Conversion

De: Katherine Howe

Narrado por: Khristine Hvam

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane comes a chilling mystery—Prep meets The Crucible.

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.

First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.

Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or 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. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

Reseñas de la Crítica

Praise for Katherine Howe’s Conversion:

#4 on the Top Ten Summer 2014 Kids' Indie Next List!

“Howe is a formidable researcher and writer, and this creepy, gripping novel is intimately layered, shedding light on the challenges teenage girls have faced throughout history.”—The New York Times Book Review


“A chilling guessing game of a novel that will leave readers thinking about the power (and powerlessness) of young women in the past and present alike.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review


“A simmering blend of relatable high-school drama with a persistent pinprick of unearthliness in the background.” —Booklist


“Howe’s writing is suspenseful and effortlessly draws the reader in.”—VOYA, starred review


“The author has a gift for capturing the teenage mind-set that nears the level of John Green (The Fault in Our Stars), with the bonus of a strong sense of history with the Salem-set melodrama.” —USA Today


“How is it possible for a novel to be funny, suspenseful, tender, wickedly satiric, and terrifying all at once? When it’s written by the bewitchingly talented Katherine Howe.”—Julia Glass, National Book Award–winning author of And the Dark Sacred Night and Three Junes


“Smart, compelling, exciting, and completely absorbing. Katherine Howe is stunningly deft at blurring the lines between the emotional and the supernatural. I recommend clearing your calendar before you start reading this novel.”—David Liss, bestselling author of The Twelfth Enchantment


“Brilliant, scary, and impossible to put down, Conversion weaves together the Salem witch trials with a mysterious present-day illness that sweeps through an all-girls high school. It’s the perfect storm of suspense, history, romance, and teen angst. A five-star read!”—Nancy Ohlin, author of Beauty and Always, Forever

Love d it!

Conversion by Katherine Howe

Read by Kristine Hvam

Reviewed by Angi


I found Katherine through an event she was speaking in Erie PA "Salem Witch Hunts and Women: A Look at the History of Class and Gender,"


So of course since I was going to see her I had to check out her books. I ordered them all because well come on it's me and books, and there may be a slight addiction there. Anyway, while I waited for them to come in I checked out audible and lot and behold Conversion was there and narrated any my favorite narrator! So yeah, that's where I started.


Conversion is a modern day telling of The Crucible. It's set in Danvers Massachusetts where the original Salam trials happened. The girls are modern high schoolers with typical school girl stress. Between social cliques and prepping for college terms, hoping to get into the schools of their choosing there is a massive amount of stress. Add to it these girls are top of the class, they know their GPAs to the tenth of a point. Even one pop quiz can through a wrench into the plans.


Suddenly there are girls having seizures, losing hair, and many other symptoms. Soon the press and health departments are involved. Is there a patient zero? Is this for attention? Now there send to be an awful lot of similarities to The Crucible. But what's real? How easy is it to repeat or historical disasters? Not only are we learning of the modern story but between chapters we get a glimpse of the past. The interludes take us back to the beginning of the panic and hysteria if the Salem Panic.


This book is well written by someone who has clearly  done her historical research. The detail and back and forth from present to past is seamless.


The story drew me in from the beginning and kept new hooked throughout the entire book. I highly recommend not only this book but to listen to the audible as Khristine Hvam has a am amazing talent of bringing great stories to life.


I have already started another of Katherine's books. I think I've found another great story teller to follow! And as much as enjoyed her book listening to her on stage was just as great. She is not just a great author but a great speaker and scholar. If you have a chance to go to one of her lectures jump on it!

Recommending to my friends

What did you love best about Conversion?

Quite intriguing and kept my interest to the end.

What did you like best about this story?

It was thought provoking and found myself thinking about the story premise long after I finished listening to it.

What does Khristine Hvam bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She brought the story to life with her vocal characterization of each person in Salem Village and Danvers, CT.

loved it!

I was worried this book was going to be too Y/A for my liking but it was not. it has mature themes and voices and an excellent balance of past and present story telling. Katherine Howe does a great job of creating magical realism and this narrator did very well depicting all characters.

Meh...

A let down, really mediocre in many different ways. Did not hold my interest and left a lot to be wanted.

Very engaging.

Great way to tell the story of current outbreak of a variety of symptoms to past hysteria.