Chains by Laurie Anderson is a historical novel about a fictitious pair of enslaved sisters. The novel begins with the mother of the two sisters dying. It is an account of their exploits after they have been sold to a pair of rich loyalists living in a rebellious New York. The novel is set in the time of the War for Independence in America; a time when many slaves were being freed by both sides in order to gain their loyalty. Isabel (the elder of the sisters and the narrator) has to grapple with the fact that why ‘if an entire country could seek its freedom, why not a girl?’

I liked the feel of the book in that it was well written and nicely paced, not too fast or too slow. However I disliked the use of the language; because it is written in the first person. Anderson includes misspellings such as ‘remembery', But these changes are infrequent and don’t always occur, meaning that sometimes the novel reads like a modern book and sometimes with lots of unnatural spellings. Occasionally, when the narrator is very angry or has been hurt, the way she describes the way she sees the world changes. Isabel often uses a strange metaphor to describe her feelings when she is depressed and hurt: ‘strangest of all was the hive of bees that had taken residence inside of me. They swarmed under my skin and gave off peculiar vibrations. The buzzing echoed in my brainpan and crowded out my thoughts.’ I can never quite tell what this is meant to represent and therefore I am left feeling confused and detached from the book.

That is why I am giving it a seven out of ten.