Review: Vespertine

Title: Vespertine #1

Author: Margaret Rogerson

Publisher: 5th October 2021 by Simon & Schuster Australia

Pages: 368 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: teens, young adult, fantasy, paranormal

My Rating: 3.5 cups

Synopsis:

The dead of Loraille do not rest.

Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as spirits with a ravenous hunger for the living. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who trade whispers about her scarred hands and troubled past.

When her convent is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia defends it by awakening an ancient spirit bound to a saint’s relic. It is a revenant, a malevolent being that threatens to possess her the moment she drops her guard. Wielding its extraordinary power almost consumes her—but death has come to Loraille, and only a vespertine, a priestess trained to wield a high relic, has any chance of stopping it. With all knowledge of vespertines lost to time, Artemisia turns to the last remaining expert for help: the revenant itself.

As she unravels a sinister mystery of saints, secrets, and dark magic, her bond with the revenant grows. And when a hidden evil begins to surface, she discovers that facing this enemy might require her to betray everything she has been taught to believe—if the revenant doesn’t betray her first.

My Thoughts

‘I imagined that if I listened closely enough to the stillness that yawned beneath the convent’s mundane everyday bustle, past the muffling hush of shadowed corridors and ancient stone, I would be able to sense it festering in the darkness of its prison.’

Vespertine is the story of Artemisia, raised by the Gray sisters who tend to the dead to prevent them turning into harmful spirits and waging war on the population.This is a solid start to a new fantasy series. Artemisia is a young introverted nun who finds her comfort zone challenged in order to fight these harmful spirits. 

“We have guarded Saint Eugenia’s relic for three hundred years. It cannot fall into the grasp of the unliving. They know that the revenant cannot be freed, only destroyed. Thus they seek to destroy it. It is our greatest weapon, and without it we have no defense.”

Vespertine is not ‘typical’ of Margaret Rogerson’s writing, having a far more somber tone and no romance as the driving force. Yet dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that that is a tale of a young girl who, after a difficult upbringing, is alone in the world and must push past her fears in order to grow and fully become her true self. The reader sees Artemisia evolve over the course of the book in a journey of self discovery and finding her true purpose in life. Her relationship with the revenant is a definite highlight and beautifully told. It is a most revealing friendship with a good balance between banter and growth.

‘How far would I go, if I had no other choice? I could no longer condemn those who had turned to heresy as a last resort - not now that I knew how it felt to see so many lives hanging in the balance, unable to help, the hopelessness and guilt closing in like the walls of a tomb. If there was any force that could save them . . .’

I did find this to be somewhat slow and heavy in dialogue but if you enjoy that aspect of a story, then the conversations between Artemisia and the Revenant are sure to please. There is a lot going on so be prepared as this is only the first installment and therefore you will be left with unanswered questions. One could say that this is more of a dark fantasy story about saints and the understanding of the many secrets history holds. It will be interesting to see where Margaret takes this world - a world of the restless dead with clerics, saints, relics and ghosts. 

‘Perhaps the decisions that shaped the course of history weren't made in scenes worthy of stories and tapestries, but in ordinary places like these, driven by desperation and doubt’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.