I absolutely fell in love with Ropa Moyo, the African-Scottish
teenager who lives with her knitting-maven grandmother, younger sister, and fox
companion in a broken-down trailer in post-apocalyptic Edinburgh. Hyper-responsible
Ropa has been scratching out a living for her family as a ghost-talker by
carrying messages from the deceased to their surviving families (who pay a fee).
In the first adventure, she stumbles upon an underground occult Library of the
Dead and various secret magical academies and societies. With the exception of
her loyal, long-time magical student friends and a charismatic higher-up Sir
Callandar, who is also her mentor, the magical intellectuals look down on her.
The book opens with, “So, I’m skint again. ‘Nothing new there, Ropa,’ I hear you say. Well, up yours. This time though, a lass is in luck – Sir Callander, Scotland’s premier magical bigwig, has hooked me up with an interview for an apprenticeship. Free food and a proper wage — all for a wee bit of filing. Yay.”
What Ropa hopes would be a paid apprenticeship gets
downgraded to a crummy unpaid internship. So when her friend, Priya, who works
at Our Lady
of Mysterious Maladies magical hospital, offers her a paid gig investigating an
enigmatic, possibly deadly illness striking students. Her sleuthing leads her
to a lost fortune, a demented vengeful ghost, and a secret buried deep in
Scotland’s past.
The action, world-building, and characters move the story
right along, but by far the most enchanting part of the book is Ropa’s
wonderful voice, a combination of teenage sass, way too many smarts, a huge
dose of compassion, and neoScottish slang. I’ll hang out with her any day!
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