The Revenant (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Revenant Kate Quealy-Gainer Gensler, Sonia . The Revenant. Knopf, 2011. [336p]. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-96701-6 $19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-375-86701-9 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-375-89732-0 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 8-12. While working her way through boarding school at the end of the nineteenth century, Willemina receives a summons home from her mother, who is now unable to keep up with the work of the family farm. Unwilling to return to that mundane rural life, Willie instead steals a classmate's identity and accepts a teaching position at the Cherokee Female Seminary—despite the fact that she is only seventeen herself, not even a high-school graduate, and certainly no teacher. When she arrives in Indian Territory, it soon becomes clear that she is not alone in keeping secrets: her students whisper about an unfortunate drowning accident that took a girl's life last year, a fellow teacher alludes to an unhappy spirit, and Willie herself begins to hear an insistent tapping sound in her new room, the former residence of the river's victim. Her beloved (but now deceased) father, however, always told Willie to keep her head about her and that she does, even when a note she uncovers in her dresser suggests that the accident may have actually been the result of foul play and that the dashingly handsome Eli Svenstar may be to blame. Stunningly taut and entirely compelling, this blend of historical fiction, supernatural mystery, and romance will please fans of Jennifer Donnelly and Saundra Mitchell. The intimidating halls of the Seminary, ruled by the iron-fisted Miss Crenshaw, provide the heated class wars and forbidden courtships that typify the best boarding-school mysteries. Though the focus stays mostly within the school itself, leaving the surrounding Cherokee culture largely unexplored, Gensler points towards a fair bit of research in her author's note and portrays the students with respect and detail. Willie is a headstrong but tremendously flawed protagonist, and her status as both a hero and a liar, even at the close of the book, will make for some interesting discussion. [End Page 468] Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois