Hoffman, Alice. Incantation.

Hoffman, Alice. Incantation. Little, Brown, 2006 [0-316-01019-7 // 978-0-316-01019-1]
Estrella is 16 and lives with a close-knit family during the Spanish Inquisition. She does everything with her best friend until by chance she falls in love with the guy who is promised to her best friend. This is the Inquisition where one must be careful about what one does and says. One day Estrella discovers that her family is really Jewish and when her friend suspects, she turns Estrella's family into the Inquisition. This is a very powerful story. While the 166 page book is short, it is very heavy reading. People are living in a society where they must be very careful about what they say, or or even appear to be doing. There are descriptions of burnings and torture. It shows an aspect of the Inquisition that one does not often hear about. It is a good book to balance with some of the Holocaust things.