Published: April 5, 2022
Publisher: Tor Books
Series: Edinburgh Nights #2
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 368 (Hardcover)
My Rating: 4.25/5.00
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
Ropa Moyo’s ghostalking practice has tanked, desperate for money to pay bills and look after her family she reluctantly accepts a job to look into the history of a coma patient receiving treatment at the magical private hospital Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments. The patient is a teenage schoolboy called Max Wu, and healers at the hospital are baffled by the illness which has confounded medicine and magic.
Ropa’s investigation leads her to the Edinburgh Ordinary School for Boys, one of only the four registered schools for magic in the whole of Scotland (the oldest and only one that remains closed to female students).
But the headmaster there is hiding something and as more students succumb Ropa learns that a long-dormant and malevolent entity has once again taken hold in this world.
She sets off to track the current host for this spirit and try to stop it before other lives are endangered.
The Library of the Dead was a surprise 5 star read last year, so of course I was excited to check out the sequel. I love the titles for these books- this one especially stands out from the crowd. It leaves the potential reader wondering who or what Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments might be. As with the Library of the Dead, the titular location is important, but perhaps not so much as you might expect.
Ropa Moya’s ghost talking business suffered after the events of the previous book and she’s desperate to get her hands on some paying work. Things seem like they’re looking up when she has an interview for a sought after paid apprenticeship with Sir Callender…. Up until Ropa botches a spell and is only given an unpaid internship. Then her pal Priyanka calls her up with an offer- find out why this private magic school lad is in a coma and burning with fever and his parents will pay handsomely. The book turns into a chaotic series of misadventures where Ropa is trying to work at least three different jobs at once and not massively fail. Quite frankly I was getting secondhand stress, but it was still entertaining.
I enjoy Ropa, Priyanka, and Jomo a great deal – it’s a good representation of friendship, as not all three of them always agree with one another, they get a bit mad, apologize, and continue on better than ever. They get into crazy, dangerous stuff, and honestly at times it was almost tough to keep up! I’m really loving the expansion on the world we get this time around, but there are still so many unanswered questions and vagaries that I hope we get more explanation on as the series goes.
Overall, another highly enjoyable installment! The absolute chaos and so, so many interwoven plot threads were handled well, but I did feel a little overwhelmed at times but boy, did it serve to put the reader in Ropa’s shoes. She never sits still!
Powder & Page 