The Promised Book Review

As promised, I return with a book review! Two in fact! Just a couple of books my dad picked up for me at the library...both books are by Sarah Singleton, a novelist who seems to have won the Booktrust Teenage Prize (I know this because I am currently reading the front cover of one of the books). The book I first started reading was Sacrifice. It's about a mysterious relic from the time of the crusades which has given decedents of the knights who found it special powers, but also a curse. This curse has grown stronger down each generation resulting in insanity and illness while the gift of special powers grows weaker. The relic is a pure white lily said to have been given to the knights by an angel.

I say I started this book first because I did, but I didn't finish it first. It's one of those books that takes a long time to get going; the type that I find I don't want to read all in one night. So I began reading the other book which was Heretic which follows the story of Elizabeth and a green girl she finds in the forest, Isabelle. The novel is centred around persecution, of Catholics and of those accused of witchcraft. And it involves faeries - something that always grabs my attention. However, the books are both similar when it comes to setting, as they are both set in the past, although in different time periods. They also share a strong link with religion and magic, two themes which I think Sarah Singleton rather likes...

Anyway, I found Heretic a lot more interesting than Sacrifice as the story moved along at a faster pace (and it was just a tad more interesting), although both books share equally complex plots, and both are the kind that you can't read all in one go. It's not because they're long, it's just they are that kind of book - to me anyway. I can't think of how else to describe what I mean...maybe I'm just a bit fruit loops when it comes to books. Ok, back to the point. I would recommend reading both books and I am awarding Heretic 7 out of 10, and Sacrifice gets 6 out of 10.