The Gathering Storm - Robin Bridges

There are plenty of fantasy fiction books out there for teenage girls, some have strong literary value and some…don’t.  The Gathering Storm is one of those that lies in between.  The story is completely engaging, the characters and relationships are interesting and teenage girls would love it, it doesn't hurt that it is a trilogy as well.  It follows a pretty standard teen girl fiction formula centered around a heroine who is special in some way, supernatural or not.   She is strong willed and she is asked to put her life on the line to save others; and of course there is the obligatory love triangle between the heroine and two suitors.  The Gathering Storm, while not quite classroom quality writing is something that a teen will gain valuable information from.

The story is set in 19^th century Russia and follows the exploits of Katerina Alexandrovna, a teenage girl and a member of the Russian Aristocracy.  Katerina, or Katiya is a Duchess and attends a finishing school with other young female aristocrats.  She is different from them in that she has no interest in marrying a prince and elevating her station, she wants to elevate herself by becoming a doctor, something that was not allowed for women in Russia at the time.  She is also different from her classmates because she has a supernatural power which she tries very hard to keep hidden.  But eventually it becomes more and more difficult to hide her secret because there are many other supernatural beings in the Russian court and some of them want to use her powers for evil.  There is much happening behind closed doors, secret plans are being hatched by the dark court to take over the light court and the throne; Katiya is part of the dark court, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that she or her abilities have to be bad.  Katerina struggles with her gift, believing that it is a curse, she is determined to do good and her actions throughout the novel prove that her ‘curse’ has the power to save lives and prove that the nature of her abilities do not define her, she has the power to define them.

The Author, Robin Bridges, made sure to include some accurate historical information which adds some knowledge building value, familiarizing the reader with great Russian composers, scientists and the general history of the era.  I also felt that the message the book offers about creating one’s own destiny (being born with a dark gift doesn't mean you are destined for evil) was worthy of some brownie points. 

Overall it was an interesting and engaging read, well phrased and organized, not perfect but definitely something that I would endorse for the teen girl readership.

This Website provides a timeline that would help the reader organize and make sense of some of the historically accurate elements of the text and really turn this read into a learning experience.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~karamazov/resources/?page_id=529