Summary
The novel Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a young African American girl in revolutionary times
named Isabel who ends up becoming owned by a couple living in New York City. She meets another slave
named Curzon who works alongside the patriots and encourages her to share details about the loyalist
couple she is owned by to help further the efforts of the army. She agrees to spy on her owners and soon
discovers her master talking about plans to assassinate George Washington. When she tells the patriots
about the plans her master is forced to flee leaving Isabel and her sister Ruth with his wife who eventually
sends Ruth away to Charleston. Curzon was captured and held captive when the British invaded New
York. Isabel decided to sneak food to him and the other soldiers. After her masters wife discovers that
she is sneaking food to the soldiers she decides to run away to Charleston and find Ruth. But she is
conflicted and manages to break Curzon out of captivity during a celebration of the queen's birthday. They
row a boat across the Jersey River where the book ends.
Review
I really enjoyed the book chains and it moved at a fairly fast pace that kept me interested. At the end of the
book Isabel felt as though she might be dead but that was left as a cliffhanger to be continued in the next
book. I would have preferred if you had known what had happened at the end. I found the book rather
unbelievable because of all the crazy things that happened to Isabel. I really enjoyed in the book when
Isabel went about living with the loyalist couple and I liked learning about everyday life for them. Even
though the book was rather fictional it was really entertaining.