Found via: BBYA 2010 nominations
Hope everyone's been having a happy holiday season so far! Christmas week was off to a rough start for me last week, knocking me off my feet with a cold that left me too tired to read. That's just cruel, right?
But I'm back on my feet, and I have a light week at work, so reviews are back!
Lia and Alice Milthorpe's family has been touched by tragedy far too often. Their mother died of mysterious circumstances years ago and as the novel opens the girls and their little brother are burying their father. Lia's anxiety is hightened by the small symbol that has appeared on her wrist since her father's death, and the bizarre book containing a dangerous-sounding prophecy that the boy she likes found in her father's library.
Intrigued by the prophecy and trying to understand what it means, Lia discovers that the prophecy that speaks of two sisters, one who shall be the guardian of Earth and the other who is the gate that shall let the devil back onto earth, is actually about her and Alice, and they are merely the latest in a long line of twins (including their mother and the aunt who now serves as their guardian) to be bound to the prophecy.
Terrified of her place in the prophecy, and the ends her sister will go to in order to ensure the prophecy comes true, Lia sets out to learn all she can, and hopefully put an end to the prophecy once and for all.
Zink has created a very moody atmosphere for her story, which works great as a background. Unfortunately, the characters didn't grab and hold me - Alice feels far too two-dimensional and Lia, our narrator, is only a bit more interesting. While Lia has an epic task in front of her, far too many pieces seem to fall into place easily for her, hampering any real feeling of drama.
This is the first book in a trilogy (because what fantasy stories don't come as trilogies these days?), but I think this may be one trilogy that I'm going to sit out.
