Conversion
A chilling mystery based on true events, from New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe.
It’s senior year, and St. Joan’s Academy is a pressure cooker. Grades, college applications, boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends keep it together. Until the school’s queen bee suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class.
The mystery illness spreads to the school's popular clique, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor erupts into full-blown panic.
Everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .
Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell.
"[Howe] has a gift for capturing the teenage mindset that nears the level of John Green."—USA Today
"...this creepy, gripping novel is intimately real and layered, shedding light on the challenges teenage girls have faced throughout history."—The New York Times
"A chilling guessing game . . . that will leave readers thinking about the power (and powerlessness) of young women in the past and present alike."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
It’s senior year, and St. Joan’s Academy is a pressure cooker. Grades, college applications, boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends keep it together. Until the school’s queen bee suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class.
The mystery illness spreads to the school's popular clique, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor erupts into full-blown panic.
Everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .
Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell.
"[Howe] has a gift for capturing the teenage mindset that nears the level of John Green."—USA Today
"...this creepy, gripping novel is intimately real and layered, shedding light on the challenges teenage girls have faced throughout history."—The New York Times
"A chilling guessing game . . . that will leave readers thinking about the power (and powerlessness) of young women in the past and present alike."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
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Community Reviews
This is a very interesting novel that splits not only between past and present but also between two very indistinct personalities and narratives. As this novel begins in the past, sometime after the Salem Witch Trials, yet another grisly affair that is rooted in the past of society, readers are introduced to the forgotten figure Ann Putnam Jr., an accuser in the Salem Witch Trials. In regards to the past storyline, for any who are interested in the Salem Witch Trials, readers will find it a fascinating read as Howe brings to life the pains of the past through the eyes of Ann Putnam.
A Tricky Novel | Review of ‘Conversion’ - Emertainment Monthly
A Tricky Novel | Review of ‘Conversion’ - Cyn's Workshop
A Tricky Novel | Review of ‘Conversion’ - Emertainment Monthly
A Tricky Novel | Review of ‘Conversion’ - Cyn's Workshop
I don't know much about the Salem witch trials, but I've always been intrigued about the period. It was such a dark period. So much superstition with little truth in the mix. On one hand, it baffles me that several young girls were able to bring about the deaths of so many innocent people, but in reality not much has changed in the past 200 years. A single text, tweet or Facebook post can ruin lives. The rumor mill is still a buzz, and there are plenty of sheep easily lead astray, willing to jump on every whisper of gossip. Lots of gullible people who can't decipher fact from fiction, who take every word from the media as gospel, who are still shocked that politicians lie. Most of us are still too quick to condemn, ready to be judge, jury and executioner even before we know all the facts. Yes, we're still human, still just as flawed as we were in the past. The time period has changed, but people's hearts still remain much the same...
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