“Once upon a time, there was a girl called Scatterheart, who was selfish and vain, with a heart as fickle as the changing winds...”
Hanna Cheshire is rich and spoilt. She has servants to wait on her hand and foot — and Thomas, a passionate young tutor who fills her head with stories.
Then one day her father disappears, and she is left to fend for herself. Alone and penniless, she is sentenced to transportation for a crime she didn't commit.
Once Hannah considered Thomas beneath her: a servant, a commoner. Now she thinks of him more and more.
But will she ever see him again?
One girl‘s adventure to find happiness becomes a fairytale within a fairytale. A romantic story of power and love.
Okay, so I am a snoot these days and only read the old stuff, but I will review the occasional modern book as a special exception. In my mailbox I have Scatterheart by Lili Wilkinson, sent to me by black dog books.
It has a brand spanking new purdy PURDY cover and I was immediately drawn to it because it has a young girl on the cover. I’m a young girl, I like to read about other young girls, that’s the fact. Then I find out that it’s about Australian History. I don’t know about you, but whenever we cover Australian History in class, I seriously make to sit up the back with the indie kids and pretend not to fall asleep, I mean convicts and first fleets and Captain Cooks and stuff? That’s boring!
But I decided to give Scatterheart a go because the blurb sounds pretty good, about a girl who gets accused of a crime she didn’t commit (me likey) and gets sent to ye olde Australia and she has a BIG story to tell.
Okay, lets say that the story sucked me completely in. I was supposed to do my homework, but I stayed up and read this book instead. The premise is that Hannah makes a big mistake by getting accused of a crime she didn't commit, but the real guilt she feels is over rejecting her kind and smart tutor Thomas because she is too proud. And along with this parallel is the fairytale of Scatterheart, a story that we learn bit by bit, finding that it mirrors the story that Hannah goes through herself.
Scatterheart is a journey of massive physical proportions, over oceans and basically all of Hell, but at the heart is an internal journey of Hannah trying to find the heart that she literally scattered to the wind and wants back.
This book, like, really spoke to me. I think everyone one of us can be counted guilty of doing something stupid, like rejecting something that would make us happy, only to find out too late. And also finding out we only know this because something very terrible happens instead. Hannah rejects Thomas only to find life goes really wrong and she has to suffer all sorts of abuse first in jail and then on a convict boat. I spent the whole book going, “if only she knew! Ahh, this is horrible, I wish she had said yes to Thomas cos he was a nice dude and she really was into him and she would have been okay.” So if you have ever felt this way, this book will make you confront it and it will make you cry. Not that I cried. Who moi? Okay, so I bawled my eyes out, what are you going to do? Deport me to Australia?
The verdict: I found that Australian history can be really interesting. I like how it’s told from the POV of a girl, which is really refreshing and important (yo! Girl power!). It’s pretty gruesome. But awesome cos Hannah grows up because of it. She’s feisty. I love a strong heroine. I want to meet Hannah and give her hugz. I won’t give away the ending, but if you want to read something that makes your own scatterheart go *thud* (oh come on! I know you secretly like romance) and go “hey, our history is kinda cool” - read this book!
ps - this is a re-post. Blogger "ate" my original entry AKA Eliza stupidly clicked delete
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