Character Spotlight: Colleen Rowley from Conversion

Colleen Rowley
Conversion
by Katherine Howe

Colleen Rowley is your average high school senior--except she has everything riding on being valedictorian in an elite all girls high school, St. Joan's Academy.  Her life is centered on her grades.  She obsesses over her GPA and is constantly judging where she thinks the others girls in her class are in regards to their GPA and college acceptances.  She's so hung up on this, she makes snide comments about her friends as well--but it's always centered around her perception of their seriousness of getting into college and how good their GPA is.  She also never voices this out loud to anyone.  However, she's somewhat judgmental and very self-absorbed.

Although it's obvious to everyone (even the reader), Colleen completely misses the fact that her "best friend" is going through some serious issues.  She's so wrapped up in her own world of getting into an ivy league school that she's clueless to what's going on.  In fact, she seems pretty clueless to a lot of things and comes off as naive--despite her intelligence.

Despite these negative qualities, Colleen isn't a bad person.  She's a flawed character and one who is easy to like.  You genuinely want her to well and get the grade she's desperately trying to achieve as well as get into her school and also help her friends in this crazy drama that's unfolding at her school.  She does care about them, but she has a lot of growing up to do, too.

Check out my review of Conversion here.

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Book Review: Conversion

Conversion

by Katherine Howe
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2014
Source: Purchased
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Conversion takes place in Danvers, MA at St. Joan's Academy, and all-girls, Catholic school. The students here are highly competitive and most vying for entrance into the best ivy league colleges in the country. Colleen Rowley is almost at the top and she is determined to become valedictorian, when suddenly the girls in her school are coming down with a Mystery Illness. Each one is affected differently, but there is something that the school isn't telling them. Slowly less and less students show up for class, and Colleen is more and more determined to battle her way to the top.

In between the chapters about Colleen and her friends and how they are suffering from crazy symptoms (sudden Tourette's-like outbursts, sudden and complete hair loss, inability to walk, and spitting up pins), is the story of Anne Putnam and the Salem witch trials. So not only do we have a group of teenage girls with these sudden and very obvious symptoms, but a fictionalized historical account of how the young women in Salem faked the entire thing. All the while, Colleen has been given an extra credit assignment on The Crucible and someone is sending her weird messages about it.

At this part, if it don't want the book spoiled for you, skip down to the end where I tell you if you should buy it or not.

It's pretty obvious that the girls are faking it. They symptoms aren't real, but the school nurse and the media have pumped it up so much that everyone has some kind of wild and crazy theory about what's happening. Despite this, I felt like it was trying to lead me to believe that there was some witchcraft or a curse or something supernatural and mystical going on to cause all this, but it's not. They determine that it's all psychological and common in girls who are overstressed, and that although the symptoms will go away because they aren't "real," they're not faking it either.

This made sense to me, but why then have this other story line about the witch trials? Just to shed light on the fact that teenage girls make stuff up so that they can get some attention when they're stressed. Let's give people a little more credit than that. I was actually hoping for something a little more mystical. At the very end, there is a hint that maybe it was due to something else, to a girl's inability to control her an emotional upheaval in her life. There is a hint that maybe there is something more to her and her family than anyone has ever really understood. But it's not hinted at enough. In fact, with everything else ending up so nice and neat and explained away by facts, that this moment was bizarre and confusing. What do I believe?

It's okay to read again!  

Despite some of these unsure moments, I was intrigued by the story and wanted to know what was happening to these girls. I'm not entirely sure that the story line of Anne Putnam was completely needed, but I did enjoy it. Conversion is worth a read, but don't expect too much of the supernatural.

Next week I'll feature Colleen Rowley in my Character Spotlight.  Keep and eye out for it!

Image Source: Goodreads

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Double Sunday Status: Conversion and See You At Harry's

Sunday Status is a weekly (ish) post where I let you know what I'm reading.  I'll usually share a quote from the page I'm currently on and let you know how it's going. 

See You at Harry's
Jo Knowles
Candlewick Press, 2012
Source: Library

See You at Harry's is the book I'm reading at school.  I picked it up from our school library on a whim and started reading it earlier this week.  I check out the back and it mentioned an accident.  The beginning of the story was great.  Fern and her brother Holden are dealing with huge bullies on the bus, her parents are always busy at the restaurant they own.  Fern's mom is constantly escaping into her meditation room and her older sister is a little lost as she takes a year off from school before college.  Fern is just trying to figure things out.

I wasn't ready for the tragedy.  I don't want to ruin it for you, but it was intense.  Intense.  I have been crying at my desk for two days.  My students seemed a little concerned at first, but then they asked me what was wrong and I told them that my book was really sad.  And it doesn't stop!  But it's good.

I brought this book home so I could finish it, but I'm not trusting myself to read it here where I can then just sob out loud through the ending--but I need to know.  I need to check on them.  I may finish it tomorrow.  Or I might finish it on Monday if I can't bring myself to do it while at home.  At school I will allow myself to cry, but keep it in check a bit.  Not at home.  It'll be full on ugly crying that brings on a headache.  I may risk it.  I think it'll be worth it. :)

Conversion
Katherine Howe
Publisher: Speak by Penguin Group, 2014
Source: purchased

"I pushed the book across Ms. Slater's desk and pointed at a long excerpt of trial testimony, with this one little girl right in the middle of it, talking about yellow birds and all kinds of craziness (263)."

So I'm really enjoying Conversion.  I love the way the history of the Salem Witch trials is being woven in with the modern day story of high school students at St. Joan's succumbing to a Mystery Illness.  Told mostly from the perspective of Colleen Rowley, a senior at St. Joan's who is vying to be valedictorian, Conversion also takes moments to jump back in time to 1706 where Ann Putnam is also telling her own story.  So while the girls at Colleen's school are suddenly coming down with weird symptoms (vibrating, losing all their hair, Tourette's-like outbursts, and much more), she's also receiving odd texts about The Crucible and her teacher has assinged her paper on the history behind the play as well.

There's a lot going on and I'm not sure how it all ties together just now or what is really going on.  I haven't come up with a viable explanation.  Witchcraft?  A curse?  I don't know.  It doesn't seem like either of those can truly be the reason behind it.  At this point it doesn't make sense.  I have some ideas and already a few of my guesses about plot twists have panned out, but I'm out of guesses.  And there are 150 pages to go still.  We'll see!  Hopefully I'll have this finished by Monday and review up soon.

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