Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

“Didn't help to ponder things that were forever gone. It only made a body restless and fill up with bees, all wanting to sting something.”  - Chains

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson is a historical fiction novel set in 1776 during the American Revolution. It follows the story of thirteen-year-old girl, Isabel. Her mistress has just died and although this is a mournful period it is also a happy celebration because in her will Isabel and her sister were freed. However, the mistress' relatives do not know this and do not want to know this and sell Isabel and her sister to the highest bidders, who turn out to be a loyalist couple returning back to New York, the Lockton. Mrs Lockton disregards any human emotions of Isabel and uses her cruelly. One day when Mrs Lockton sells Isabel's sister, Isabel turns against her 'owners' and spies on them. 

Isabel is a determined and hard working girl who will fight for her freedom and for her sister's too. I'm only going to write from what I read in the first book, Chains, as I have not yet read the sequel. I was encouraged to read historical fiction for school, being the reason why there are and will be a few blogposts in that genre. I found this book very well researched and it really felt like Isabel was living in that time period. For me, not having read anything previously on the American Revolution it got a bit confusing at times, I was trying to work out who was who and what each wanted, but that was exactly what the protagonist was doing too, so I got the feel and knowledge of what it would've been like for a slave girl that was just put into the mix of this war. I do think that I still learnt quite a bit not just on an empathy level but also of the history. It was especially useful that at the end of the book the are a few questions answered by the author where it explains the facts a bit more. 

The first few chapters of the book were quite tedious, but I'm finding that books I'm reading nowadays are turning out this way. However, this turned out to be one of the best historical fiction novels (remembering that this genre is not my most common to read.) I have read and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.