Gr 9 Up—Seventeen-year-old Avaline Hall, alone in the world and not confident in her own sanity, is working at New York City's Triangle Waist factory to keep from starving. A devastating fire with links to her mother's mystery-shrouded death sets Ava on a path toward a life she never could have imagined. After a harrowing stay in Bellevue, where she is held captive, she is rescued by her estranged grandmother and sent to Blythewood, a boarding school full of secrets, magic, and danger. There she grapples to make sense of her mother's past and her own future. What are the bells only she can hear? Should she follow her heart and believe that a Darkling could be her friend, or listen to the Order who teach her that all faeries are evil? Who is she to believe as she comes into her own powers and uncovers pieces of the truth? The class struggles in this story set in the early 1900s are vividly depicted side by side with battles of magic and Faerie. Heavy in atmosphere with just enough romance, this novel is sure to find an appreciable following. Character development is strong as readers follow Ava in her search for answers to mysteries both external and internal. Fans will just have to hope that the rather abrupt ending means that a sequel is in the works.—
Genevieve Feldman, San Francisco Public LibraryAvaline Hall enters Blythewood Academy after being saved from a fire by a mysterious boy. Blythewood turns out to be more than just a boarding school--students are handpicked and trained in archery, magic, and bell-ringing in hopes of fighting the darkness of Faerie. Once the lengthy story gets going, Goodman's eccentric cast of characters will hook readers.
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