Publisher Description
The bestselling author of The Lake of Dead Languages presents a vivid and atmospheric story of a magical world on the brink of change and the girl who is the catalyst for it all.
“A beautifully told fantasy, ripe with magic, forbidden love and unspeakably dark forces . . . a journey well worth taking.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A treat for lovers of the gothic.”—Booklist
Welcome to Blythwood.
At sixteen, Avaline Hall has already buried her mother, survived a horrific factory fire, and escaped from an insane asylum. Now she’s on her way to Blythewood Academy, the elite boarding school in New York’s mist-shrouded Hudson Valley that her mother attended—and was expelled from. Though she’s afraid her high society classmates won’t accept a factory girl in their midst, Ava is desperate to unravel her family’s murky past, discover the identity of the father she’s never known, and perhaps finally understand her mother’s abrupt suicide. She’s also on the hunt for the identity of the mysterious boy who rescued her from the fire. And she suspects the answers she seeks lie at Blythewood.
But nothing could have prepared her for the dark secret of what Blythewood is, and what its students are being trained to do. And the more rigorously Ava digs into the past, the more dangerous her present becomes . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this atmospheric period piece set in 1911 12, a teenage factory girl is sent to her mother's alma mater, an elite girls' school located in upstate New York. There, Avaline Hall discovers that the girls of Blythewood Academy are secretly trained to work magic in order to fight off the dangers of Faerie, including winged Darklings and treacherous lampsprites. As Avaline unravels the mysteries of Blythewood, her own unrealized potential, and her deceased mother's tragic past, she grasps a larger picture, one in which the Fae may not be all evil. Goodman (Arcadia Falls) delivers a beautifully evocative tale perfect for fans of Libba Bray and Tiffany Trent. First in a trilogy, Goodman's story is intriguing, romantic, eerie, and adventurous, with the narrative wrapped around fairy tales and historical events, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Some of the supernatural framework may be familiar, but Goodman's integration of social causes and philosophy of the era notably workers' and women's rights, as well as the roles of superstition, science, and reason lead to a multifaceted and mature fantasy. Ages 12 up.
