Plain Kate review

Description: The drizzle had broken into patches as they walked. As Drina scooped up the pale sand, Kate found herself standing in the smudge of shadow cast by the deadfall. She had never before noticed the way shadows gave things weight, made them look heavy and real and connected to the ground. Without hers...

She edged into the light.

Her shadow looked strange and thinned. It seemed not cast against the ground, but floating above it, like a fog. What Linay had said was true: No one would notice this, at first. It was just an uneasy little change, like the half-felt movement of a boat that slowly induces a great sickness.

Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic. As the wood-carver's daughter, Kate held a carving knife before a spoon, and her wooden talismans are so fine that some even call her “witch-blade”: a dangerous nickname in a country where witches are hunted and burned in the square.

For Kate and her village have fallen on hard times. Kate’s father has died, leaving her alone in the world. And a mysterious fog now covers the countryside, ruining crops and spreading fear of hunger and sickness. The townspeople are looking for someone to blame, and their eyes have fallen on Kate.

Enter Linay, a stranger with a proposition: In exchange for her shadow, he’ll give Kate the means to escape the angry town, and what’s more, he’ll grant her heart’s wish. It’s a chance for her to start over, to find a home, a family, a place to belong. But Kate soon realizes she can't live shadowless forever -- and that Linay's designs are darker than she ever dreamed.


My Thoughts: I’ve been finding lately that Arthur A. Levine books take some time for me to digest. Once I finish a book such as Plain Kate, and not unlike the Ghost of Ashbury High, it isn’t until later that I realize how beautiful the books were (even though I knew they were both great while I was reading them). Plain Kate was told like an old tale, but with the way it dealt with fear and love I was able to replace the characters with real life people. There are so many people that at one point or another let fear run their lives, or times where they’ve risen above their own wants and needs to help others.

My favorite aspect was the characters. My favorite character was Taggle, he was light-hearted, but had an old soul which made him more than what he appeared to be. He made me laugh, think, and cry. The main character, Katerina had so much strength to her, which is something I always look forward to characters having. Sometimes I get tired of the people in books that are constantly complaining about everything, or breaking down over things I would consider to be insignificant. The interesting part is that Katerina is in a chaotic setting where I would understand if she gave up or broke down, but she didn’t.

Another thing I admired was the way the author wrote Linay. He was the guy that you hated in one scene, and felt sorry for in the next one. Like everyone else in the book, he was neither totally good nor bad. And those are the best characters right? The characters that are most realistic.

One thing I’m glad it didn’t have in the end was romance. Initially, I was expecting one, but some of the best books have friendship and love in general at the forefront instead of some boy. This is one of those rare occasions I’m glad there was no boy trying to steal the main girl’s heart.