Author: Saundra Mitchell
Release Date: March 7th, 2011
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 293
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: Bought

Rating: ★★★★

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.

 I was really intrigued by this one.. I have always enjoyed Historical Fiction, and having it in a Victorian setting made things even better. Saundra really seemed to encompass the setting in all of the different aspects throughout the book also, which I will go into more detail later in the review. It's just great to see a well rounded Historical Fiction novel that truly portrays the era in which the story take place. I feel like it really shows how great a writer is when they can pull something like that off.

One of the most enjoyable things about the book was the characters. Zora, Amelia, Nathaniel and even the characters that aren't mentioned very often. All of them truly seemed as though they were from that time period. I have read some other Historical Fiction books over the years, and I have been a little disappointed because the characters don't feel like they fit the time period of the book. But Saundra really did a fantastic job of giving her characters a voice and really making them fit the part. I'm not really going to go into the relationships between the characters, because I feel like that is something you really have to get from the book. It's really hard to put it all into words, I really did enjoy them though.

The story was very different. I will readily admit that it wasn't exactly what I expected. I loved the fact that it was set in the 1800's. The descriptions of Baltimore was great, I mean the little details like the White Star ships being docked in Baltimore and little things like that really made the description of the city in the story seem like you were actually stepping back into that time period since that's exactly the time period things like that were going on. It's just such a different story with the supernatural and paranormal twists in the story. It makes it all very unique. I feel like the story might be the only thing that somewhat bothered me when it came to this book. It was extremely unique and very beautifully written, it just seemed a little overwhelming at points. Trying to figure out where things are going, and what exactly is going on throughout the story really seemed like a chore at times. Maybe I just wasn't grasping the complete context of the story, I'm not sure. I understood it all once I finished it and thought about it, but while reading it was difficult to decipher parts of the story.

Overall, The Vespertine is a fantastic book. If you enjoy Historical Fiction and are able to go into the book with an open mind, to be able to process everything I really feel like you will enjoy this book. I am planning to start The Springsweet next, which from what I understand will focus more on Zora so it will be nice to learn more about her and to see where her story goes after the events that took place in this book.