Blood Secret

Title: Blood Secret


Author: Kathryn Lasky


Summary: Jerry's mom has disappeared and left her at the mercy of the church. Jerry can't speak anymore. She goes to live with a relative of hers, Constanza, and discovers an old trunk in the root cellar. When she touches each object, she has a hallucination of sorts and is transported back into her ancestors' times, during the Spanish Inquisition. She has lots of these visions and is able to piece together the story of what happened during the Spanish Inquisition.


Stars: 5


Violence: 4, because the book discussed people being burnt at the stake. One woman's neck was broken, and it was seen as "merciful."


Romance: 4 because of when, in the first chapter, Jerry sees her mother's bare rear end.


Language: 5, for though some bad words were sprinkled around, there were not as many as in Avatar.


Appropriate for: Young adults.


Other: There were no really gross grammar or spelling errors, as in The Last Girls of Pompeii, which was also by Lasky. I liked the way that Lasky brought Jerry back in time and had her meet her ancestors. It was hard to understand who was who. There were so many generations, and you had to sort things out. With so many names, you couldn't know who was who without much riffling through names. There were so many generations to sort out. Also, when a Jew named Miriam was baptized, she became Maria. Then in old age she wanted to be called Miriam. So it was quite confusing. Fortunately, the author provides a family tree (of sorts) at the end of the book. (I wish I'd discovered it before I'd finished the book.)
If you liked this book, I'd recommend King of Shadows and Victory, both by Susan Cooper. They involve hallucinations into the past. But King of Shadows has the main character, Nat, actually influence the past instead of just seeing it.