Faces of the Dead by Suzanne Weyn

Faces of the Dead is historical fiction with an occult twist that makes use of the switched identities trope.

Marie-Therese-Charlotte of France, Madame Royale, daughter of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, has a good friend in Ernestine, whose mother is a chambermaid. Marie-Therese's mother, the Queen arranged for Ernestine to be her daughter's companion and they become good friends. The two girls look so remarkably alike that few people can tell them apart and so beginning around the age of twelve take advantage of this by often switching places. By the time they are sixteen, the two have switched places frequently because Marie-Therese is determined to learn what life is like outside the palace, to see the real France.

Ernestine tells Marie-Therese that she can sneak out of the palace by hitching a ride with Jacques who goes into Paris for supplies. On her first ride in with Jacques, Marie-Therese learns from him that the French people believe her mother is extravagant at the expense of the people and that she is an Austrian spy. On her own Marie-Therese meets a boy named Henri who tells her not to tell anyone that she works at the palace. Henri takes her to the workshop of Mademoiselle Grosholtz who recreates realistic figures in wax. Dr. Curtius taught Mademoiselle Grosholtz how to make wax figures and she has recreated scenes from many settings including Ancient Rome and Egypt and from Marie-Therese's home, at Versailles.

With Henri, Marie-Therese learns about the hatred directed towards her family by the people of Paris. She sees the sick and hungry children, the poor mothers and remembers when the women broke into the palace demanding food for their starving families. The revolutionaries, who wear the red, white and blue ribbons,  want to kill Marie-Therese's mother and father and her family.

While she is gone, Ernestine, posing as Marie-Therese, meets Marie Therese's cousin, Louis-Antoine d'Angouleme, whom she is to marry. Ernestine enjoys the duc d'Angouleme's company but Marie-Therese is not able to connect so well with him, Louis-Antoine tells her that unless she is more like she was before (when he was talking to Ernestine) they will not be happy together.

At the Place de la Concorde, Marie-Therese sees the guillotine for the first time, and sees the people rioting in the streets, intent upon storming the palace and calling for her parents to be put to death. Afraid for her family she races back to Versailles, warning her father. Her father suggests they give the people food, while her mother believes that the gates will keep the frenzied crowds outside the palace grounds. However, the mob finds its way into Versailles but are not satisfied with the bread given to them.  When the mob breaks into the palace, Marie-Therese, her younger brother Louis-Charles, Ernestine, and the king and queen attempt to escape but are forced back to Paris. When the carriage stops, Marie-Therese's Mama insists she leave and hide out telling her that her uncle from Austria is coming to take her. For three days Marie Therese waits and then heads back to Paris where she stays with Henri.

Eventually Marie-Therese and Henri become homeless after a series of misfortunes. Her family is placed at Tuileries where Marie-Therese sometimes goes to watch them in the courtyard. Eventually they discover that Mademoiselle Grosholtz has be freed and is working at Dr. Curtius's exhibit. With her is a beautiful dark-haired woman, Rose de Beauharnais who was born in Martinique and who has knowledge of magic. Mademoiselle Grosholtz tells them that she must collect the severed heads from the Place de la Revolution to make death masks of the beautiful and famous.

On their first day there, Marie-Therese learns that the women of Paris are planning to storm the Tulieres and kill the queen. Marie-Therese is carried along by the crowd, but manages to sneak away and warn her mother and family who escape into a secret safe room. When the riot is over,Monsieur Clery tells them they are expected at the National Assembly but Marie-Therese is told to go back to her life on the streets of Paris until the revolution is over. Mama gives her a velvet purse containing jewels and coins to help. Once outside again, Marie-Therese meets up with Henri who now reveals to her that he knows who she is. Henri also tells Marie-Therese that Mademoiselle Grosholtz also knows, but that they will not turn her it.

Months pass as Marie-Therese lives with Mademoiselle Grosholtz, helping her make her death masks. Henri and Marie-Therese fall in love despite the gory revolution. Will the revolution  ever end and will Marie-Therese ever see her family again?

Faces of the Dead could have been an interesting story but it was marred by Weyn's choice of two very strange storylines; the first playing on the recently revived substitution theory which posits that Ernestine de Lambriquet bore a remarkable resemblance to Marie-Therese-Charlotte, Madame Royal and that they two may have switched places during the revolution, the second storyline involving Creole voodoo to revive the spirits of those guillotined during the revolution.

If Weyn had focused on the historical story of Marie-Therese and the French Revolution, the novel would have succeeded admirably. Because the author had to focus on two very different threads, neither really lived up to expectations. Historical fiction is successful if the author is able to recreate the time period and have the characters behave in a manner consistent with that era. Although Weyn succeeds in portraying the horror and gore of the revolution, neither Marie-Therese's actions nor the paranormal storyline are believable. As an aristocrat, Marie-Therese would have stood out on the streets of Paris both in the way she spoke and in the way she behaved. She lived a very isolated, privileged life at the palace, something ironically that Weyn effectively demonstrated in her parents reactions to the revolutionaries. As a person to whom every care was attended to, she likely would have been extremely shocked to see how the average French person lived and not so eager to partake of  such a life. As to the substitution theory, it is widely regarded by historians as myth but readers will find the Author's Note which goes into greater depth about the mystery to be interesting. Readers might find the views on the blog,  Tea At Trianon also interesting.

With a separate storyline based on the occult, Faces of the Dead strays from pure historical fiction. The paranormal storyline was not necessary and ultimately pushed the novel into the realm of ridiculous with Weyn using the spirit-calling as a way to reincarnate Marie-Anoinette at the end - a totally absurd notion.Weyn provides an interesting Author's Note at the back of her novel which goes into greater depth about the mystery.

Overall, a strange novel, whose dark, mysterious cover fits the paranormal storyline in Faces of the Dead.

Book Details:
Faces of the Dead by Suzanne Weyn
New York: Scholastic Press       2014
201 pp.

Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters by Suzanne Weyn

Novels based on Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein seem to abound these days. While Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavour and Such Wicked Intent explore Victor Frankenstein's life BEFORE he creates his monster, in Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters, Suzanne Weyn crafts a good story about his fictional daughters AFTER their mad father's death.

Giselle and Ingrid Frankenstein are the twin daughters of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the mad scientist. The novel opens with excerpts from Victor Frankenstein's diary, in which he acknowledges the birth of his twin daughters, but dares not to claim them after the death of their mother. Victor is being pursued by his monster-creation, who demands that Frankenstein make him a mate. Frankenstein agrees but in the end, decides to destroy the creature.

Seventeen years later, twins Giselle and Ingrid arrive at Castle Frankenstein, located on Gairsay Island in the Orkneys. They are accompanied by their uncle, Baron Ernest Frankenstein, who has revealed to them that they have inherited both the castle and a large amount of money from their father. Giselle and Ingrid have learned that their father was considered to be raving mad, and although considered lost in the Arctic wastelands, his frozen body has only recently been located and returned to Germany.

The two young women are very different; Ingrid is studious and interested in her father's old scientific journals which she finds in one of the rooms in the castle, while Giselle, who is very beautiful, is of delicate health and suffers from sleepwalking. Giselle is deeply afraid of the dark. Giselle is also recovering from a case of unrequited love after having been rejected by a young man named Johann.

Their story is told in first person narration, through alternating entries in their diaries, beginning in May through to December of 1815. These entries suggest that the madness that plagued Victor Frankenstein, did not die with him! Ingrid is revealed to be inquisitive and intelligent and willing to take risks for the sake of knowledge, while Giselle appears fragile both physically and mentally. Gradually, we come to question Giselle's perspective, as people begin to disappear. Weyn uses the two perspectives to develop two different story lines for each of the Frankenstein twins which ultimately converge unexpectedly.

Once in the castle, Giselle decides that she will oversee its restoration, hoping to create a place where she can hold parties and entertain the social elite of the day. Their new housekeeper, Mrs. Flett, suggests that they hire the young men of Gairsay to renovate the castle, which Giselle and Ingrid agree to. Although Giselle's health appears to improve, she continues to have episodes of sleepwalking and night terrors. She is inexplicably afraid of the dark.  Giselle and her sister take a trip to Edinburgh, where she meets up with Johann, the young man who dismissed her love for him only months ago, but who now seems deeply interested in Giselle. A planned meeting turns disastrous, and Giselle wants only to return to Castle Frankenstein. But even the journey home, results in another bit of tragedy for Giselle.

Ingrid meanwhile, continues to be fascinated by her father's old notebooks, spending much time reading them. She also finds herself drawn to the sullen, wounded naval officer, Walter Hammersmith, who resides in the cottage adjacent to Castle Frankenstein. Ingrid discovers her father's abandoned laboratory, deep beneath Castle Frankenstein, which leads her further into studying his research on animating dead flesh. While in Edinburgh with her sister, Ingrid attends medical lectures disguised as a man, to learn more about the human body. She becomes convinced that her father's research holds the secret to healing, Walter, with whom she has fallen deeply in love, has lost a limb and Ingrid is determined to make him whole again using the knowledge she has gained from her father's research. She manages (somewhat unbelievably) to take him to the laboratory beneath Castle Frankenstein, where she attempts an experimental treatment to try to heal him.

But when people begin disappearing both in Edinburgh and on Gairsay, Inspector Cairo is sent over to the island to investigate. His investigation reveals that both murder and insanity are not far behind the Frankenstein family!

I was pleasantly surprised at how well constructed this story was and how it held my interest. Using the two narratives advanced the story lines quickly and from different points of view. It gradually becomes evident that Giselle's accounts are not reliable and that Ingrid nor her uncle suspect anything. Ingrid's fascination with creating new life and her experimentation with Walter suggest she has inherited her father's obsession. There is a hint of what has caused Giselle's madness near the end and a suggestion that there might be another book?

The novel is filled with plenty of references to the original work of Mary Shelly, Frankenstein. It would be helpful to have read Frankenstein first, but not really necessary as Weyn provides the backstory of Victor Frankenstein and his Monster at the beginning of the novel. The author note at the back of the book explains which elements of the novel are true to the Frankenstein story and which are not. Dr. Frankenstein's Daughter's is a quick, high interest read for younger teens!

Book Details:
Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters by Suzanne Weyn
New York: Scholastic Press 2012
250 pp.

The Bar Code Prophecy by Suzanne Weyn

The final book in the bar code trilogy tells the story of Grace Morrow and her friend Eric Chaca, who is the son of barcode resistance fighter and native spiritualist, Eutonah. Eric is Native American; half Irish and Cherokee and Hopi. Grace knows Eric from the rock climbing center, where she is learning to climb. She works as a part-time receptionist at GlobalHelix, the genetics division of the multinational Global-1 corporation. Grace's father, Albert works at GlobalHelix in maintenance.

Grace learns that Eric is part of Decode, a group working to destroy the practice of branding citizens with the bar code. She is warned by Eric not to get bar coded on her seventeenth birthday but Grace ignores his advice and does so anyways. After getting her tattoo she is warned by Dr. Harriman to leave at once and go home. Harriman invented the bar code in 2012 and in thirteen years it has spread all over the world, first in Asia and Africa and then to Europe and America.

When Grace arrives near her home, she sees that Global police have staked out the house waiting for her and possibly her parents. Her capture is prevented by Eric and by Mfumbe Taylor and Katie who have shown up with a tractor-trailer to scoop her away from the Global-1 police. Eventually, Grace meets the most important of the Decode resistors who have been keeping a watchful eye on her. They know that Global-1 wants Grace but they are not sure exactly why. They know that Grace is the daughter of Dr. Jonathan Harriman, designer of the bar code tattoo and that her file in Global-1 is deeply encrypted.

Grace and Eric learn from Eutonah (who is Eric's mother) that the Native Americans have been meeting to discuss the future of the planet. The ecological balance of Earth has been deeply disturbed by the mining efforts of Global-1, particularly on Hopi lands. The Hopi consider their sacred lands to be the center of the universe and as a result, such disturbances are believed to have profound affects on Earth. Grace is told that the Hopi have prophecies which have correctly predicted past events. However, an unknown tenth prophecy has been discovered. This prophecy is incomplete and refers to both Grace, her father and Eric. Grace, along with members of Decode are in a race against time to discover the prophecy and what it means for Earth.

Discussion

As with the other two books in this trilogy, The Bar Code Prophecy is entirely action driven with little character development. Events are conveniently contrived to further the plot and the discovery of the prophecy seems to have little bearing on the outcome which happens independently of the prophecy anyways.

These short novels are recommended for younger, reluctant readers, aged 9 to 12, who enjoy science fiction, are less likely to question some of the more flimsy coincidences, and an innocent touch of romance. It's really a shame that these novels were written in such a superficial way. The idea of tattooing everyone with a bar code, encoding their genetics and using nanotechnology to track and even control people is an interesting concept that deserves a more in-depth and mature treatment. This is not so unbelievable and the implications are far-reaching.

Book Details:
The Bar Code Prophecy by Suzanne Weyn
New York: Scholastic Press 2012
202 pp.

The Barcode Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Rebellion is the second book of the trilogy by Weyn which explores a futuristic society where an attempt has been made to control people by their DNA.
The novel opens with Kayla and Mfumbe Taylor have left the Adirondacks and are on their way to the barcode resistance march on the Capital, Washington, D.C. They are protesting the now mandatory barcode tattooing of everyone seventeen and older. Senator David Young plans to challenge President Loudon Waters over the constitutionality of the barcode which infringes on the personal freedom of US citizens. He also wants the President to admit that the barcode is being used to store "other unknown information" about a person.

While waiting outside the White House for President Loudon to appear, Kayla and Mfumbe meet up with August Sanchez who is also a barcode resister and who was part of a fringe group attempting to contact aliens via their thoughts. The protest turns deadly however, when the jets and Global-1 forces attack the protestors and begin arresting them. Mfumbe is captured but Kayla is rescued by the long haul trucker, Katie, whom Kayla met in the first book. Katie is now going by the name of Dusa. Kayla learns that many of the barcode resisters were arrested and tattooed against their will. Dusa and her friends, Francis and Nate, believe that Gene Drake, Kayla's neighbour who was killed trying to destroy a barcode facility discovered that the tattoos contain more than just a person's genetic information.

Kayla, with the help of Dusa, manages to rescue Mfumbe who is badly injured. After leaving him at his parent's home, Kayla and Dusa head west. When they arrive in St. Louis, a chance encounter brings Kayla face to face with a girl named Kara, who looks identical to her. Kayla learns that in fact there are at least four others who look like her

Kayla and Dusa travel to the Great Basin Desert where they meet up with other resisters, called the Drakians, hiding out in the limestone caves.There the mystery about Kayla's origins begins to deepen. From the stolen personal files the resistance uses to make fake barcodes, Dusa has come across Kayla's grandmother's file. She learns that her grandmother had not only a son - Kayla's father, but another child named Kayla M1-6. And from a third girl named Kendra, who is also a Kayla look-alike, she learns that all of the Kayla's have the same barcode.Eventually Kayla discovers that her grandmother gave birth to sextuplet clones of which Kayla is one.

While in the desert Kayla meets a genius computer hacker, Jake who has designed a special kind of hovercraft which he calls a "swing-lo". Kayla and Jake decide that they need to contact Allyson, Kayla's friend and former Decode member who is now doing nanobot research at CalTech. They travel there to enlist Allyson's help in solving the mystery of Kayla and also the barcodes. What they learn is far more sinister than they could ever have imagined.

Discussion

The Bar Code Rebellion is a short novel that might appeal to younger readers. As the second novel in the trilogy, The Bar Code Rebellion is entirely plot driven with little character development and a bit of romance. The idea behind the novels, that a multinational corporation uses nanotechnology to control the citizens of a country is an interesting idea but is poorly developed with large plot holes. For example, we learn that Kayla is actually one of six clones who were created from Kathryn Reed and implanted in Ashely Reed who was married to Kathryn's son, Joey. This means that Kayla is actually a clone of Joey's mother and her father is not her father, but her son. The clones were part of a transgenic experiment, with each clone getting a bit more bird DNA than the next. Joey and Ashley got the first clone, Kayla, who had the least amount of avian DNA. Yet when Kayla's "mother" Ashley is ranting against the barcode in the first book, she never mentions to Kayla or even hints that she is a clone - surely an important fact she would want her to know, given the dire situation that is developing. Another glaring inconsistency: GlobalHelix which created the six transgenic clones loses them - highly unlikely in a corporation which excels in controlling each and every citizen.

The writing is poor, with many coincidences that are just too convenient. As an example,  Amber who has run away from her crazy Aunt Emily wakes up one morning to find a maniacal clone of Kayla in her tent, in the middle of the desert. And she just accepts this? Mostly the plotline is predictable with everything easily and quickly resolved. It's a shame because the concept with its inherent themes of identity, privacy, control, and ethics of research and consent are important in our highly internet-based society.

It will be interesting to see how Weyn can possibly write a third novel after all the ends were wrapped up in the second.

Book Details:
The Bar Code Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn
Scholastic       2006
265 pp.

The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Tattoo is the first book in a trilogy written by Weyn that explores a not so futuristic world where everyone has a bar code tattooed on their wrist.

Kayla Reed is sixteen, soon to be seventeen, the age at which she will qualify for a bar code tattoo. The bar code tattoo is all the rage, with not only kids getting them but adults too. Both of Kayla's parents recently got the tattoo but Kayla thinks the tattoo is bizarre. "Even though she saw tattoos everywhere, they continued to fascinate her. How bizarre to be branded like a box of cereal. Didn't people mind being counted as just one more product on a shelf? There had to be more to a person than that."

For people with the tattoo, it means that all their personal information is quickly available with a simple scan of their right wrist. Information such as banking, medical records, and insurance is readily accessible. But for those who don't have the tattoo, life is gradually becoming more and more restricted. All tattoos are done through the US Postal Service which was taken over by Global-1, an international affiliation of corporations and billionaires.

One afternoon Kayla returns home to find that her father who worked as an FBI researcher has committed suicide.Her mother, a nurse, is convinced that the bar code is responsible for his death but she won't divulge to Kayla why she feels this way.

At school, Kayla connects with several students who have formed a resistance cell. Nedra Harris, Allyson Minor, August Sanchez, Mfumbe and Zekeal Morrelle are working with Senator David Young who has organized a resistance group named Decode. Young is attempting to place restrictions on the bar code tattoo. Led into the group's secret meetings by Zekeal, Kayla eventually becomes involved in this group and  romantically involved with Zekeal. At her first meeting in an abandoned warehouse, Kayla is invited to use a virtual reality helmet which puts her in touch with resistance groups. While using this helmet she meets a mysterious woman named Eutonah who lives in the mountains. Kayla learns that there are dozens of resistance groups who are organizing and hiding out in the Adirondack Mountains.

As the pressure to get the bar code tattoo intensifies, Kayla begins to see the lives of those who get the tattoo unravel. The parents of her best friend Amber, suddenly find their bar codes are no longer working and soon after they are without jobs and unable to purchase a home. Those who have worked hard and achieved success suddenly lose their jobs and homes while others see their economic status inexplicably improve overnight. Kayla knows that this has something to do with the bar code tattoo.

When the bar code tattoo is made law, Kayla arrives home to discover that her mother has been able to access her father's FBI profile and learns that genetic testing was done on him and that he had the genes for alcoholism and schizophrenia.

After spending a night with Zekeal, Kayla makes a shocking discovery about him and flees his apartment. Arriving at her home Kayla finds her mother distraught and now attempting to burn the tattoo off her wrist. In this confrontation with her mother, she learns the truth behind the bar code tattoo and what is happening at the hospital where her mother works. It turns out that Global-1 is murdering babies who are not genetically perfect and taking those who are and genetically altering them through transgenics. It is at this time that their house is set on fire and Kayla awakes to find herself in hospital, being prepped to be tattooed.

Kayla escapes and decides that she must make her way to the Adironadack's and to safety with the resistance groups hiding there. She manages to make it partway and connect up with Mfumbe who has also fled his home.But Zekeal and Nedra are not so willing to let Kayla escape and they pursue her into the mountains. This leads to a climatic confrontation. With Global-1 apparently holding all the cards, Kayla and Mfumbe must decide whether to hide in the mountains or go back and fight Global-1.

Discussion  

The Bar Code Tattoo is timely because it deals with privacy issues in the electronic age. The story is set in 2025 and society has transitioned from debit cards to e-cards to the bar code tattoo which stores information about a person and allows them to function in society. In Weyn's book, the tattoo goes from being a fad to being something that is required in order to function in society. For example, Kayla cannot receive university scholarships nor her drivers license without the tattoo.

This ultimately raises the question of how much personal information should a government have access to? And who can access and use that information? What can this information be used for? Should individuals have a say in who accesses their personal information? In our age of debit cards and e-transactions, almost every personal transaction from purchasing groceries to where we travel, to our health records can be monitored. This gives whoever controls such information enormous power.

Weyn has created a strong character in Kayla, who is both determined and principled. While others around her tend to follow the path of least resistance, Kayla becomes determined not to get a bar code when the evidence increasingly points to a sinister motive behind the tattoo. She doesn't know how she will exist but she knows it will be with out the bar code. This is not without some conflict - Weyn doesn't present this as an easy choice for Kayla. She struggles and realizes to that to just get the tattoo would make her life much easier.

There is some suggested sexual content in the Kayla and Zekeal's relationship making this short novel suitable for older teens. American author Suzanne Weyn has penned numerous novels including the popular Wildwood Stables and several contributions to Simon Pulse's Once Upon A Time series of fractured fairytales.

Book Details:
The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn
New York: Scholastic Inc.    2004
252 pp.