"I, of course, knew the answer. To die, I thought. No, that wasn't it. 'Mortality,' I said, freezing as I realized that I had said it out loud."
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The Survivors by Amanda Havard Chafie Press
book review by Susan Illis
Twenty-six children accused as witches in 1692 Salem were exiled and left to die in the wilderness. Fourteen of those survived, ceasing to age and establishing a cloistered community in Montana. A descendant of these Survivors, ethereal Sadie Matthau is determined to learn about the human world, and more specifically, how she can die. Like her elders, Sadie stopped aging as a young woman, becoming a perennial twenty-one year old. Permitted by the elders to read voraciously, her curiosity about the outside world—and her fear of being forced to breed—compels her to leave her family for a twenty-first century life.
Lacking financial constraints, Sadie travels the world researching paranormal creatures, trying to determine what she is. But one night in Tennessee, she encounters an unfamiliar being whose powers surpass her own. Her Puritanical family tasks her with learning more about this "other," forever altering both her own life and the existence of her community. While she finds love with the equally stunning Everett, she may also have discovered just what she believed she most wanted—mortality.
With her staggering beauty, limitless financial resources, and supernatural powers, Sadie is an unlikely sympathetic character, yet her vulnerability and culpability for the changes wrought on her community make the reader feel protective. The life-threatening dangers Sadie and Everett encounter in their cross-cultural romance may be reminiscent of another popular series for young adult readers, but make the novel no less appealing. Author Havard effortlessly melds historical facts with spellbinding fiction in this compelling debut of the Survivors series. This is an enticing blend of paranormal, romance, and action, with some couture fashion thrown in.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review