Donna Underwood is not an ordinary girl. She is the daughter of two alchemists, both of whom she lost when they saved her from a fey attack at age seven -- her father was killed and her mother has been institutionalized, nearly comatose. The same attack damaged her hands and arms so badly that they were only fixed through a series of magical surgeries which implanted iron in her bones and tattooed alchemical symbols from her hands to her elbows. Although she is "homeschooled" by the alchemist Order of the Dragon, she does her best to keep alchemy out of her daily life, even keeping it a secret from her best friend, Navin. But something has changed; wood elves are turning up in the city and seem to be following her. Donna has to make choices about who to trust and how to come to terms with her heritage, before it's too late.
I don't have particularly strong feelings about this book. The writing was only so-so for me: there are several "diary" entries from Donna that felt more like a literary device than an actual diary; also, there were moments when the events or dialogue seemed just a little too fabricated, and one part when the main character appears to jump to wild, unsubstantiated assumptions (I was a little annoyed when there wasn't an immediate twist, but perhaps something comes to light in the later books). However, despite this criticism, I didn't dislike the book. The characters were realistic and well developed; the concept and the plot were also really interesting - both in terms of the study of alchemy and the faerie/demon/human triple world design. It's also clear that this book was primarily setting up some bigger issues and events that I assume will be addressed in rest of the series. Overall, I would recommend this book to fantasy fans who enjoy stories about magic set in the real world, particularly those that deal with faerie or magic with a physical/alchemical component.
This book is the first in a trilogy, followed by The Wood Queen and The Stone Demon
- If this book sounds interesting, consider these: Wings, Wicked Lovely, Bloodlines, or Young Warriors
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