The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2005
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Historical, YA



Read the full spoiler-free review here.

Among the Amazons of the Steppes, Rain is a child of sorrow, born as a result of her mother's rape. Her mother, the Amazon Queen, wants nothing to do with Rain and avoids her, so Rain is raised by the other prominent women of the tribe to be the next Queen. She struggles to find her place in the all-female society, though, partially because her status makes her a little bit of an outcast, and partially because she's uncertain that the way things have always been done is necessarily the best way.

The Foretelling is a coming-of-age tale, and Rain is a fairly typical adolescent searching for her identity. She defies the typical roles of her society, falls in love with someone she's not supposed to, and generally spends a lot of time feeling misunderstood and neglected. (Of course, her mother does neglect her, so some of this is justified more than the standard.)

At only 167 pages, this is not a long book, but it does make for an intense read. The voice shines, the first-person narration feeling like it actually comes out of Rain's head. The events and characters she feels are important show up far more prominently than things she cares less about, so her horse actually winds up being a more significant part of the book than most of the women of the tribe. The narration is so narrowly focused on Rain's perspective it might have been claustrophobic in a longer novel, but in something this size, it turned out to be one of the book's strengths.

I have to admit, I'm fascinated by woman warriors, and the Amazon culture Hoffman has created is definitely something worth exploring. I can't help but feel we only got a snapshot of a fascinating world, and at some parts I was reading more to explore the all-woman society more than I was reading about Rain's story. Although I'll admit I'm still skeptical about all men being completely unable to tame and ride horses.

This is a story for older teens. The prose is beautiful, but potentially hard to grasp for some younger readers, and the circumstances of Rain's birth as well as the numerous battle scenes make the story a little more mature. The Foretelling is well worth a read, though, both as a teen and as an adult. In fact, I think the two age groups may get very different things out of the book, but that's a discussion for another day.