is quite a story. The book offers up an effective commentary on our willingness to believe what we want to believe, whether it be the Fox sister's client's willingness to believe in the hereafter, or the sisters own efforts to convince themselves that what they are doing is worthwhile.

The author does a great job of creating characters that are complex and believable. I didn't always like Maggie and Kate but I did feel like I understood them. Their sister Leah is a wonderfully complex character and I spent quite a bit of the story trying to figure out her motivations. She was in turn infuriating, courageous, criminal, and loving.

The author brings in important issues of the period, and by tying in the love story between Maggie and Elisha, truly places her story firmly in its place in history. This is a great piece of historical fiction in that it tells a unique story and gives the reader a true sense of the time, the feeling of the country, and what it was like to be a young teen in a somewhat unconventional situation.

This is a big recommend for any fan of historical fiction. It's a great read for anyone ages 10 and up, with no content or language concerns. This book made me want to read more about Maggie and Elisha, so I was very glad to see the author's inclusion of ideas for further reading. I think anyone who reads this book will be searching for more information about these intriguing characters. Don't miss this one!

When mischievous sisters Maggie and Kate Fox hear that their dreaded niece, Lizzie, is coming for a visit, they immediately start thinking of ways to get rid of her. Their prank takes the form of rapping noises that spell out messages from the dead, but instead of making Lizzie flee in fear, their plan backfires, and soon they have not only Lizzie and their family convinced, but the whole town.

All of a sudden, neighbors want to hold séances to give messages to their deceased loved ones, an innocent man is accused of murder, and a reporter comes to investigate, turning their harmless little prank into something much bigger.

The girls are thrilled with all the attention, but when their older sister, Leah, makes a visit and witnesses a spirit rapping for herself, she immediately sees through their shenanigans and recognizes that it is one of their tricks. Rather than turning them in, however, she gives them a choice: come with her and allow her to take charge of the rappings and make the decisions, or be revealed as frauds. Under Leah's control, the spirit circles turn into a business venture, as she starts charging admission and adds a vast arsenal of spooky tricks to the evening's entertainment.

The sisters travel around holding seances, and their fame grows, giving rise to spiritualism and mesmerism, and causing many more "mediums" to be discovered. Not everyone is impressed, though, and more than once they find themselves confronted by disbelievers and skeptics, even having to flee for their lives on occasion.

One of these skeptics is Elisha Kent Kane, a charismatic and well-known Arctic explorer who, despite his misgivings about her occupation, takes a great liking to Maggie and begins to court her. He insists that she give up the spirit rapping and the deception, even offering to provide her with an education and place to stay in order to improve her social status. Maggie finds herself with a decision to make, as she is torn between her feelings for Elisha and what he can provide, and her old way of life and the acceptance of her family.

HIGH SPIRITS is a fascinating book, made even more interesting by the fact that the story of the Fox sisters is based in truth. I enjoyed every second of reading it, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Readers will be swept along with Maggie and Kate as they bamboozle an entire nation, and will feel for Maggie as she debates whether or not to leave the profession and then has to deal with the consequences of her decision.

Dianne K. Salerni has written a brilliant debut novel and I am eagerly awaiting her next.

Reviewed by: Andie Z.

Man. I'm not a big person for history. Wait, that's a lie. I majored in CLASSICS for crying out loud. I love history. But sometimes reading about it can be dry. I have yet to meet a history textbook that I could befriend. And my high school history teacher? Let's just say she and I never saw eye to eye. But that doesn't mean I can't get sucked in by a good historical fiction -- especially a story filled with intrigue based on the lives of some really real -- really spooky -- sisters.

Dianne K. Salerni`s WE HEAR THE DEAD is as riveting as it is mysterious. If you haven't heard of the Fox sisters, you'll want to know everything about them by the time you're finished with Salerni`s story. Maggie Fox -- the narrator for most of the story -- never meant for a prank to turn into a nationwide phenomenon. When her much older sister Leah's daughter Lizzie comes to visit, Maggie and her younger sister Kate are none too thrilled. Lizzie is seventeen, slightly older than Maggie and Kate, and not the brightest crayon in the box. So when Kate and Maggie insinuate that the sounds coming from the bedroom of their rental house might be ghosts, Lizzie falls for it instantly.

Before long, the Fox girls' parents are looking around for the source of the sounds, followed by the neighbors. Soon, Kate and Maggie are so entrenched in their prank that they can't turn it around. They're making "rapping" noises to feign spirit communication and are acting as mediums. And when Leah finds out, she tells Kate and Maggie they have a choice: do what she says and take their act to a whole new level, or be exposed.

As the girls move around the Northeast promoting Spiritualism, Maggie falls deeper and deeper into the ruse, while Kate begins to believe that she actually has "the sight." Sometimes the girls are met as celebrities, and sometimes chased away as witches, their notoriety building with every "spirit circle." Maggie worries about her sister, and constantly must reconcile her deception with the good she hopes it brings her customers. But when she meets famed explorer, the young, charming Dr. Elisha Kane, who believes that Maggie is better than her life as a supposed medium, and love could be her undoing.

Part mystery, part romance, part history and all drama, WE HEAR THE DEAD is a true page-turner that even the "I only read nonfiction" types won't be able to put down. And while it works solidly as YA, with all its 1850s charm and the strong narrative voice, I'd love to see this title cross-marketed in adult historical fiction sections. I can't wait to see what Dianne Salerni comes out with next!

I originally picked up this book because it looked like a great paranormal read--eerie title, mysterious cover and a storyline of two girls who can communicate with the dead. I was wrong, wrong, wrong! And it was in this wrongness that I found an incredible book! What I had stumbled on, instead or paranormal fiction, was my very favorite kind of book-quirky historical stories.

This is the tale of two sisters who pretend (or do they?) to be able to communicate with ghosts. What starts as a childish game has them growing up and becoming quite famous. The girls' fame causes them to move to bigger cities and holding seances, capturing the attention of America. When one sister starts to believe her own stories, the other wants to come clean. That's when the real fun begins!

What made this book so delightful is that is was actually based on true events and real people. When I found that out, I raced to my computer and spent a couple of hours reading about these wacky, wonderful women. The storyline seemed to hard to believe-who in their right mind would buy such a story? This was at a time of mesmerism and spiritualism fever in the US and, really, what has changed since then? There's even an entire channel on cable devoted to the paranormal.

These fascinating sisters and their stories kept me glued to the book the whole way through and I was sorry when their story ended. I didn't expect so much from one story and the romance towards the end was just one nugget of fun. I loved the heartbreaking moments and the fact that the characters so openly admitted their mistakes and fallibility.

This was one instance where I was so very glad to be so very wrong.

I felt like a little kid listening to an astounding story being told by some wizened person recounting a rather shadowy part of their lives. While initially the page count had me a little nervous (really, how much story is there to tell, I thought?), it quickly didn't become a problem as I swallowed down gulp after gulp after gulp of this engrossing story.

It's interesting because starting off the story, I had a feeling I wasn't going to care what happened to these girls, whether they fell to ruins or not. I mean, here they are, building up a prank into the dupe of the century all because they didn't want to get scolded or have their family turned out for what they did or suffer any of the repercussions of their actions at all. But as the story goes on, and you continue to get this behind-the-scenes look at these girls lives, you can't help but ask yourself the same questions Maggie asks herself - Is she, at the end of the day, bringing much-needed comfort to the bereaved, even if it's a lie?

I didn't so much like the story from Kate's perspective. In fact I think the story would have been just fine without it but at the same time, it created this juxtaposition between the two girls - Maggie knew she was a fake; as Kate got older, she felt that she actually could commune with the dead. So is there a lie or isn't there? Or are we capable of convincing ourselves of what we want us to be?

I loved the voice of the story. It's definitely told in a rather antiquated prose type of language but it's not so littered with moth balls that it's unreadable. It only adds atmosphere to the story as a whole. It sets the tone for the mid-1800s and makes the reader feel all the more there in the story.

The love story aspect of the novel was unbearably heart-wrenching. I'll admit it. I cried at some points. It was such a tumultuous affair between Maggie and Elisha and so symbolic of life during that time that I couldn't help but feel as destroyed by Maggie's situation as she was. The harder part? This was real. I'm afraid any little tidbit about the ups and downs of this relationship would give away valuable plot secrets and this story is just too good to do that so I'll leave it for you to read. Just know that it'll rip at your heart as you read it.

And then there's the historical aspect. While some points of the novel were dramatized to suit the story, for the most part the major points were true. These two girls did found a religion and like I said, watching the magic show from behind the curtain left me in this wide-eyed awe that these people, so many people from all across the board, and so influential, could believe that what these girls were doing was true. But how fake was it? Did Kate really have some kind of ability like she felt she did? How red in the face were the followers of this Spiritualist movement when it was debunked? And what does it mean for the rest of it still going on now? Have scheisters graduated to CGI-esque effects to pull off the dupe or or is there something there to actually believe?

Not only is We Hear the Dead a great story, it makes you re-think all of the magical mystical out there. Just what's real and what isn't? What these girls did was at the same time abhorrent and amazing. And their story is hard to pull away from. I didn't want to put the book down. I just had to know what came next. And hopefully you'll feel the same way.

This is one of my favorite books EVER, and I definitely recommend it to anyone. It has something for everybody-- history, romance, adventure, a family with secrets, a creepy old basement, and even an arctic explorer.

I had never heard of the Fox sisters before reading this book, but reading it made me want to learn even more about them. (I recommend consulting the bibliography after you read it.) It is a fascinating topic; I haven't seen any other historical fiction novels on it yet. I'm sure Ann Rinaldi wishes she'd thought of it before! This is a must-read for those who love historical fiction.

Even for those who do not necessarily enjoy historical fiction, this is an interesting book to read. There is something for everyone. I enjoyed every aspect of the book, but a few highlights include Maggie's relationship with Dr. Elisha Kent Kane (another fascinating but little-known historical figure), the exciting scenes involving people wishing to expose the sisters as frauds, and the dilemmas Maggie faces in choosing to please her family or to please Elisha. This book has the potential to spark great discussions at book clubs.

Also, it is heartening to see a quality, worthwhile, and interesting read in the young adult section. I wish for this book all the popularity of Twilight, The Clique, and the Nicholas Sparks books. I believe this book deserves it immeasurably more. Maggie is never whiny, and Kate is just plain captivating in her short, spacy (yet eerily matter-of-fact) chapters. Dr. Kane, Leah, Calvin, and all the characters are very accessible and human.

The 422 pages of this debut novel went by entirely too quickly. I hope to read more from Diane K. Salerni soon!

Meghan

Age 16

P.S. As an aside, the cover/spine is very pretty. It looks great on a shelf!

While I believe in ghosts and that some people can indeed talk to the dead. I dont believe in many of those that claim spiritualism as their religion. While I know some of them are real I believe many of them are lying to make money. Call me a skeptic but thats what I think.

That said it made this a really interesting book to read about the Fox sisters and what they did and how they did it and what happened to them. It was very well written and a enjoyable read while being a very interesting book.

I really look forward to reading more by this author.

I was impressed with the competent hand that Dianne has as a writer. The book was so smooth and steady in her telling of the Fox sisters foray into spiritualism, that I almost believed Maggie and Kate were writing it. Maggie, the elder of the girls, I fell in love with almost immediately. I worried for her sister, and fretted over Maggie's explorer beaux, Dr. Kane with her.

Dianne steadily builds this story, step by careful step, during which she give us the feel and language of the mid-1800's. All the emotions and realities of that era are adhered to, with every sentence polished and loved until they glow like a grand hall mirror of the time.

Maggie Fox and her sister, Kate, are just playing around when they pretend they can communicate with the dead. But soon their brother is digging up the basement and finding what may be a body, and people everywhere are coming to them seeking to communicate with their loved ones who have passed on. They can't tell the truth without getting into a lot of trouble, but they didn't realize just how much their fame would spread.

When Maggie falls in love with well-known explorer Elisha Kent Kane, she wants to give it all up to be with him. But she finds she can't just walk away when her family depends on her so much. Caught between the life she has and the life she wants, Maggie struggles to find a solution that will let her be true to herself without hurting those she loves.

Based on the true story of the Fox sisters and the beginning of the Spiritualist movement in the mid 1850s, We Hear the Dead by Dianne K. Salerni is a fascinating look at how something can start out as a lark and then spiral out of control. The Fox sisters' story is the 1800s version of a video going viral and taking on a life of its own.

This is great historical fiction, but mother-daughter book clubs can add a modern touch to their conversations as well. Issues to discuss include differences in technology and communications between then and now, and how that would affect someone making claims similar to those of the Fox sisters today. Other topics include deceiving the outside world to meet the expectations of those in your family, social constraints on women of the times, expectations of social classes, and more.

Salerni includes a list at the back of the book for further reading, and it could be fun for members of a group to find out more about the real life Maggie Fox and Elisha Kent Kane to present at a meeting. As I didn't know about Maggie before reading We Hear the Dead, I didn't know how her story would turn out. Salerni does a great job of weaving fictional details into the framework of actual events to keep the pace moving and keep the reader interested until the very end. We Hear the Dead would be a great book for groups with girls aged 14 and older.

Absolutely a page turner. Although I am WAY past my teenage years I couldn't put the book down!!