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Conversion

Katherine Howe (Goodreads Author)

3.31 · Rating details · 8,998 ratings · 1,549 reviews

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.

First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her ...more

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Hardcover, 402 pages

Published July 1st 2014 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers (first published June 4th 2014)

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2014 Debut Author Challenge (YA/MG/NA)

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· 8,998 ratings · 1,549 reviews

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Jun 16, 2015 Katherine Howe rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

I am utterly biased, but I'm proud of this book. ...more

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Apr 22, 2015 Ben Alderson rated it did not like it

no no no no no!

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May 28, 2014 Rayne rated it did not like it

Shelves: historical-fiction, there-s-romance-in-there-somewhere, school-life, annoying-mc, young-adult, yes-this-is-a-rant, disappointing, witches-and-wizards, mystery, retellings

We're not even halfway through 2014, and I'm almost certain this has been my biggest 1-star year to date. True, most of it is due to the facts that, a) the more I read YA, the more my standards go up and my tolerance threshold for BS and stupidity lowers, and b) the more time I spent in GR, the less afraid I am of giving out 1 stars. I don't think it's entirely up to me, though. This year has come packed with an avalanche of pretty bad YA books. This year alone, I've read offensive books like Th We're not even halfway through 2014, and I'm almost certain this has been my biggest 1-star year to date. True, most of it is due to the facts that, a) the more I read YA, the more my standards go up and my tolerance threshold for BS and stupidity lowers, and b) the more time I spent in GR, the less afraid I am of giving out 1 stars. I don't think it's entirely up to me, though. This year has come packed with an avalanche of pretty bad YA books. This year alone, I've read offensive books like They All Fall Down, infuriating ones like Dear Killer, thoroughly disappointing ones like Suspicion, appallingly bad ones like Of Monsters and Madness and Amity, and insufferably generic ones like One Past Midnight. And then there's Conversion. Where does Conversion stand? Well, Conversion achieved the impressive feat of falling into every single one of the aforementioned categories.

This book is offensive, infuriating, thoroughly disappointing, appallingly bad and, yes, even insufferably generic because, instead of focusing on the, I don't know, maybe that super weird thing that's happening to the girls in the school that no one seems to be able to explain, we instead get to find out about the marvels of Colleen's eternal pursuit to intellectually demean everyone around her, especially her friends and love interest, as she goes about on her quest to take for herself what seems to be the only spot available at Harvard this year. And I understand where the author is coming from and that she tried to portray the stress of being a teenage girl in a highly competitive background, but it simply did not come through. Instead of driven and competitive, Colleen was insufferably immature, judgmental and petty, not competitive in an intellectual way but in the generic YA way of hating on other girls just cuz. I didn't think it was possible, but Colleen came out of nowhere and safely positioned herself in the group of the most unbelievably irritating, hateful, petty, hypocritical, judgmental, immature, childish, bratty, privileged, self-entitled and disgusting YA "heroines" I've ever had the displeasure of reading about. She almost took the crown right off of House of Night's Zoey for the worst YA "heroine" it has been my misfortune to become acquainted with.

The book is just pages and pages of Colleen describing things in the irritating and endless monotone of a 10 y/o, giving you the entire life story of every single person that crosses the door, and then criticizing and demeaning every single one of them in her head as she saw them as competition. I like a smart girl. I love reading about smart girls in YA and I wish every single author in YA portrayed each and every single one of the main characters as smart girls, not because a hot guy comes along and tells them, but because they know it, because they've worked for it and because they are proud of it. But there's a clear line between pride and entitlement, ego-centrism, selfishness, pettiness, obnoxiousness and pretentiousness, and Colleen crossed that line, set it on fire and the danced on top of it. And the worst thing is that she really isn't even smart at all. She reminds you time after time of how brilliant and clever she is, and yet the most painfully obvious things and details fly just right over her head. Moreover, she thought she was entitled to intellectual superiority rather than actually working for it, as perfectly exemplified by this scene in which the goes into a quiz without having studied, acknowledging she's going to flunk, and then ranting at the teacher when she gets a failing grade. That's not how you show someone under stress because she wants to be the best; that's how you show how much of a spoiled, entitled brat a character is.

If she hadn't already annoyed the hell out of me with her obnoxious, immature, childish and unsubtle way of telling the story, the way she saw the world from her privileged, pretentious and egocentrically superior standpoint would've done the trick because I honestly didn't care about anything in this book, never managed to put any effort into feeling anything for any other aspect because my hate was so fiercely concentrated in this awful main character.

And it's not so much that I wasn't able to like her. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't need to like a main character in order to be invested in her story, but what I do need from a main character is to be interesting and interesting Colleen was not - she wasn't even a decently written character with dimensions and personality. Even stuck in the middle of a strange series of events that no one can make head or tails about, Colleen is the most appallingly boring person in the entire planet. This girl could make the end of the world sound as mind-numbingly boring as staring at a piece of cheese until it rots. There is no suspense in this novel, no atmosphere, and it was definitely not a thrilling, deep and psychological study in the events that take place in the novel and those in the Salem Witch Trials. By far, the most interesting thing in this novel was the dual POV that takes place during the actual witch trials, but even that was overdone, dragged for far too long and tediously boring.

Each and every single character in this story is painfully generic, extremely shallow and awkwardly stereotyped. Worst of all, not a single one of them was interesting in the slightest. Everything in this novel was mind-numbingly boring, and it's not because of the slightly literary style of the novel, but because the narration focused on everything besides the truly interesting event, which was the mysterious condition of these girls, and when it did concentrate on it, it was boring, repetitive and rather pointless.

There wasn't a single aspect of this book that I enjoyed. Even if I had managed to look beyond the unbelievably boring pace and the bad writing, the sheer ridiculousness of the characters and the narration's unwillingness to focus on the truly important matters would've still made this reading experience a terrible one. It's almost like the whole thing was dumbed and watered down because it's supposed to be YA. Whatever shred of interest I may have had in the mystery of this book was brutally stripped away by the tediousness of the pace, the boring development of the story, the insufferable main character and the lack of dimension to the characters and the plot. ...more

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Mar 01, 2014 Sarah Elizabeth rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, read-2016, as, read-with-abbie, contemporary, young-adult, historical, mystery

“How on earth could they think feeding a urine cake to a dog would be a solution?”

This was a YA mystery story, about a group of girls at a private school who fall ill with a mystery illness.

Colleen was an okay character, and I appreciated how hard she worked to be valedictorian, and how much effort she put into her school work, even if it meant she was a little slow on the uptake when it came to her friends.

The storyline in this was about a group of girls at Colleen’s private school, ...more

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Jan 03, 2020 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, 21th-century, united-states, witches, young-adult, novels, historical, fantasy

Conversion, Katherine Howe
Senior year at all-girl’s Catholic school St. Joan’s Academy has just begun, and Colleen Rowley and her friends are feeling the heat. Applications to Harvard, the battle for valedictorian, the high expectations of their parents, meeting boys in Cambridge . . . all of it has turned school into a pressure cooker.

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Apr 08, 2014 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is more of a 3.5 star read. I really enjoyed jumping between times but I thought that the 2 stories would eventually come together. However, in the end, they read like two separate stories. The build up was very intense but the final conclusion was very lacking. The author tries to explain the correlation between the two narratives but I still didn't see the likeness. This had so much potential for a 5 star but the ending was just bad. I still love this author but this book missed the mark ...more

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Dec 09, 2013 Allie Larkin rated it it was amazing

Witchcraft, conversion disorder? What's really happening to the girls of St. Joan's?

Katherine Howe's latest book is smart, suspenseful, and brilliantly executed. You won't be able to put it down. ...more

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Jul 31, 2014 Josh rated it did not like it

Shelves: first-reads

My apologies that this is going to sound overly critical, and I am appreciative for the chance to have a copy sent to me in exchange for an honest review via the Goodreads first reads giveaway. In the spirit of honesty, I must say this book didn't develop into the somewhat spooky, mysterious, and twisted tale I had hoped it would become. I kinda knew 20 pages in where it was headed, but I kept hoping the story would ramp, evolve, and mix the historical tale together with the present day teenybop ...more

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May 30, 2019 Bren rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, young-adult, read-and-reviewed, historical, young-adult-mystery

“When a Girl's on a pedestal, there's nothing some people would like better than to shove her off it, just to know what kind of noise she'd make when she shattered.”
― Katherine Howe, Conversion

I read some reviews of people saying this was much like Megan Abbott's The Fever. I respectfully disagree.

The plots have much in common but certain things are quite different.

When I started "The Fever" I was hooked by the end of the first page. It was also a very eerie read. And despite the classification ...more

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Mar 05, 2014 Brittany rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, 2014-reads

I have been looking forward to this one since I first started stalking the author’s Pinterest board last year. I was so excited to see Conversion up for grabs on Netgalley, and it did not disappoint. I couldn’t put it down! Conversion is smart, yet accessible enough to appeal to young adults. It alternates between the Salem witch trials and the real-life mystery illness of early 2012 that caused a handful of girls to develop PANDAS-like symptoms. You will race through this one as you read to fin ...more

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Oct 16, 2016 Elle (ellexamines) rated it it was ok

Shelves: mystery-suspense, y-notowned, z-2015reads, 2-star

2 stars. Conversion is the story of a group of girls who fall ill at a Salem private school. There's a touch of witchcraft, a touch of girls who spit up metal, and a touch of... plot points so nonsensical that I'm not entirely sure I didn't hallucinate them. Unfortunately, when I say a “touch” of those things, I mean that the rest of the book is a generic story about a girl who's stressed in school. Seriously.

There's not much dimension to anything besides the plot here. The character developmen ...more

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Mar 03, 2014 Q2 rated it it was amazing

So I see some pretty harsh reviews below, but I loved this book. How tells the story of a group of girls at a Catholic school who, one by one, fall ill with a mystery malady. This book is told from the point of view of one student as she navigates an intensely competitive Senior year, friendship drama, etc. etc. The confounding story of the girls at St. Joans is written right alongside a dramatization of what happened during the Salem Witchcraft trials. I thought most of the girls portrayed in t ...more

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Apr 24, 2014 Cillian rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: for-the-nook, sorcery-witches-and-shit, ya, the-redemption-of-rayne-and-ten, shittier-than-mel-gibson, another-retelling, i-threw-up-on-myself, books-that-5-star-themselves, why-me

This book was a piece of shit.
Godzilla smash, angry review to come...

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Feb 05, 2014 Audrey rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, new_england, 2014_publish

I love the history of the Salem Witch Trials. A native Southern Californian, when I had an internship in New England, the only weekend trip I took was to Salem. I’ve been there multiple times since I moved to Massachusetts, and find the history fascinating. When I saw that Katherine Howe was writing a new young adult novel that had some basis in the Salem hysteria, I knew it was a must read. Sadly, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Howe tries something interesting in Conversion. She links the ...more

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Jun 22, 2014 Emma McGrory (Verity Reviews) rated it really liked it

I read Conversion with three black cats on my lap, feeling very witchy (even though cats don't really have anything to do with witches traditionally), reluctant to put it down for more than five minutes at a time. I was completely and totally absorbed in Howe's book. What first piqued my interest was the Mystery Illness, and Howe delivered all the tension, unease, and fear you'd expect to find in a book about an epidemic. But Howe also incorporated Ann Putnam's account of the events at Salem in I read Conversion with three black cats on my lap, feeling very witchy (even though cats don't really have anything to do with witches traditionally), reluctant to put it down for more than five minutes at a time. I was completely and totally absorbed in Howe's book. What first piqued my interest was the Mystery Illness, and Howe delivered all the tension, unease, and fear you'd expect to find in a book about an epidemic. But Howe also incorporated Ann Putnam's account of the events at Salem in 1692, with the same elements. Colleen's place in the middle of an epidemic and Ann Putnam's place of power in the Salem Witch Trials paralleled each other in a lot of ways, so that even when they weren't directly related to each other, they were connected. There was a great deal of subtlety in Conversion, from the implied causes of the outbreak and the way the girls' relationships progressed to the way Howe incorporated a piece of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. (I grinned like an idiot when Connie showed up. No shame).

Even though the Salem Witch Trials happened over 300 years ago and a mystery illness like the one that befalls St. Joan's seems too strange to be true, Howe writes them realistically. I can't begin to imagine the hours of research it must have taken to get Ann's story down, or to follow the progression of the Le Roy Mystery Illness of 2012 (which Colleen's story is based off of). My hat is off to Howe for that. She even managed to create a fairly accurate portrait of high school, which is damn near impossible. To be fair, not every little detail was spot-on realistic - Howe definitely added some flair to Colleen's story to make it even creepier - but even the more outlandish bits felt plausible.

The atmosphere of Conversion practically earns a star all on its own. I got shivers up my spine reading it. Colleen's story freaked me out because an unknown "illness" was infecting a bunch of people with no known cause and that's just a bit scary. Ann's story was creepy more because there wasn't any illness, just a whole load of lies that led to hysteria and paranoia and 20 deaths. A lot of stories about the Salem Witch Trials are told from the point of view of an outsider or an accused woman; it was interesting and a little freaky to hear Ann Putnam's version of events. I was hoping Conversion would be a little eerie, and it was.

I loved the diversity of the characters in Conversion, from their personalities to their backgrounds. Both the modern and historical casts were developed (some more than others, of course) and helped to drive the story. A few times their interactions became a bit cheesy, but to be honest high school is pretty cheesy, and I'm no holding it against anyone.

Definitely, definitely read Conversion if you like creepy-but-not-scary books or have any interest in either the Salem Witch Trials or the Le Roy Mystery Illness. It would also make a great book club read; there's plenty of things to discuss. Conversion was a very well put-together book, and it's made me a fan of Katherine Howe's. I want to see what else she can do. ...more

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Aug 14, 2015 Melodie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-fiction

I am not usually a fan of young adult fiction, probably because I'm no longer a young adult. But a good story is a good story. And this is a good story. It is a comparison of young girls in the same location in two time periods, 1706 and 2012.
In 1706,the circumstances that led to the Salem witch trials are the focus. In 2012, a tony private girl's school, and a Mystery Illness afflicting a growing number of the student body. Is it hysteria born from a spiteful bunch of girls or something more ...more

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Mar 14, 2015 Jane rated it did not like it

Shelves: da-faq-i-just-read, belh, dumbaasery-right-there, dnf, unedited-review, crap, shit

DNF at page 36. I know. A record.

Good job Howe! You must have put some fucked up shit for me to do that and come on here thirty minutes after stomping on it to make sure it's dead and writing a lengthy review on it!

DISCLAIMER: I try to limit the amount of dnf reviews because they are usually unfair to the author but mother of god, this crap was so bad and so many rules were broken that I couldn't resist.

When I first found this book, I was like: 'Huh. That looks interesting and intellectual.' S ...more

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Sep 12, 2014 Lauren Stoolfire rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, paranormal, mystery, historical-fiction

All the girls at St. Joan's Academy in Danvers, Massachusetts are under a lot of stress senior year. They are all expected to hold it together until they can't any more. A mystery illness begins to spread around the class - Clara, the queen bee, develops uncontrollable tics in the middle of the day and then it seems to spread to her closest friends. Her friends develop completely different symptoms from coughing fits to hair loss. Rumors begin to spread and blossom into full blown panic. As the ...more

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Jun 14, 2014 Troy Lindeman-Wyner rated it did not like it

That's 2 days of my life that I won't get back. ...more

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Oct 01, 2014 Amy Sturgis rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, ya-general, gothic, mystery, 21st-century, fantasy

In Conversion, Katherine Howe alternates between a current-day health panic in a female private school and the 17th-century witch hunts that took place on the same ground - today's Danvers, history's Salem Village, Massachusetts. Howe captures the runaway train that is hysteria and peer pressure quite well as she describes young women who are under severe stress while, at the same time, they're enjoying a sense of power and visibility previously unavailable to them.

What I most appreciated about ...more

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May 17, 2014 Jessica McReaderpants rated it it was ok

Shelves: adult-fiction

I think I am too bitchy now to review books- all of my books read this month have gotten two stars- there should be a footnote ability *this book was read and reviewed while in the throes of hormonal hell- Saying that I just felt this book was a retelling of the same tired old salem witch trials- hysterical girls- blah blah blah- the only twist is that it is happening again at a posh girls school and this time you think it is hysterical girl-itis or is it? Perhaps Emma is a witch. I dunno- I jus ...more

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Aug 15, 2016 Colleen Houck added it

Shelves: magic, contemporary, witches, historical

It's so strange to label this book as both historical and contemporary. I loved the back and forth and was absolutely captivated by the glimpses of the past. I'd always liked the yellow bird on the cover but now that I've finished the book it creeps me out a little. When you read it you'll understand why. What an interesting concept. Still have a shiver down my back. ...more

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Aug 03, 2014 Mike Cuthbert rated it it was amazing

I have always been fascinated by the psychological underpinnings of the Salem witch trials of the 17th century. The irrationality of the New England of that time and the horrific damage done to lives and reputations based on nothing much more than the ravings of teenagers has vibrated in me through various incarnations, most directly the McCarthy trials in our 50s and more recently the political rantings and ravings, mostly on the Far Right in American politics. In both cases, rational thought a I have always been fascinated by the psychological underpinnings of the Salem witch trials of the 17th century. The irrationality of the New England of that time and the horrific damage done to lives and reputations based on nothing much more than the ravings of teenagers has vibrated in me through various incarnations, most directly the McCarthy trials in our 50s and more recently the political rantings and ravings, mostly on the Far Right in American politics. In both cases, rational thought and mutual respect were and are suspended and character assassination is seen as a positive virtue. In the case of this novel, its author constructs the book as a duet: one voice is from the period of the trials in Salem Village, the other from Danvers, Massachusetts, 2012. It is not coincidental that Salem has been renamed Danvers and this is noted when an apparent case of witchcraft breaks out in Danvers. Called the “Mystery Illness,” its symptoms include raving mania, collapse of limbs, jumbled ravings and, in one case, vomiting of needles. Confined to one school, a high-class Catholic girls’ school named St. Joan’s Academy, the illness draws the attention of epidemiologists, religionists and various scandal-fans as they all, in their own ways, pursue the reasons for the illness. The protagonist of the novel, Colleen Rowley, at first is a horrified observer of the effects of the mania but she tends to yield to it as she lives with the destruction of lives of her friends and the pressures of senior year. Paralleled with St. Joan’s and the Mystery Illness are accounts of the Salem Witches and their travails as chapters alternate by centuries. There, too, the victims of the madness were all friends and neighbors, but there, too, adults who could be blamed for having influence were blamed and some of them met death by fire, hanging or drowning. Howe keeps the action moving and the parallels not too broad, but they are unavoidable, especially when a rational teacher, Ms. Slater, suggests to Colleen that she read The Crucible of Arthur Miller. Colleen gets the point but becomes so taken up with the Illness itself that the book falls by the wayside. There is an ostensible and reasonable explanation for the Illness and it makes sense that what happened in 2012 probably happened back in the 1600s in Salem. That it happened before and that it was largely preventable does not lessen the fact that we read so little that we might not be able to understand that we’ve been here before. And that facts and reputations are not to be messed with. To do so invites ruin, no less today than it did in the 1600s in Salem. This is not a superstitious novel. It doesn’t sensationalize the events it portrays. Maybe that’s why it’s so chilling to realize how little we’ve learned across centuries and how willing we still are to destroy people, especially women, who are merely manipulating us for their own mysterious purposes through our emotions rather than our rational minds. A very good summer read. ...more

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Oct 27, 2014 Jeninne rated it did not like it

I often joke around that once in a while I come across a book so terrible that I want my money back. Most of the time, I don’t mean it. I’m generally of the belief that buying a book is like going to a restaurant you’ve never been to before. It could turn out to be so wonderful it has you coming back for more without hesitation, or it could just be the luck of the draw that it’s so bad you lose your money and your time. Of course on special, rare occasions, when books are like restaurants, you e I often joke around that once in a while I come across a book so terrible that I want my money back. Most of the time, I don’t mean it. I’m generally of the belief that buying a book is like going to a restaurant you’ve never been to before. It could turn out to be so wonderful it has you coming back for more without hesitation, or it could just be the luck of the draw that it’s so bad you lose your money and your time. Of course on special, rare occasions, when books are like restaurants, you end up with food poisoning and you want your fucking money back.

I want my money back with this book.

Because this book. This book with its main character. This book.

Let me tell you about Colleen. Colleen is a narcissist. She thinks she’s amazing. I mean, not to brag or anything, but she’s been in AP classes forever, and you should recognize that those are very hard to get into. In fact, some classes like AP history, limit its spots, so only the best of the best get in. Colleen is like one of those poor girls who gets bumped out a spot. Oh, and she’s going to be valedictorian, not because she works the hardest, but because she deserves it. Because people just deserve things, and she is so much better than that other girl. She’s been working way longer for it that that girl. But Colleen is also so gracious she’ll pretend to be nice to said other girl, because did I mention, Colleen is a fake bitch?

Yes, that’s right, Colleen is faker than boobies in Beverly Hills. She has all these friends (she’s totes popular, but not TOO popular, because no one likes those girls) that she’s nice to, but talks mad shit about behind their backs. And she has a comment or observation for all of them, because some of them just aren’t that special, if you know what she means, and others of them try too hard, and yet still, some are funny, but clearly that’s to compensate for other things. Yes, Colleen’s shit talking is endless in this book, and not limited to her friends. She makes throwaway comments about how she often forgets her sibling because she’s so quiet, and teachers are nerds, but that’s okay because I guess nerds are chic right now.

Let me put it like this, Colleen is the most pretentious, self serving, shit talking, hypocritical, judgmental, righteous bitch I have come across in a very long time. This girl thinks the sun shines out of her ass. And I want to punch her in the face.

Other than that, the plot is boring and the characters are generic.

I want my money back. This book gave me food poisoning and I want my fucking money back. I can’t even believe I actually made it through this thing. ...more

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Jan 14, 2015 Melissa rated it did not like it

Shelves: ya-fiction, ya-paranormal, ya-stand-alone, ya-split-pov, ya-historical

For a mystery, I find this pretty boring and uneventful. There are very little advances in the "mystery" plot, and a lot of drag. The Salem story line is so darn boring I often find myself saying "Blah, blah,blah" just to help pass the time.

I feel like this book could have been something exciting, but it really fell flat. I've always enjoyed reading about the Salem Witch Trials, so I thought this book would have been a sure fire hit. Not so.

I'm only halfway through, but it is going to drive me ...more

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Mar 19, 2015 Emily rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, book-club, 2015

3.5 stars

This was a page-turner, and the modern story seemed so familiar, I had to peek at the author's notes at the end to see if it was based on something that really happened. It was. Obviously the historical segments in Salem were based on actual events.

The true story that this (the chapters set in 2012) is based on is fascinating and weird, and I enjoyed reading Howe's fictionalized version.
There was a little too much going on, though (view spoiler) ...more

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Jul 22, 2014 Trisha rated it it was ok

I knew pretty early on that this book and I were not going to get along. Luckily, I did this as an audio book so I could roll along with the story while trying to ignore all the glaring ridiculous ones.

I think this book is a GREAT example of how a YA book can be okay for kids of that age and not translate well for an adult.

I couldn't buy off on how anyone handled the sickness. I love tales of the witch trails in Salem but even that couldn't save this one.

It's just boring. and way too long.

(vie ...more

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Apr 12, 2016 Audrey Graser rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2016

Very similar to The Fever by Megan Abbott. I found that Conversion was heavy-handed, long and boring. Cool premise, but Howe didn't take it to the next level. ...more

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Oct 13, 2017 Josephine (Jo) rated it it was ok

Shelves: america, school-stories, fantasy-folk-tales, books-i-own, 2017-on-goodreads, 18th-century

If this book had been a little shorter or had come to a more intriguing conclusion I would have been more inclined to give it a higher rating. I started it thinking that the two different stories one set in the present day and one set in 1706 would merge at the end with a chilling conclusion. I can see the connection and what was probably the same ailment had extremely more severe consequences in the 1700's than in the present day.

The main group of girls in the present time are typical of any ...more

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Aug 16, 2016 Andy rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2016-read, trash, cannonball-8

Half the Time I Liked Her and the Other Half I Wanted to Strangle Her
Conversion
Rating: 2/5

Summary: Colleen is a senior at Saint Joan’s private school. She is one tenth of a point from being valedictorian and her dream is to go to Harvard. But while Colleen tries to balance school, her friends and a new crush the girls at her school begin to fall ill from a mysterious illness. An illness that seems to resemble the same illness the afflicted the girls Arthur Miller wrote about in The Crucible.

Ther Half the Time I Liked Her and the Other Half I Wanted to Strangle Her
Conversion
Rating: 2/5

Summary: Colleen is a senior at Saint Joan’s private school. She is one tenth of a point from being valedictorian and her dream is to go to Harvard. But while Colleen tries to balance school, her friends and a new crush the girls at her school begin to fall ill from a mysterious illness. An illness that seems to resemble the same illness the afflicted the girls Arthur Miller wrote about in The Crucible.

There are a couple of things going on in Conversion. We get Colleen’s struggle to get into college. And this girl is majorly stressed. We also see Anne Putnam Jr’s testimony from Salem Village of 1706. Their chapters are interwoven in an interesting way so that their stories begin to parallel each other later on in the book. In addition, there is something going on with Colleen’s classmates and her best friend, Emma. Her classmates are falling ill. Clara begins to develop verbal ticks; the other Jennifer’s hair falls out. Emma is distant and their A.P. US history teacher has disappeared.

Emma was quite a suspicious character for me though I wanted to like her because of Emma Carstairs from Lady Midnight. But don’t do that because they are not at all alike. The other thing that bugged me is that Colleen kept saying that Emma was her best friend yet she never really talked to Emma and she even admits to liking Deena better. Your best friend isn’t just the person you’ve know the longest, that’s so BS. Also it’s not some nominal title, you don’t just give it away like a label. Ugh.

Colleen annoyed me because she freaked out over every small detail about college and her homework. She was literally killing herself with stress and school trying to succeed. She freaked out over a pop quiz and after getting an extra credit opportunity, she didn’t finish it! Ugh this girl! She just annoyed me a lot, though sometimes I liked her. I liked the romance with Spence. It was cute but wasn’t the main point of the story at all.

Overall I liked this, but it was quite slow and long. The ending was confusing and I didn’t really like the answer they gave me for the illness. It could’ve been better and I think there should’ve been more clues and figuring out of the mystery throughout the book rather than at the last 30%. ...more

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About Katherine Howe

Katherine Howe

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Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer of historical fiction. Her adult novels are The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2009 and was named one of USA Today’s top tend books of the year, and The House of Velvet and Glass, which was a USA Today bestseller in 2011. For young adults, Katherine has written Co Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer of historical fiction. Her adult novels are The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2009 and was named one of USA Today’s top tend books of the year, and The House of Velvet and Glass, which was a USA Today bestseller in 2011. For young adults, Katherine has written Conversion, which received the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in young adult literature, and a New York City-based literary ghost story called The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen, which was named a 2016 “Must Read” for young adults by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. In 2014 she edited The Penguin Book of Witches for Penguin Classics, a primary source reader on the history of witchcraft in England and North America which made a regional bestseller list and which has been translated into Spanish. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, her new novel for adults, will be published by Henry Holt and Co in summer 2019. She has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” the BBC, and the History Channel, and she hosted “Salem: Unmasking the Devil” for National Geographic. Her fiction has been translated into over twenty languages. In 2015 she was the visiting writer in residence at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, and she spent 2016 as a visiting scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. She holds a BA in art history and philosophy from Columbia and an MA in American and New England studies from Boston University, and she has taught American history, visual culture, and writing at BU and Cornell. Her first published works were three brief catalogue essays in an architectural monograph published by the Museum of Modern Art in 2000. A native Houstonian, she lives in New England and New York City with her family, where she is at work on her next novel. She also puts hot sauce on everything. ...more

Books by Katherine Howe

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (The Physick Book, #1)

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs (The Physick Book, #2)

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Quotes from Conversion

“When a Girl's on a pedestal, there's nothing some people would like better than to shove her off it, just to know what kind of noise she'd make when she shattered.” — 10 likes

“Il est bon à savoir. It is good to know.” — 5 likes

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