Author: Aviva Orr
Publisher: WiDo Publishing
Release Date: January 8th 2013
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads
Quick Review: When fifteen-year-old Heather Jane Bell is diagnosed with alopecia and her hair starts falling out in clumps, she wants nothing more than to escape her home in London and disappear off the face of the earth.
Heather gets her wish when her concerned parents send her to stay with her great-aunt in West Yorkshire. But shortly after she arrives, she becomes lost on the moors and is swept through the mist back to the year 1833. There she encounters fifteen-year-old Emily Brontë and is given refuge in the Brontë Parsonage.
Unaware of her host family’s genius and future fame, Heather struggles to cope with alopecia amongst strangers in a world completely foreign to her. While Heather finds comfort and strength in her growing friendship with Emily and in the embrace of the close-knit Brontë family, her emotions are stretched to the limit when she falls for Emily’s brilliant but troubled brother, Branwell.
Will Heather return to the comforts and conveniences of the twenty-first century? Or will she choose love and remain in the harsh world of nineteenth-century Haworth?
Detailed Review:
<< ARC copy provided by the author herself >>
From the start I knew it was going to good after reading the summary of the book, The Mist on Brontë Moor. It starts off with a girl called Heather Bell - like the summary above - she has alopecia which is a condition where your hair falls out in clumps. In Heather's condition, she's a high school girl who has never told anyone about this (except her mum, dad and her bestfriend, Simon (of course)) so it's a trouble when the start of the story begins with a clump of hair.
'I lowered my head and pretended to read, pushing my long hair back with my hands. As I did, I felt a cluster of hair come away from my head, like tender meat falling off a perfectly cooked roast.
No. Please no. Not now. Not now.
I jerked my hand forward. Sure enough, a clump of dark curls lay in my right palm. I froze. It was like the clump I’d found on my pillow two days earlier.'
See what I mean?
The story's persona is interesting and mysterious - starting with the hair and leading up to more mysteries that conclude the arrival in West Yorkshire. Aviva Orr (the author) has written such a smooth, casual story that easily brings its reader face to face with her plot and characters.
Heather is a character that has grown the most throughout the entire storyline where she searches the mystery of herself and what the 'mist' on Brontë moor really means?
HEATHER; a girl with a condition of falling hair and yet, a mystery is left to be revealed. Her newfound home at the Brontë country leaves her on the run for the search of a 'mist', where she reveals her true purpose of seeing what she sees - yet, can she figure it out soon before disaster strikes?!?
BRANWELL; also a brother of the Brontë family - he was a boy who was talented and yet he destroyed himself with an addiction to laudanum and alcohol at an early age yet who is he really? To his sisters? To Heather? Is he all he really is?
SIMON; a boy who's been friends with Heather, known for his boyish good looks and being captain of the football team - he's the one who sees Heather for she really is though he's got a bit annoying in a way.
EMILY; she's adorable and trustworthy - she's one of the sisters of Brontë. A girl who's met Heather from the start of the book, she's a girl with a liveliness to her young age and a friend. Trust Emily to help you on a job to find Heather's purpose and sight of the 'mist'.
I really liked all the characters that I've picked. I would have continued picking the other characters from the Brontë family but that would get boring, wouldn't it? But anyway, Heather's starting to fall for Branwell and the family that's starting to becoming like a home.
Will she stay with the one she's starting to love or can that 'love' break everyone in the Brontë family?
Will Heather finally figure out this mystery she's wrapped in or be swallowed by it?
Orr (the author's)'s detailed story will give you an imagery of the world of the Brontë family, told from Heather (the main protagonist)'s side - she gives us a new upcoming world of history and a mystery worth reading about!
'I’d experienced his moods before and seen his morbid drawings, but they hadn’t really mattered to
me. He had charm, talent, and genius. I was drawn to him. He’d been strong when I was at my weakest. He’d made me feel beautiful even when I’d despised myself. He’d made me feel safe.'
It's weird that Branwell is someone who's actually really talented and yet he had to take alcohol which practically destroys his life! But in the end, Heather had to leave Branwell to come back to her real home in her real time.
I highly recommend this book for reader's who love a mystery with a bit of history here and there - you can never go wrong! Sounds like cooking, I have to say...
When I finished the end of the book, I was like 'What? That's it?!?' The ending of the book didn't really conclude the whole story as it ended with something of a cliffhanger. Did I ever mention that I hated cliffhangers?
Well, it ended like one but still, if a second book comes out - I am definitely going to read it!
Brief Review: The Mist on Brontë Moor was a detailed and mysterious story. From the start till the end, I was still transfixed on the 'mist' and the wonders of how it came about! Aviva Orr has written a prime, ingenious story that lives up to it's title with a touch of history and love - nothing can go wrong!
My Rating: 5/5 "Totally Amazing!"
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