Paula Reed

The first and last time I read The Scarlet Letter was the summer before junior year of high school. It, along with a list of other books, was assigned summer reading for AP English. I didn't much care for it, and didn't think much about after I was done and the assignment turned in. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect when I started Hester. I contemplated re-reading The Scarlet Letter first but dismissed the thought based on bad associations of forced summer reading journals. After reading show more Hester, I am reconsidering. Reed takes a well-known classic book and adds more depth to the characters, giving them more purpose, more plot, and more life. It was interesting having flashes of Hawthorne's book coming back to me as I read.

Towards the end of Hawthorne's novel, Hester takes her daughter and leaves for England. Time passes and she eventually returns alone to New England and settles back down into her old cottage. Reed's book tackles the gigantic question of what happened in between. She invents a backstory for Hester, a loving childhood friend who takes her and Pearl in, and expands upon the insight the red "A" gifted Hester so that she can see a person's guilt and sin. Her friend is married to a member of Oliver Cromwell's circle, and Hester soon finds herself compelled to use her sight on Cromwell's behalf and becomes embroiled into the politics of the Roundheads and the Royalists.

I really liked the book. I didn't expect to and I did. There is loads of political intrigue, lots of introspective self-reflection on Hester's part, history, and even a spot of romance or two. And character growth by the truckload. Reed brought Hester alive in a way that Hawthorne never did for me.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Goodreads First Reads show less

Normally I'm rather hesitant about reading books that are modern sequels or retellings of classics. I do often wonder "what happened next" when I finish a book, but don't want classics ruined by unqualified modern authors. However, Reed's book far exceeded my expectations, she did a very good job. When I saw Hester posted as a giveaway and read the description I decided to enter. I was delighted to win and was excited to read the book.

This book was really quite good. I haven't read the show more Scarlet Letter in years, but I remembered the storyline well enough. I felt like Reed did a good job of keeping the book historically accurate to the Commonwealth period, given my limited studies of the time period.

The storyline was truly enjoyable, Hester's ability is portrayed as both a blessing and a curse. She fled the New England shame and distain in order to make a better life in England. However once she returns people are unsettled by her ability and she is still an outsider. Seeing her get thrown into politics and the ruling circles of England and her struggles to learn to leverage her ability to her advantage was an interesting process. Imagining a woman having such influence with Cromwell and King Charles II made for an unusual contrast to all the other submissive, austere Puritan women Hester was surrounded with. Watching Pearl grow up and eventually make her own life was both exciting and bittersweet.

Reed got inside the heads of her characters and made the reader invest in the outcome. Hester, Pearl, Mary, Robert and John were all shown as humans who made their choices and then were forced to deal with the consequences of their actions. I really liked this book, and I feel like I understand Hester and the situations in Commonwealth England much better. I'm not sure if Hawthorne himself would approve of the book, but for me this book made The Scarlet Letter more accessible. I'm pretty sure I will be re-reading it in the near future. show less

Paula Reed has chosen to continue the story of Hester Prynne, telling us what happened to her and to her daughter, Pearl, during the years after Arthur Dimmesdale’s death – the years before she returned alone to New England to take up life again in her old cottage. Interesting idea – as all such endeavors seem. These books that revolve around well-known fictional characters always seem like a good idea when I read the little descriptions of them. And I won’t say that this is a bad show more book – it isn’t – but I think the author did not write about the things I had expected her to, while going in certain directions that I did not expect at all.

I did not, for instance, expect that Hester now has certain psychic abilities that enable her to see the sinful ‘aura’ that hangs about various individuals. Worse, once I learned about this ability of hers, I did not expect Hester to be using said ability (albeit unwillingly) to help warty ol’ Oliver Cromwell ferret out his enemies and punish the traitors. I expected more from her daughter Pearl who just becomes a sassy, willful, almost 21st century-type teenager intent upon landing her lover. And I did not expect Hester to settle for a friends-with-benefits relationship with the rakish, conspirator against Cromwell - Sir John Manning. I surely thought that after all she went through with Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester would be after something a little more solid and honest than just frequent canoodling with the randy Sir John in order to satisfy her physical needs.

Not to say that I did not enjoy this book; of its kind, it was a good one – not great, but good. I think I might have wanted to read a bit more about the way things were in the time of Cromwell for Reed concentrates mostly upon what happens to the conspirators against the Lord Protector rather than how it was to have to live in that time. And wishing that the author had made her heroine some other woman entirely is really rather pointless, too. No, she made her choice to write Hester’s story as she imagined it and I made my choice to read it.

This is an O.K. book. Not awful. Not great. O.K. Wish I could say more and better things about it, but I can’t. show less

The Scarlet Letter is a story I've re-read at different times in my life and responded to differently based on maturity and experience. In my opinion, one must really be able to relate to Hester's point of view in order to really get all there is to get out of The Scarlet Letter. Yeah, you can be the scorned and bitter type and get Chillingworth, you can be the self-hating man with a martyr complex and get Dimmesdale, but to get Hester, you've got to understand redemption. You've got to show more "get" grace. Not everyone who reads Hester sympathizes with Hester. You sort of have to have been Hester to get it and the more life experiences I have that draw me closer to her character---all of her character---the more I cherish the story.

Reed pretty much butchers everything Hawthorne built in the character of Hester. Granted, there were some great story line themes but I was disappointed overall. As one who usually doesn't enjoy continuations, I was willing to come into this one with an open mind. I started out really admiring the new, stronger Hester; but as the author destroyed her strong and sure character more and more as the book progressed, I ended up highly disliking and disrespecting her.

It's interesting that one character trait that many reviewers seem to despise was the one thing about her that seemed completely real and believable to me. Because of her experience with the consequences of sin, Hester has the ability to see the sins of others. I, too, see hypocrisy and hidden sin in people. It's a discernment that God gives to some---a trust so one can pray and possibly speak into the situation at the appropriate time. And yes, it requires a little bit of, "it takes one to know one." Hester describes it as a mantle that they wear---I see it as a name or title they are given. As a Christian, I know that God desires us to walk with the character of Christ. When we sin, he doesn't desire to call us by that sinful name, but to give us a new name that symbolizes our redemption and salvation through him (Rev. 2). When I see a person burdened by their secret sin and that sin is named to me, I am able to privately pray into that specific situation, usually without the person ever realizing I know, in a way that not everyone can. Hester's "ability", as well as the way she was treated because of it, seems perfectly plausible to me as I have operated in this fashion to varying extents for years.

Now for all the stuff I didn't like...

Hester's deep and regular involvement in aiding Cromwell seems *a bit* contrived and overdone. Her discernment of peoples' motives and private sins was an interesting twist at first, but the author turned it into something seemingly unbelievable when she made Hester, a commoner and a woman without a male head, a most trusted aid to Cromwell. This is the 17th century we're talking about. At best, she would have been thrown out of the Wright's home to avoid scandal on their good name. At worst, she would have been condemned as a witch. Never would she have been, one day and seemingly without much thought, private confidant, and later conscience, (what????) of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.

I was also really annoyed with her free and easy sexual nature. The author wanted the opportunity to bring in a Libertine character since that was a big Charles II "thing", but the derogatory sexual escapades and language that Hester uses change her from a woman with passions who had already learned to bridle them to something cheap and nasty. The author seemed to think Hester had to have some kind of "release" and thus took up with the character of John. But seriously, if she was so desperate for more illicit sex, wouldn't we have seen that crop up in The Scarlet Letter, where she lived alone and shunned, rather than later on when she had friends and the respect of those around her?

It would have been nice to see Pearl learn from her mother's mistakes, but instead we have to follow the predictable "sins of the fathers" trope and watch her fall into the lust trap---only to be rescued in probably the most ridiculously contrived part of the story. (Except for maybe the part about Charles II and his entourage taking regular dinners with Hester and Pearl in their little townhouse in Buges.)

Speaking of tropes, I get so tired of the "every man will betray you" garbage. Hester lectures Pearl about her ignorance toward men and assures her that even her beloved new beau will betray her before long. Men just can't. be. trusted. Sure, that might be true---but no one bothers to point out that women betray their men in the same ways. It's called being human. You stay with someone long enough and they will hurt you at some point. No matter how true in spirit they are. Can we get off the man-hater wagon...or, at the least, acknowledge we women are no better when it comes to disappointing the ones we love?

Anyone who is a fan of Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter will probably want to read this one---regardless of how lousy the reviews are. If you go into it ready to chuck plausibility, historical accuracy, and depth of character growth out the window, you'll surely find something redeemable about the story. show less