Year of Wonders is a book about a village in England, during The Plague in 1666. Everyone in London was running from the Plague and so was spreading it. When a boarder of Anna Frith shows signs of the Plague things turn for the worse in the small village on the hill. Children are sick next after playing with rats. And after that, no one’s life is ever the same. The people of the village, after guidance from their rector, Michael Mompellion, choose to stay in their village and make it their prison so the Plague can stay confined as well.
Food is delivered at a certain spot when necessary but apart from that the villagers do not see any new faces. Their fear and the sight of neighbors and loved ones developing huge throbbing sores and dying in agony drive the villagers to do things they never would have dared to do.
The fear of witch craft thrived, and more than one innocent had to die for it. But then, as people become desperate, doing the work for three people, all who should be living, now under the ground, witchcraft starts to thrive again. But it is not feared now, it is bought and traded in the dead of night. People start to do whatever they can, no matter how foolish or painful to insure theirs, and their loved ones’, safety. Horrible things will be done to women, children and family in the hope of saving them. People will be brought to exhaustion, starvation and madness.
Anna Frith struggles to continue life after her two babies are dead and gone. She tries to cope by helping others, since she has no one herself. You will follow her as she goes around the village, trying to help others, whether they want it or not.
Religion is many people’s anchor during this time, but it is sorely tested as well. People question why a just God would do such terrible things. For many, their faith can never return.
Can Anna cope with the lose of her family, her friends, and her loved ones as she struggles to continue life by acting as a midwife, and tending other’s with herbs and medicines? After it is all over, can she still stay? Will she ever be happy again, and can she save any more lives? Because there are lives to be saved, even though the Plague is gone, and one of them might be her own. Can she do the ultimate thing, uproot herself from everything, and start over?
This book can be very graphic in hate and love. It is a very powerful book though, and shows what people can be driven to do under threat of terrible things.
Recommended to ages 15 and Up