Conversion

Howe, Katherine. Conversion. 2014. 402p. ISBN 9780399167775. Available at FIC HOW on the library shelves.

Colleen Rowley is in the middle of her senior year at all girls St. Joan’s Academy, the elite religious school she attends. Life is very stressful for Colleen and her friends. There are college applications to be sent out and decisions on where to attend made. There are relationships and boyfriends. Colleen herself is in a battle for the valedictorian spot, with a mere 0.1% separating her from her rival. There are issues with parents and siblings at home. Even with all of these activities, however, everyone, including Colleen, is expected to remain polite, graceful, and dedicated.

Upon returning for the 2nd semester, Colleen’s AP history teacher is gone and has been replaced by a substitute. And though they were going to read The Crucible, the substitute informs them that they will no longer do that. Her friends Deena and Anjali are shocked, but her best friend Emma seems to hold something back.

When Carla, one of the most appreciated students at school suddenly falls ill in school and must taken away in an ambulance, everyone is concerned for her. But then more and more girls begin to fall sick, with fits, shakes, and visions. Suddenly everyone knows someone who is getting sick. When the media hear of this story a frenzy ensues.

Meanwhile, three hundred years earlier, Anne Putnam is square in the middle of the Salem witch trials. She, along with a few younger girls, is responsible for setting the whole thing in motions and now she doesn’t know how to get out of it.

The two stories quickly intertwine and connect both Colleen’s and Anne’s lives in parallel ways. Is witchcraft real? And, if not, what is affecting Colleen and the girls at St. Joan’s?