What beastly luck. When Victorian schoolgirl Gemma Doyle smashed the magical realms’ runes two months ago (A Great and Terrible Beauty, 2003), she thought she was destroying evil. Instead, she unbound the magic and made it available to any malevolent force. In London for the Christmas holidays, Gemma must bind the power before disaster falls—but bind for whom? The all-female Order, which allowed corruption to enter the realms in the first place? The male secret society of the Rakshana, which wants Gemma dead? Betrayal is in the air, and the backstabbing distrust of London, where any girl or woman might be the evil Circe in disguise, is a far cry from the budding homoeroticism of Gemma’s earlier adventure. To make matters worse, Gemma’s father has become an opium eater, her erstwhile lover Kartik might be planning her death and her only clues to Circe’s identity come from a Bedlamite. While the characters and setting lack the lush richness and depth that made the first volume appealing, Gemma’s shivery adventures, lacking easy answers, make for an exciting mystical quest. (Fantasy. YA)
