And what a journey Chime turned out to be! The book starts with the trial of Briony Larkin, the daughter of the town's clergyman. She has been accused of being a witch, which she has confessed to herself, and it is only a matter of time before the judge sentences her to death by hanging -- the usual way for a witch to die in the town of Swampsea. But before she can be hanged, she has to tell the story of her wickedness. It is her story that is the premise for the rest of the book. Briony is convinced that she is a witch. She has a gift, a gift that is common for a witch to have, the gift of the second sight that enables her to see and hear the Old Ones - beings that are not quite human, spirits that linger on this world and feed off of trees, water, forests, sometimes even the souls of human beings. Briony starts telling her story from the day Eldric (the town's new engineer's son) arrived in Swampsea; the day that changed things not only around the town, but also within Briony herself.
Briony's story is a ghastly one where she is as wicked as a witch can get. In her story she is a wicked witch who had caused many a calamity in her life, that resulted in people getting hurt really badly. For example, she managed to call a great wind that caused a terrible accident which has left her twin sister, Rose, with a mental disorder since the age of 7. Briony also remembers calling a great flood that had caused her stepmother to hurt her spine.
Things start to change around the time Eldric (or rather, Eldric's father) comes to town. Eldric's father is an engineer who is supposed to drain the swamp so they can build on that land. This has the swamp dwellers angry, and especially one of them, an Old One, called the Boggy Mun, is so pissed that he has started to kill the townspeople with the swamp cough. When Rose catches the swamp cough, Briony becomes desperate. She has already caused Rose to be the way she is, but now she had to find a way to at least save Rose from the Boggy Mun, or rather, the swamp cough. And it appears that the only way to do so would be to tell the townspeople of the Boggy Mun and his demands of stopping the drainage of the swamp. This would also mean that she would have to tell everyone that she can see and hear the Old Ones, which would reveal the secret that she is in fact, a witch -- the punishment of which is death by hanging.
The book is mostly about the events that take place between Briony's first suspicions of Rose's catching the swamp cough, and her revealing her witchy secrets to the people of Swampsea. In between we see many other events unfold, such as the arrival of Eldric-- a charming young man, Old Ones related accidents resulting in the killing of one of the town's people, and in another event Briony herself almost losing one of her hands, etc.
Chime is also a love story; a romance that is so very sweet and transparent and inevitable and yet full of obstacles, between Briony and Eldric. There's also the crude boy Cecil who seems to think Briony belongs to him, and there's Leanne, the beautiful Leanne who is determined to keep Eldric all to herself at any cost.
All along, we see Briony fighting her own feelings for Eldric, because, a witch can't possibly be in love, of all things, and also struggling to find a way to save Rose from the swamp cough while trying to keep her own neck intact. It's such a heart warming story of a girl who has spent a lifetime believing herself incapable of love and affection, while love and affection are all she feels for those that surround her. Chime is a story about love, betrayal, deception, devotion, and so much more!
I do not suppose this book is for everyone. For those unaware of Billingsley's style, her books tend to be sweet yet dark at the same time. So, those who are into these sort of dark fairy tales with happy endings, would surely love, I mean, absolutely love this book. I know I did!
4 out of 5.
Title: Chime (Buy on Amazon)
Author: Franny Billingsley
Publisher: Dial Books, New York, 2011
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, Fantasy
Source: University of Denver Library