Review: The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant

The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant by Joanna Wiebe

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Book description:

So many secrets for such a small island. From the moment Anne Merchant arrives at Cania Christy, a boarding school for the world’s wealthiest teens, the hushed truths of this strange, unfamiliar land begin calling to her—sometimes as lulling drumbeats in the night, sometimes as piercing shrieks.

One by one, unanswered questions rise. No one will tell her why a line is painted across the island or why she is forbidden to cross it. Her every move—even her performance at the school dance—is graded as part of a competition to become valedictorian, a title that brings rewards no one will talk about. And Anne discovers that the parents of her peers surrender million-dollar possessions to enroll their kids in Cania Christy, leaving her to wonder what her lowly funeral director father could have paid to get her in… and why.

As a beautiful senior struggles to help Anne make sense of this cloak-and-dagger world without breaking the rules that bind him, she must summon the courage to face the impossible truth—and change it—before she and everyone she loves is destroyed by it.


REVIEW:


The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant was an ok read. I will admit I was really excited at first, but the pace was so slow that I began to lose interest. I love books about girls, or boys, going off to boarding school. It seems like an adventure of its own even if it isn't. I wanted to know more in the beginning of the book, but it just seemed like lots of strange rules were in place with no reason or sense for so long my mind began to wander off to other matters.

Once things would pick up a little and get a little more mysterious, or we happen to get a clue, I would find myself interested again. The book really did pick up in the last 1/3 or so, but I am afraid some readers may have given up by then. I loved the supernatural aspects of the book of course, and once you get the importance of being the best it makes sense that it is such a big deal. At first it seems juvenile and goofy basically. There is the definite "evil" twists at the end. I did not realize it was a series or multiple books were involved for quite a while.

I was provided this book from the publishers to provide an honest review. I enjoyed the read, but do wish it had been a bit faster paced in the first half of the book. I was pretty taken with the ending and the reasons for all of the strangeness once they were revealed. If I had it to do over, I would definitely read it. Despite the slow pace, it was well worth reading.





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