Review of We Hear The Dead by Dianne Salerni

We Hear The Dead

We Hear The Dead by Dianne Salerni centers around the spiritualist movement and it’s creators — the Fox Sisters. What began as a not-so-innocent prank turned into a somewhat religious movement. The history of the Fox Sisters is fascinating, I suggest wikipaedia-ing it. Seriously, ya’ll, history is AWESOME. So sayeth the history nerd.

The story of We Hear The Dead by Dianne Salerni is told in alternating first person. By alternating, I mean the majority of the chapters are told through the eyes of Maggie Fox with a handfold told in Kate’s perspective. I loved the characterization of Maggie, who is often unsure of herself, yet she starts this whole movement. We Hear The Dead lays a strong foundational background, so I never felt confused at the action. We are given an introductory scene showing the origins of spiritualism. The story progresses in a linear fashion, there’s not many flashbacks.

To me though, the best parts are all of the little details, like how they got people to believe in the spirits. The Fox Sisters communicated with the spirits via rapping. NOT rapping like Kanye, but rapping as in knocking on wood. It was hard for me to fathom why on earth anyone would believe the dead communicated by knocking. However, history shows us that spiritualism had large numbers of believers, especially among the intellectuals. I suppose this does make sense as we have people dying left and right, a whole generation about to be lost in the Civil War. I know the power of suggestion is quite strong, look at con artists like John Edwards of Crossing Over fame. When people are greiving, they want to take comfort in knowing the departed are in a better place. So yes, I suppose it is possible to wholeheartedly believe and be open to the knocking communication.

Another element I found incredibly intriguing in We Hear The Dead by Dianne Salerni was the inclusion of the social movements taking place during this time period. Discussed is the abolition movement as well as the women’s rights movement, I mean Elizabeth Cady Stanton makes an appearance. How cool, right? I loved this inclusion, it wasn’t overwhelming and I thought it a great way to hook and engage the young reader into hopefully delving deeper into history. I liked that is is presented in a way that is relatable to the teenaged lens. Juxtaposed with this is a study of classism. Maggie is a working girl, yet her love interest is from the upper eschelons of society. Cue star-crossing. Anyways, she’s made to jump through all these hoops, give up certain things, yet she is never good enough for that reach of society, because she earns money.

I rather enjoyed We Hear The Dead by Dianne Salerni, perhaps that is due to my interest in history and spiritualism, however, it didn’t drag. My only complaint is that the dialogue came acorss as clunky at times, but I was so absorbed in the story that I didn’t really mind.

Disclosure: I received this book for review.

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Tagged as: Book Review, Dianne Salerni, Historical Fiction, Sourcebooks, Young Adult

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April (Books&Wine) – who has written 1066 posts on Good Books And Good Wine.

April is 24 years old. She is an educator. In her free time she can be found reading, working out, or eating junk food. She often wears her sunglasses at night.

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