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

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

"And I could almost pity him, the most powerful man in England"

We've all read Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter back in our old school days (and most of you hated it), but I reread it a few years back and just loved it. Hester refuses to name her lover and is forced to wear the badge of an adulteress - the Scarlet Letter - while preacher Arthur Dimmesdale wears his own badge in secret. In the end, Hester's older husband dies and leaves his fortune to her free-spirited daughter Pearl. So, what show more happened after that? Thanks to author Paula Reed now we know - Hester and Pearl return to England, an England ravaged by Civil War and controlled by Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army. An England where the Puritans reign supreme and gaiety, laughter and frivolity are frowned upon.

Finding her father dead, Hester takes up residence in the Puritan household of a childhood friend who is married to one of Cromwell's loyal generals. She enters their social circle, but Hester's gift of being able to look into one's eyes and see the *sins of their soul* becomes a bit disconcerting to those Puritans who are perhaps not quite as pure as they pretend. This gift (which she developed in her years of wearing the letter) comes to the attention of Cromwell, who sees Royalists spies and traitors everywhere. Hester eventually becomes a bit too involved in the plots to oust Cromwell and finds herself caught in a dangerous game of cat and mouse as England tires of Cromwell and plots abound to bring Charles Stuart back to England as King.

I have to admit I was a bit nervous going into this one, usually spin-off novels fall flat as a pancake, but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. While not the greatest novel ever written, it was still quite enjoyable and fun reading *the rest of the story*. I really liked Reed's writing style, even with the first person narrative (not a favorite of mine) and she managed to keep Hester in the thick of things and not retelling the story from the sidelines of the sewing room. Although this is a pretty complicated period in England's history, the author keeps it on the lighter, less complicated side, so I wouldn't be concerned going in not knowing too much about it. I didn't care too much for the final bit of Pearl's story and her romance felt a bit contrived and for that I'm knocking off a half star to 3.5/5. Outside of that quibble, this was a light, entertaining read and I'm looking forward to more from Ms. Reed. show less