2023-12-19
In Murphy’s middle grade fantasy, a 13-year-old girl longing to follow in her father’s footsteps sets off to a prestigious school in Norway that’s full of dark secrets.
Sunday Gråe prefers the company of animals to that of people. She and her mother are struggling to get by, and both are still reeling from her father’s death seven years ago. No one in her town of Sjosburg even talks to her, except fellow teen Viktor. Sunday wants to study Animalia to be like her father, who had the rare ability to understand and work with animals. It’s a subject taught only at the exclusive, secretive Svalbard, a school made up of five different programs: Animalia; Apothecary, for pharmacists; Artisan, for visionaries; Machinist, for inventors; and Warbringer, for warriors. After Sunday passes her audition and gets accepted, she thinks her dreams are finally coming true. However, soon after she starts at the school, Animalia students start going missing—and Sunday is positive that a monster is responsible. With the help of her friends Oria Moss and Alejandr OlShield, she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, which she suspects could be related to her father’s mysterious death. If she’s right, something may be coming for her next. Murphy’s novel encompasses elements of fantasy and mystery as Sunday attempts to figure out the various clues she uncovers. The story is set in a fictional version of Norway, during the reign of England’s Queen Victoria. This is clearly evident at times, as when Sunday encounters an elevator for the first time (“The elevator locks into place—clunk. My gut flips. I grip the railing”). There’s also no profanity, but Sunday uses the term blazesfor every kind of exclamation, which eventually becomes distracting. However, the era is easily forgotten, as it ultimately doesn’t affect the story a great deal. Still, when a character starts to exhibit an intriguing parallel personality, it gives the novel an appealingly eerie vibe, which will likely keep readers engaged to the last page.
An edgy, dark adventure tale, but one that doesn’t make the most of its setting.
