Review by Booklist Review
The school year starts off with a three-day flood, almost keeping second-year student Emma Curran from showing up to an application interview for research funding from the Colefax-Lee Foundation. Getting that funding opens doors into the strange world of the superwealthy elite who fill the halls of the English university and drags her into the galas of a secretive society that might be a way for rich boys to lord their wealth over the student body--but it might be something much worse. Emma begins to make friends and tentatively forges a relationship with Jasper, one of the leaders of the society. She's still an outsider, though, and not everyone is who they seem--which all becomes clear during a "fox hunt," when the boys chase girls dressed as foxes through the streets. It's just a game, until it isn't, and Emma slips through the cracks into another world that exists in parallel with the familiar. Emma's coming-of-age journey through the corridors of human power and into the underlying mysteries is intense and ultimately satisfying.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A British university student becomes entangled with the members of a campus secret society who inadvertently provide her access to a mysterious parallel world. When shy Emma Curran accepts a prestigious fellowship that funds climate change--related research on river habitats, she's catapulted from obscurity into the most elite student circles. She quickly begins consorting with young people whose lives center around "dressage clubs…[shopping] at Harrods," yachts, and glamorous parties. Her newfound social status attracts attention from the popular leader of the secretive all-male Turnbull Society, who invites her to partake in an ancient ritual and then a human "fox hunt" that unexpectedly transports her to a domain that coexists--and sometimes intersects--with her own. Breeze demonstrates her mastery of worldbuilding by plunging the reader into the mesmerizing realm of the Night City, populated by spell-workers, healers, scholars and hybrid human-animals who, like Emma, have been "touched by magic…[and] belong to the power that claimed [them]. That saved [them], or granted [their] wish"; and where survival is dependent on the ability to see through cleverly worded "bargains" meant to trap the unwary. As Emma searches for a way back to her world, she draws inexorably closer to truths about the Turnbulls and their unspeakable bargain with the Night City that not only test her wits, mettle, and resolve, but transform her into the avenging heroine of a story she never dreamed would be hers. Smart, propulsive, and multi-layered, this deftly crafted fantasy thriller immerses readers in a narrative that recalls the wonder--and horror--of Grimms' fairy tales in a darkly elegant academic setting. An absorbing novel that weaves an unforgettable tale of magic and subversion. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
