Seven Sorcerers (review)

It’s one thing to wish that your annoying little brother would just go away, but it’s another thing entirely to wake up one morning to find that he’s vanished and that nobody else remembers his existence. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens to Ninevah Redstone, but as the plucky young upstart that she is, Nin immediately recognizes the kidnapping as the work of the Bogeyman and embarks on a quest to rescue her young sibling. She soon finds herself in the alternate world of the Drift, where she learns from her new pal Jonas that the stolen children are taken to the Terrible House of Strood, never to be seen again. Pursued not only by the Bogeyman but also the vampiric tombfolk and the hell-hounds of the Storm, Nin crosses the Drift but then must face the terrifying vengeance of Mr. Strood before rescuing her brother. Woven into the tale of her quest is the history of the Drift and its connection to the fall of the Seven Sorcerers. There’s no shortage of imagination here overall, but the true stars of this British import are the villains: complete with razor-sharp teeth and a Cockney accent, Skerridge, the aforementioned Bogeyman (or BM for short) is both deliciously frightening and oddly endearing, and readers will cheer when Nin’s steadfast courage persuades the erstwhile baddie to make the switch from evil to good. On the other hand, Strood, a monster created from an act of selfish depravity by the Seven Sorcerers, is a bad guy easy to hate, while the abrupt ending makes it clear that he may not be so easy to get rid of. Although Nin has her brother at the book’s conclusion, she is still very much in danger, and readers will breathlessly await the next installment from across the pond.