Book Review: Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

July 23, 2010

Ellie was never supposed to know that all those mystical, mythical stories, and legends could be real. She was just going to get through her final year at the boarding school on New Zealand’s South Island and head off to college somewhere. Starting senior year, in a totally new place without any friends or family nearby, is hard enough without adding reports of horrific, serial murders across the country, and a strange encounter with that cute guy from class. Besides, Ellie needs to focus on helping choreograph the fight scenes for a local college production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but she can’t shake the feeling that there’s something not quite right about that beautiful woman cast in one of the lead roles. 

So when she is accidentally “awakened” to all that lies under the surface in the world around her, Ellie is at once grateful to finally understand what’s going on and terrified, because the reality is so much darker than she could ever have dreamed. A battle looms ahead and no one truly knows who will play what parts in it or even which side is attempting a more impossible feat.

“In less than a day I had been harassed, enchanted, shouted at, cried on, and clawed. I’d been cold, scared, dirty, exhausted, hungry, and miserable. And up until now, I’d been mildly impressed with my ability to cope.”

 Check out Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey at MCPL.

Readalikes:
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet, Far Thing by Libba Bray

~Erin D.