The Revenant

April 18, 2011
Gensler makes a solid debut with an eerie and suspenseful work of historical fiction in which everyone is a murder suspect. In the summer of 1896, 17-year-old Willie heads west from Tennessee when she discovers that her mother wants her to return home from school to a life of household drudgery. Willie steals her classmate's identity and accepts a position as an English teacher at the Cherokee Female Seminary in "Indian Territory," teaching girls no younger than she. The school is the opposite of what she expects: elite, challenging, and allegedly haunted by the spirit of a girl who drowned one year earlier. Willie immediately has her hands full dealing with the snobbish Bell cousins and an unforgiving principal, hiding her past (and her crush on a student), and deciphering the ghost's increasingly violent actions. The layers of detail address the complex social structure of the period, and Gensler's characters and dialogue are believably crafted. Readers should be drawn in by the mystery and moved by Willie's struggles to fit in and negotiate her independence. Ages 12âup.

May 15, 2011

When her mother insists she leave boarding school and come home, Willie, 17—a teen rebel à la 1896—assumes the identity of another student who's decided to decline a teaching position at the Cherokee Female Seminary.

Accepting the offer in her place, Willie heads to Tahlequah, Okla. Contrary to Willie's expectations, the seminary is an elegant, distinguished academic institution, educating students far wealthier and more cultured than she. Class and cultural differences divide the student body: Urban sophisticates, often of mixed-race, disdain the less-privileged, rural Cherokee girls and Willie herself, a white, rural Tennessean. Lately, strange noises and violent happenings have been plaguing the school. Is the ghost of a dead student, a revenant, responsible? Dismissive at first, Willie is soon drawn into the mystery and to Eli Sevenstar, a handsome, charismatic student at the nearby Cherokee men's seminary who may be involved. This debut presents an intriguing look at a little-known piece of American history: Opened in 1851, the Cherokee Nation's seminaries provided superior education to youth across the socioeconomic spectrum, including girls, for half a century.

While Willie's personal story and the school mystery don't always mesh, the well-drawn characters and suspenseful plot should keep readers fully engaged. (author's note) (Historical fantasy. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2011

Gr 7 Up-Revenants are usually portrayed as evil, power-filled, and terrifying. The "returned" presence in this novel seems somehow more human and harkens back to the idea of a spirit unable to rest because of unsettled violent circumstances of death. The story begins in 1896, when not-quite-graduated Willemina Hammond purloins a teaching certificate and escapes her demanding family by heading off to the Cherokee Female Seminary at Tahlequah, OK. Teaching under a false identity, Willie makes both friends and enemies at the school, and meets Eli Sevenstar and Larkin Bell, handsome students at the nearby male seminary. Her familiarity with Shakespeare, learned at the feet of her adored (and now deceased) father, stands her in good stead when her English classes put on a production of As You Like It. Early on, mysterious noises reveal that her bedroom was last occupied by a woman who drowned, and that's where the creepiness begins. The setting in Indian Territory lends historical interest, but basically this is a romantic mystery with considerable appeal. It seems a little odd that Willie's dreaded family turns out to be decent, hardworking folk in the end, but overall the story flows well with equal parts mystery, haunting, and romance. Those looking for bloodcurdling, gore-filled action are best directed elsewhere, but readers who have graduated from Mary Downing Hahn and Cynthia DeFelice, and current fans of Caroline B. Cooney and Diane Salerni's We Hear the Dead (Sourcebooks, 2010), will likely enjoy the romantic ghostliness of The Revenant.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2011
Grades 7-12 When Willie is summoned from boarding school to help at home in 1896, she instead runs away to Indian Territory, assuming the identity and teaching post of a girl who is about to reject the job. Though Willie has not completed her own schooling, she knows that her experience will be ample for teaching at the Cherokee Female Seminary. But she finds that the students are much more cultured and educated than she expected, frequently outpacing her both socially and intellectually and challenging her teaching and interpersonal skills. Also testing her resolve are mysterious noises and sights, purportedly caused by the ghost of a lovelorn student who drowned and seems to be seeking justiceor revenge. This first novel effectively covers a good deal of ground: race and class issues, history, and a compelling ghost and love story are all entwined as plot points are teased out a bit at a time. The uncommon setting and time period add to the appeal, and an author's note details the factual basis for the characters, issues, and story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)