Book Review: Legacy by Molly Cochran

Legacy by Molly Cochran

Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books (December 20, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1442417390
ISBN-13: 978-1442417397
Series: No
Source: ARC provided by publisher
Cover: I like this cover okay. I don't think it makes me need it but I do like that they veered away from the normal black theme and gave us something dark and moody in different colors. I'm also a big fan of the pink and green font.
First Sentence: I was sixteen years old when I discovered exactly who--and what--I was.

Mini-Review: A novel filled with rich world-building but with a somewhat choppy plot.

Summary:

When her widowed father dumps 16-year-old Katy Jessevar in a boarding school in Whitfield, Massachusetts, she has no idea that fate has just opened the door to both her future and her past. Nearly everyone in Whitfield is a witch, as is Katy herself, although she has struggled all her life to hide her unusual talents. Stuck at a boarding school where her fellow studens seem to despise her, Katy soon discovers that Whitfield is the place where her mother commited suicide under mysterious circumstances when Katy was just a small child. With dark forces converging on Whitfield, it’s up to Katy to unravel her family’s many secrets to save the boy she loves and the town itself from destruction.

Review:

Legacy left me utterly neutral. I'm not clinging to my seat hoping for more but I'm not unhappy that I read this story. I was pretty excited to read this story for the paranormal element and I love stories steeped in rich character histories. In that aspect, this story did not disappoint but I felt it hard to connect with the characters and the story was really choppy at parts which definitely hindered my reading experience.

When I pick up a novel, I want to fall in love with the person telling me the story. What makes this person different from me? I liked Katy's voice okay but I had a really hard time connecting with her. There were some things about her personality that I really liked-- she was funny and pretty kind-- but I couldn't follow her motivations or her line of thought. I guess I felt like she didn't react naturally. I actually had that problem with most of the characters. I mean, someone would shout "they tried to kill me" and everyone would sort of shrug and say "that's life" and not hold a grudge or anything. Plus, I found it hard to follow conversations because all of a sudden, someone would sort of explode in anger and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from or why it needed to be there. Frankly, the only characters I really did like were the sweet little boy Eric, the evil entity The Darkness, Mim, Miss P and Katy when I could follow her.


I did enjoy the budding romance between Katy and Peter, I'm a sucker for forbidden romance, but I felt like it went way too fast and Peter was way too hot and cold for me to actually like him as a male lead. I did really like what he stood for and there is this really beautiful moment near the end of the novel where they are walking through mud that was spectacular but like my problems with Katy, I just didn't figure out what motivated his actions. So I guess I liked what was starting to take place with Peter and Katy but I wish it would have been slower and more solid.


Where this novel really delivered was in the witchcraft and the rich history of the town. Whitfield had this amazing history that the witches worked to keep alive. They were all about tradition and lineage. I liked that several different story lines effected the main one and that Katy had to learn about the past to help figure out her future. The magic in that world was also wonderful. I liked that witches had individual talents and I loved that the witches had almost another world over the real one. The fog, The Meadow and Hattie's restaurant all combined to make this really amazing fabric of the witchy world.


The thing that left me neutral about this novel the most is the choppiness of it. I couldn't figure out where the plot was going and it jumped through large passages of time instead of letting things build in a smaller amount of time. Katy's voice is easy to read so there was nothing particularly tough to get through but it did lag a bit and sometimes I felt like I didn't grasp the whole picture.


While Legacy did have some good things going for it, there were other things I found it hard to get passed. The rich world-building and town history really makes this novel shine but sometimes it was hard to see through the choppy nature of the plot.

Rating: 


Favorite Lines:

Oh well. It didn't make any difference. Hell was Hell. Whatever they called you there didn't matter much.

--Pg. 5 of an ARC of "Legacy" by Molly Cochran

In that instant time ceased to exist. His eyes, gray and deep and full of pain I didn't understand, searched inside mine until they found my soul. And I gave it to him, there, across the noisy kitchen.

--Pg 105 of an ARC of "Legacy" by Molly Cochran

How can you explain when bad is somehow good? When bad is somehow the best thing that ever happened?

--Pg. 209 of an ARC of "Legacy" by Molly Cochran

A lover is a measure of what you want to be. But your child lets you know what you are.

--Pg. 237 of an ARC of "Legacy" by Molly Cochran

Peter walked with me in his arms and Eric on his back. Three steps. Four. One foot in front of the other. [...]I had nothing left. Neither did Peter, but he went on anyway. Five, six, seven... Sometimes there is no magic.

--Pg 383 of an ARC of "Legacy" by Molly Cochran