Hell & High Water

Reviewed by: Noelle Gallant - Saco Middle School, Saco, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 9, 2018

Review

This book is a tough one to recommend to teen readers. Set in England in the 1750s, the dialogue is old-fashioned and many of the concepts (Punch & Judy, for example) would be foreign to the point of uninteresting for a young adult audience. While the characters were well-developed, I found the plot to be confusing because non-memorable details from earlier on in the story became important later in the book in a way that didn't make sense. I also found the ending to be completely unresolved. Spoiler alert - the antagonist, who seems to have it coming the whole time, gets NO consequences in the end, which made for a wholly unsatisfying reading experience.

Overall Book Score: good