The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“That which you tend, you come to adore with the kind of love that bypasses sense and reason.”- The Passion of Dolssa, Julie Berry

Dolssa is a young gentlewoman with uncanny gifts, on the run from an obsessed friar determined to burn her as a heretic for the passion she refuses to tame.

Botille is a wily and charismatic peasant, a matchmaker running a tavern with her two sisters in a tiny seaside town.

The year is 1241; the place, Provensa, what we now call Provence, France—a land still reeling from the bloody crusades waged there by the Catholic Church and its northern French armies.

When the matchmaker finds the mystic near death by a riverside, Botille takes Dolssa in and discovers the girl’s extraordinary healing power. But as the vengeful Friar Lucien hunts down his heretic, the two girls find themselves putting an entire village at the mercy of murderers.

I picked this book up so soon after The Good People because they reminded me of each other. Sure, one is an adult historical fiction novel taking place in 19th century Ireland and the other is a YA historical fiction novel taking place in 13th century Provence, but the actual subject matter is very reminiscent of each other. 

Sadly, this book can't hold a candle to The Good People. It has a quarter of the atmosphere and well developed, real-seeming characters. The writing is very surface level. We are told what to think, how to feel. The moral ambiguity is undeveloped and mostly told to us. The plot is bogged down with the character of Botille, to whom far too much focus is given.

Frankly, you could read the summary and gleam all the characterization from it. And the plot too, in a 1000+ less words. If you want characters that are the same as almost every other YA historical fiction novel ever published, this is the book to read. Botille especially grated on me. She seemed like every single YA historical fiction narrator- a woman who is strong, independent, and witty, carving out a living in a man's world. Too much attention is devoted to her, probably because the author either likes her too much or because she knows that this character is the only way to sell books. Most of the other characters were also the typical run of the mill HF characters- the vengeful priest, the innocent, beautiful girl at the mercy of these horrible holy men, the kind prostitute (there's always a prostitute character nowadays), the tough independent girl going against the grain of the time period, the roguish, snarky love interest. New setting, same old characters.

Which is a shame, because the plot had a lot of potential, as well as some of the parts, like the interviews. The entire book should have been written as the interviews- Berry could have done so much with them. They were interesting and unique and could have been such a unique way to develop the characters. But alas, we are too often pulled out of those unique snippets for Botille's world, and I feel as if I am back in stereotypical YA historical fiction. The ending was interesting, making me think of all the potential this story could have had but didn't. Dolssa should have been the focus- she's right there in the title, for crying out loud-, and if Berry really wanted to write about Botille she could have done so in a different book, a Catherine Called Birdy-esque book perhaps. Likely, I wouldn't have read it, but still.

Another YA historical fiction with so much potential and so much wasted. I can't help but think of that Tame Impala song- New Person, Same Old Mistakes. It fits.

6.5 out of 10