Chains

Introduction

Chains, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, was published by Simon and Shuster publishing on October 21st, 2008 for juvenile and young adult readers. When I was putting my schedule for the year together I turned to my friends for recommendations, and my friend Ciara was the one to (strongly) recommend Chains. If you haven’t read this book yet, I would highly encourage you to start there as it stays remarkably true to the time period it depicts. If you choose to go ahead, know that the Plot section is spoiler free, but the Thoughts section will not be. I hope you enjoy it!

If you want to keep up with Laurie Halse Anderson or learn more about her, you can visit her website, https://madwomanintheforest.com/, and follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @halseanderson.

Plot

Chains is a two part book that begins in the summer of 1776 with sisters Isabel and Ruth Finch living in Rhode Island. After being wrongfully taken by a cruel family, Isabel - our main character and first person narrator for the duration of the book - and Ruth are taken to New York City in the midst of the Revolutionary War. On a constant uphill climb to gain her freedom, Isabel navigates a battlefield all her own in an attempt to free her and her sister.

Thoughts

I love when authors make the beginnings of their chapters unique, be it with creative and outrageously accurate chapter titles - as Rick Riordan does - or with selections from related historical texts, as Anderson has done with Chains. The passages used were all real, as were many of the battles fought throughout this book. The great fire that swept through the city, and several of the characters were also based on truth. Mayor David Matthews, traitorous Life Guard Thomas Hickey, and Dr. Abraham von Buskirk were all real people that existed at this time. More information on the historical aspects of this book is provided in the Appendix at the end, which I highly recommend reading.

Following that thought, this book is shockingly historically accurate given it’s meant to be a children’s book. I got this book from the juvenile section and was expecting an accurate but watered-down version of what eighteenth century America would be like for a young slave. I was not expecting the degree of realism in this realistic fiction. The limited use of old language was expected, keeping it accurate but readable for the youth this book was intended for. I also predicted there would be allusions to the horrors of slavery, war, and the punishments that accompanied them, but I was not expecting the descriptions of the hangings, brandings, abuses, and injustices to be as detailed as they were. I was not at all expecting the inclusion of medical treatments such as bloodletting and cleansing to be included, nor was I expecting to see the inclusion of indentured servants in this book. These additions were pleasant surprises to me (emphasis on the surprise). As taken aback as I was, I do believe it was a good choice to maintain this accuracy, and it made this book more enjoyable for me.

Isabel is our main character, and we get to see this world through her eyes, so we have the most insight into her personality. The first thing I noticed was how mature she was for her age. If I hadn’t known beforehand how old she was, I would have had a hard time guessing because of how rational her decision making was in such a devastating situation. She is loyal to Ruth, always putting herself in danger before allowing her sister to be in trouble. She did everything in her power to protect Ruth from the horrors of their lives - especially because Ruth suffered from seizures. Isabel is generous and kind, following her mother’s expectations after her unfortunate death and continuing to help the less fortunate - even when she herself had little to offer. Isabel has remarkable self control, keeping a hold of herself in situations where it would have been entirely understandable for her to fall apart or lash out. She is honorable. It was for that reason and that alone that she broke Curzon out of prison and took him with her to go find Ruth after she was sent to Charlston. Lastly, she is headstrong. Throughout the book, she insisted that “she cannot chain my soul.” She is an incredibly compelling character to follow, and I greatly enjoyed reading from such an interesting perspective.

There are a few other characters I want to address: I like the inclusion of Jenny and Becky as sympathetic characters towards the girls but being realistically unable to help. I hope we see more of them in the future installments because I would love to see Isabel have allies aside from Curzon and Lady Seymour. Lady Seymour was one of my favorite characters. I liked how she subtly helped Isabel throughout the book and actively defied her niece, but of course in this situation you spend the whole book wishing the people around her would do more to help. I detested the Locktons, which of course means they were well-written. They were slimy and disgusting people from start to finish, but that means that not only were they written well, but they were written realistically. At the opposite end, I loved Curzon. He was a character whose name I was consistently excited to see on the page, and I look forward to seeing more of him in the sequel, Forge.

I want to end off this review by discussing some of the themes. A key point in this novel was that of freedom. Slavery was obviously the focal point, and this book is set during the American Revolution which allows for the idea of liberty to bleed into every aspect of this story, especially when there was a debate on whether or not slaves would find their freedom with the rebels or the loyalists. That also ties in to ideas of loyalty and being willing to fight for something. Isabel is loyal to Ruth and she will choose whatever side gets them their freedom back. She switches back and forth throughout the story and finds help nowhere, forcing her to be alone in the middle of a war. Finally, there was a notable theme of humanity, as Madame Lockton did her best to strip Isabel of hers. Isabel and Ruth were tossed into the cellar where they would sleep, they worked relentlessly with barely any acknowledgement, and Lockton went as far as to brand Isabel for insolence and rename her Sal. The lack of any common decency is disgusting, but - once again - accurate to what slave treatment looked like in the late 1700s.

For the plot, themes, characters, historical accuracy, and attention to detail, I have to give this book a 8.7/10. I really did enjoy reading it, and I look forward to reading the sequels.