A Cloud of Outrageous Blue

I chose this book because the title appealed to me. After all, blue is my favorite color, and what is ‘outrageous blue’? It turns out that the protagonist is a girl with synesthesia. The author explains what that is at the beginning and again at the end of the book. Synesthesia is when somebody’s perceptions get mixed so that one sense has a sensation that usually belongs to another sense – like the color blue having a sound, or piano music having a smell. The heroine, Edie, is an orphan. She lives in the Middle Ages, during an outbreak of the bubonic plague. Edie’s brother sends her to a priory, like a convent, where she learns to read and write Latin. Edie is an artist, and she learns how to make pigments to color the illuminations (illustrations) in medieval books. The illustrations in this book are so beautiful, and really help you imagine the world of the priory. Unfortunately, the story did not hold my attention. I enjoyed flipping through the book to see all the pictures, but I really had to push myself to read the story. At the end of the book is the author’s note about her research. It’s interesting and I enjoyed reading that. the author as a person sounds really interesting. So if you do love reading novels set in the Middle Ages, or living in a convent sounds like fun to you, definitely check out this book and its beautiful artwork – the pictures alone are worth it!