RESURRECTION

Abbie, William and Simon return to face off against Max, the sole surviving member of the immortality-obsessed Conclave—or so they think….

Now a medical student as well as an aide in an East End hospital, Abbie works hard to put the dreadful events on Orkney behind her (Renegade, 2013). As always, the saintly Simon is by her side, but she remains deeply, contrarily in love with the sullen, churlish William. One night, her dead friend, Mariah, comes to her, eviscerating the maid and terrifying Abbie. Could Mariah be connected to a recent string of grisly murders? And what is Max’s role? Abbie, William and Simon bicker endlessly about strategy as they race to solve the mystery and put the Conclave to rest. Readers will find it baffling that Abbie clings to her animal attraction to William in the face of his childish choler, but cling she does (though she occasionally doubts…). Her stiff, melodramatic narration tells rather than shows as encounters and pseudoscience pile up. Abbie uses her awesome knife-fighting skills against all manner of opponents living and dead with remarkable ease despite extraordinary sleep deprivation and her usually traditional feminine attire. The bizarre, new twist Reeve introduces to the Conclave’s complicated history may well thrill scholars of 19th-century England, but it will also probably leave teen readers underwhelmed.

Only for readers desperately waiting for this trilogy closer