FOREVER LOVING

Debut author Malroy offers a historical novel about a young woman with British sympathies during the Revolutionary War who flees to Canada.

The novel begins in the year 1775 on New York’s Long Island and follows Elizabeth Compton,a wealthy young girl from a British family, as she leaves behind naïve girlhood. Although she’s secretly married to Matthew, who wants colonial independence, her allegiances are tested when her father dies after being tarred and feathered by an anti-Tory mob. Soon, Elizabeth must flee to safety, accompanied by her mother and siblings along with Edward, a headstrong bondsman who’s indebted to her father. While traveling through New England on their way to British Canada, the group encounters a variety of sudden, extreme hardships, including illness and violent attacks by Indigenous people, and Elizabeth experiences multiple personal tragedies. Malroy’s choice to focus on major characters who side with the English crownin this setting is unusual and provides a refreshing change from novels that are told solely from a Patriot point of view. Readers are meant to sympathize with Elizabeth as she travels over four years and thousands of miles, and it will be natural for them to entertain the hope that she may mature and deepen as a character. However, she and other women in the narrative feel underdeveloped, as they rarely have very much agency. Edward’s wife, Doris, seems only to have been placed in the narrative to provide contrast with Elizabeth’s faithful purity; Doris constantly complains and neglects her children right up until she and her baby leave the narrative. Characters’ repeated use of the word Indianmay be historically accurate, but readers will wish that some characters pushed back harder against racist attitudes. Readers may also wish to know ahead of time that the story includes infant loss.

An offbeat but heavy-handed tale that suffers, in part, from a lack of character development.