Still raw from bringing her mother home to die six months ago, Chanda raises her young siblings in this forceful sequel. A recurring nightmare prompts a visit to the rural relatives who left Chanda’s mother to die of AIDS alone in the bush. They consider Chanda cursed and urge redemption through an arranged marriage. Horrified, she tries to take Iris and Soly back to the city when violence explodes. A sociopathic warlord from a bordering country brings a bloodbath down on the village and steals the young children to use as soldiers. Despite the deranged “rebel” army’s machine guns and machetes, Chanda sneaks through the bush in pursuit, desperate to recover her siblings. Her intended husband joins her, tracking his brother. That they do save the children is an implausible but heart-wrenching relief. Iris and Soly’s long-term scars—physical (branding) and emotional (they were forced to burn homes with people inside)—are gravely realistic. Stratton’s setting (as in Chanda’s Secrets, 2004) is a fictional African country, so the explanatory author’s note is required reading for this outstanding piece. (afterword, author’s note) (Fiction. YA)
