Nocturnal Book Reviews

Egalley thanks to Flux Books

Pretty good read which strongly reminded me of Melissa Marr's fae series. However, I think the cover misleads you in a lot of ways. I thought this would be steampunk, but it's only slightly steampunk-ish.

Noli is a young mechanic and a daughter of an impoverished lady, who is strongly opposed to her doing any sort of manual work. When she gets into trouble flying a car she just fixed without a permit and a license, the police gives her a choice - to pay for her crimes and in a process hurt her mom's business, or go into a reform school in San Francisco where they will turn her into a lady. She obviously agrees to the latter.

Findley school is a sort of sadistic poisonous environment you would expect from Jane Eyre's novel. Girls are systematically beaten, given weird medical treatment (read, - torture) by a creepy doctor with an unhealthy interest in young females. Noli goes along with everything to get out as soon as possible until her friend, Charlotte, is taken away by her abusive uncle, and then her inner talent and a magical wish on summer solstice transfer her to The Otherworld.

The rest of the book (a big chunk of it) happens in fae lands. Unfortunately The Otherworld is dying and needs a sacrifice of someone with enough Spark (talent, creativity) every 7 years. The Queen and The Huntsman think that Noli can be the one, their only problem is that the girl resists all the temptations and gifts. She just wants to go home and misses her friend, V.

I think the problem with this book for me is that it's sooo tame. Noli does a lot of gardening and thinking but doesn't act at all, she waits for someone else to sort her out. The Otherworld's description is severely lacking. All you've got is some glimpses of Alice in Wonderland. Unlike Melissa Marr's books this doesn't have this dark and twisted urgency, it doesn't come alive.

So, it's a very pretty story with a knight in shining armour coming to the rescue and everything else conveniently falling into place at the last moment, but it's all too superfluous to my liking, all talk and no deed.

The finale has an interesting twist though, and I would like to continue with the series to find out where it will end.