The Foreshadowing

A lot of buildup for a climax I could see coming way ahead. Very nice atmosphere; I just wish something more realistic had been at stake.

Great tale about the changing world in England during World War I. I loved Sasha's ability to do things she didn't think she was capable of doing. Good story.

Divided into very short chapters that read a bit like a diary leading to weak character development. Interesting story line, but it doesn't really pick up until about halfway through. Great ending!

Great war book told from a young woman's point of view.

Again Marcus Sedgwick shows he is a master at creating a good setting. I have read a fair amount of WW1-based literature (especially poetry: Sassoon, Owen, Brooke), but found this depiction of the horrors of the trenches, and the futility of it all the most moving of all.

Otherwise, it is a good

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read, and difficult to put down. Again, as this is a young adult book it seems a little brief for me, and I feel he has ideas and characters (especially secondary characters) which could be developed that bit further. But I am impressed that he doesn't 'dumb' things down for his audience by trying to paint the war in a brighter light.

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Interesting - I liked the glimpse into what been a nurse (or doctor) in wartime is like, though I was not thrilled all the way through…

Imagine you can see people's deaths in advance. You know that when you dream their deaths or see something in their eyes, that they are not long for this world. No one believes you when you tell them you can do this. You feel afraid and misunderstood. You live in England in the midst of World War

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I. Your eldest brother is at war. You dream his death and it happens. Now your other brother is at war too. You dream his death as well. But this time, you think you have to try to stop it. But how can a young girl stop what is destined to happen on a battlefield? And is it possible to change the future you have already foretold? Find out in "The Foreshadowing" by Marcus Sedgwick.

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Sasha is a 17 year old English girl. She was well brought up in a good family. He father is a doctor. Her eldest brother,Edgar, has gone off to fight in the war. That war is World War I. Her second eldest brother wants to be a doctor, too. To her father disapproves the fact that he doesn't want to

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go to war. Sasha Wants to be a nurse and help people, but her father also disapproves of that. He says that girls like her shouldn't do somthing such as that. The sights are, too grusome. Thomas, the brother that wants to be a doctor, has been white feathered several time.When a man recives a white feather from a girl, is means they think he is a coward for not going to war. Sasha sounds like a normal girl of the early 1900s, but she is not, she sees things. She has visions of people's deaths. If she touchs them or touchs an object that they touched she can sense if they are already dead or if they will die soon. During Christmas, she and her family recive a card from Edgar saying that things are good and for them to have a merry christmas. Sasha's father won't let her or anyone else touch the card. So late one night she goes down and gets the card. She has to know if Edgar is still alive. When she touchs it, she is devistated, he is dead. She doesn't tell her family, they already think she is crazy enough. When the news reaches them Thomas decides to go to war. Their father finds a safe group for him to join after telling them that he was not going to be a doctor during the war, But Thomas refuses and says why should I be any safer than the rest of the men on the frontline. After he leaves, Sasha has a terrible dream where she sees thomas getting shot. She senses that it hasn't happened yet, but will happen soon. So she steals someone else's papers that gave premission to work at a hospital, nursing soldiers back to health in order to find her brother before her gets killed,too. In the hospital she hears of a man who is like her. He knows when people die,but he finds out just by looking at them. She talks to him and begs him to help her. He reluctantly says yes. So they start their search. To stay on the safe side, they found a uniform of a soldier who died and she put it on and they hacked her hair off. So they followed the devision Thomas was in. The men in his devision travelled on foot while Sasha and the doctor travelled by motorcycle. They quickly caught up to find out that they weren't there and went were they told them they had gone. They finally caught up and Sasha spotted Thomas. She called him and they ran to each other and hugged. He asked why she had come. She said that she came because she knew he was going to die soon, but he didn't believe her. He left. She asked the doctor to go after him he did and they both returned, but before the doctor left he gave her a gun and told her to protect herself. When they returned Sasha and thomas talked. He told her the real reason why he chose not to go into the safer group. He said it was because after Edgar died, he lost all desire to live and it was the quickest way to be killed. The only way her would come home was if he was injured bad enough that that they wouldn't let him go on any longer. So gun still in her hand as he turned and left, she raised the gun She aimed the gun at his leg, but the force of the recoil makes the bullet hit him in the chest, luckily missing him heart and lungs. So he lives.
Yes I liked the book. I liked it because it had a lot of suprising events in it. It was also mysterious. The thing that caught my eye was the fact that Sasha could see people's deaths. I gave it the rating i did becuase it didn't have a lot of thing that i look for in book. I also gave it the rating I did becuase it was good. It was interesting and mysterious and for that it was good. It was also well writen and It gave lots of facts. I was learning without realizing that I was learning.

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This was the amazing story of a young girl racing against the clock to save her brother, and, in that process, piece her broken family back together again.

That’s my summary, and, as far as summaries go, I will admit that this is pathetic. But you’re not reading my review to read the summary of

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the story – doubtless, you will see dozens of other summaries should you continue to read on, or you could just read the official summary at the top and be done with it. You’re reading my review now to see what I thought of the story, how I felt when I was reading, and how I felt after I read it.

First off, this was one bloody good book. It depicts the life of a girl in WW1, but doesn’t go overboard with the details about the war. I have read other, similar books (which shall not be named) that are basically non-fiction, for all you read about the actual characters. This book, however, gives you details of WW1, yes, but does so in a way that it feels natural (- like, for those who have read it, [b:Between Shades of Grey]). You never once encounter boring old statistics like how many men died, or the amount of war won or anything like that, but instead read of how people had to create their own weapons, how they had ambulance trains with nurses aboard to tend the sick whilst their wounds were not yet infected.

Secondly, I loved his writing style. I loved how none of his chapters were more than two or three pages long, how some were blank, and how some had only two or three sentences. Alexandra’s character is developed really well, and the link with Cassandra was pure genius. His book was targeted for teens, and I’m sure anyone who’d read it that was a teen would agree with me when I say that I was right there beside her when she was being dealt the injustices by her father. Another thing that really hit home was how nobody believed Alexandra when she said that she could prophet people’s deaths. Everyone knows how it feels to be disbelieved in even when you know with absolute certainty that you are correct – especially when it has already been proven that you are accurate – it is the most frustrating feeling in the world.

Lastly, the climax was brilliant. The plot twist - that Alexandra shot him was so unexpected I knew myself to be gaping at the book. I thought that it would perhaps have been better if Jack had not told Alexandra that almost none survived, because although it would have made her feel guilty, it would have reinforced that point that we could not change the future – after all, Alexandra tried and ended up doing exactly what her dreams foretold.

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