ANNIE SKY

A 16-year-old is transported to another part of the universe by a magic mirror in Szedlak’s YA novel.

Introverted Annie Sky, still grieving the death of her mother four years earlier, is turning 16 on a school trip to New York City, where she rooms with her best friends Eva, Bella, and Pixie. On the first day of the trip, Annie and her classmates visit downtown Manhattan and spend the afternoon in Chinatown, where they spot a coveted, hard-to-find copy of the newest book in their favorite series. The bookstore selling it is closed, but they sneak in while their teachers are distracted and discover a secret room full of treasure. Annie picks up an ornate hand mirror, only to be startled by the shop’s owner and drops it. “A stream of light as bright as a thousand suns flashes from the glass shards, and, in a matter of seconds, all goes dark.” The broken mirror magically transports Annie to the other side of the universe, to a spiral galaxy called the Black Eye, where she meets a mystical being named Phoenix. Phoenix and his friends, Samyaza and Gabriel, are Sons of Watchers, archangels who once rebelled against the saints and were banished to the underworld. Together, they must help Annie find a way to return home before the slower-moving time on Diadem puts her out of synch with Earth-time by embarking on an Odyssey-like gauntlet of riddles, trials, and combat. The narrative is told from a range of perspectives—mainly those of Annie and Phoenix, but also those of Gabriel, Samyaza, and Eva. Eva’s Earth-bound point of view is dropped fairly quickly, which could either be taken as a loose story thread left unresolved or as a reflection of Annie losing her grip on the world she came from. Annie’s character development in relation to her grief over her mother’s death is particularly strong. This story has a little something for everyone: romance, action, spirituality, and intellectual intrigue.

An enticing, spiritual, and action-packed journey through the grief of a teenage girl.