By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: February's birth stone is the Amethyst and it's birth sign is Aquarius until the 19th when the zodiac sign changes over to Pisces. People who are born under these signs are supposed to be intelligent, eccentric, and have a fascination with and involvement in the psychic world.
Victoria Raven, one of the four protagonists of Mary-Rose Hayes' novel, Amethyst seems to possess all of these attributes and more as she enters the lives of her classmates Jessica Hunter, Catriona Scoresby, and Gwyneth Jones and ends up changing their lives far greater than they ever would have imagined in this very odd but very unforgettable story.
The story of the four women begins at the end where the Reader learns that all four live successful lives-Jessica as a painter, Catriona as a hotel magnate, Gwyneth as a supermodel, and Victoria as a foreign correspondent/journalist.
Jessica, Gwyneth, and Catriona are contemplating their next steps in their careers and with the men in their lives when they receive a call from Victoria's brother, Tancredi telling them to come to the Ravens' estate home in Scotland because Victoria "needs them." This urgent request sends the trio sprinting from their homes in Mexico, New York City and rural Southern England where they recall their strange friendship.
The three girls meet Victoria Raven in 1968 at Twyneham, a girl's boarding school that seems to specialize in training rich young girls to become the wives of wealthy men. At least that's the plan for the wealthy Catriona Scoresby who dreams of being the wife of upperclass, Jonathan Wyndham. Jessica Hunter, a daughter of nobility, also plans for an arranged marriage and to occasionally dabble in painting. Gwyneth Jones, a scholarship student, plans to coast by as a kindergarten teacher with an amiable friendly personality but little prospects.
When Victoria arrives, she impresses the girls with her backstory of being one of two illegitimate children of a Scottish earl, her platinum hair and witchy appearance, her strange words which are meant to confuse and provoke them (such as when Victoria tells Gwyneth that as a kindergarten teacher she could also "study and design children's clothes"), and her strange amethyst ring which she claims predicts the future.
During a seance with Victoria's depraved and deceased father and using her ring as a planchette, the girls discover different paths than what their families and social backgrounds have dictated. Jessica "will travel to another country to see more clearly. " Catriona will marry Jonathan "but at great cost and must trust (her) resources to find happiness." Gwyneth will "become a millionaire before she's 30 because of impeccable bones. " The most chilling prediction that is made is that the quartet will be reunited on that date (June 30) tweny years later but will be one less person.
To tell of the four's successful independent lives in the first chapter then featuring their less assured school days in the second leaves little room for suspense or surprise revelations. ( Except that "one less" prediction rings over like a death knell in all of their lives and explains why Jessica, Catriona, and Gwyneth are so anxious about Victoria's condition after Tancredi's call. )
However, the narrative style prepares the Reader to understand the journey that transforms the protagonists from complacent class-conscious schoolgirls to independent confident women. The book also gives us four brilliantly written characters to experience this narrative. Instead of the plot traveling in a straight line, it travels in a circle, like Victoria's amethyst ring, where the beginning and end are known but not the middle, not the "how it happened."
The journies that the women make to reach fulfillment through their friendship and individualities are wonderful reads.
Jessica and Gwyneth's chatacters evolve as they move to California and find their purposes.
Jessica becomes a sexually active pot-smoking hippie who begins to take her art seriously. Gwyneth goes from working as an au pair for distant cousins, to a secretary for an advertising agency, to a model advertising hair care products.
The two women find complications in their love lives as their careers begin to soar. While painting landscapes that hang "in banks, hotel foyers, and in offices," Jessica leaves behind one unhappy love affair in London and considers marrying a wealthy mentally disabled man whom she does not love because she is sorry for him and is befriended by his eccentric parents.
Gwyneth becomes recognized as "the Tawny Tress girl" and a cover model, but she is abused by a controlling maniuplative photographer-boyfriend who pushes her into anorexia nervosa until her agent is forced to give her an intervention.
Far from the free-spirited America experienced by Jessica and Gwyneth, Catriona's retreat into uppercrust English society is no less complicated. While she marries Jonathan, she doesn't find the happy ever after she imagined. Instead she finds a snobbish and highly critical mother-in-law, constant requests to her self-made millionaire father to rebuild and refurnish her in-law's family home, and Jonathan, whom she discovers is having an affair...with a man and not just any man, but Victoria's brother, Tancredi. (with whom Gwyneth also falls in love after a one-night stand.)
Catriona at first is the weakest character of the quartet as she responds to her unhappy marriage by crying, denial, and trying fruitlessly to win her husband's affections including giving birth to two children. It is only after she is threatened by bankruptcy and death does she come into her own and opens her parent's estate and her in-laws' manor as luxury hotels.
Victoria's journey is the most mysterious as Gwyneth, Jessica, and Catriona occasionally reunite with her to touch base and answer their own questions about Victoria's precognitive abilities. When they don't reunite with her and Victoria gives spot-on advice based on their current dilemmas, she is often reporting from dangerous spots-Vietnam during the War, Central America during government conflicts, or the Middle East during terrorist activities and hanging with sinister characters like Carlos Ruiz, who might be a terrorist or might be Victoria's bodyguard and lover.
Victoria's ability to enter dangerous spots and come out of them relatively unscathed makes the three others question her further. Is she psychic and able to use supernatural means to see into the future? Is she a master manipulator programming people to subconsciously follow her orders? Is she simply a good reporter with a natural nose for news? Is she a terrorist who is more involved in world events than just reporting on them? While the narrative has Victoria admit one possibility, the final pages offer more alternatives that leave Jessica, Catriona, Gwyneth, and the Reader with more questions and theories and continue to make Victoria more fascinating.
Books that feature female leads that enphasize romance, female friendship and empowerment, often feature weak male characters. (Perhaps in retaliation for many of the older novels that feature intriguing well developed male characters and superficial female love interests.) Hayes thankfully did not do this and all three of Jessica, Catriona, and Gwyneth's final male love interests are just as fascinating as their ladies.
There's Dr. Rafael Herrerra, a Mexican surgeon who shows Jessica "the real Mexico" of beautiful beaches but also poor families and bandits and also shows Jessica his "art" of surgery after Jessica shows him hers of painting. Alfred Smith, a Cockney artist captures Gwyneth's heart when he not only demonstrates a strong artistic talent but a rakish second career as a fence, receiver a stolen goods. While Catriona's affair with British agent, Shea McCormick begins rather abruptly, he develops as a srong protector and devoted lover to Catriona to the point that he is concerned about her safety because of her friendship with Victoria. Rafael, Alfred, and Shea demonstrate when the women find themselves and their independence, then the right people will come along and accept them for themselves.
The strongest male character is Tancredi Raven, Victoria's brother. Like his younger sister, he is also fascinating. He weaves in and out of the novel as a professional gambler and card counter and breaker of hearts such as Gwyneth's and Jonathan's. He is seen as someone who callously seduces and abandons lovers, sometimes taking delight in his cruelty.
However, Tancredi shows some honesty and vulnerability in the strangest of places such as when he calls Jessica, Catriona, and Gwyneth because he is aware how valuable these women are to his sister.
The Raven Siblings are the catalysts for change in the other characters. In school, Victoria pushes Jessica, Catriona, and Gwyneth to pursue their own interests and gain their independence. As adults, Tancredi brings them together to confront and let go of their past and create better futures.
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