Intriguing, Well written

From the first sentence, the excerpt proved a page turner which had me hooked - my curiosity aroused. The author teases you on various issues - such as the nature of the narrator's specialness, its source, and mysterious unsolved riddles in the past.

There are a lot of elements of Harry Potter - kids with special, unknown powers, horrific events in the past, even down to the scars - but this book is far darker in tone. It is also more literary than Harry Potter - more young adult or adult in tone. The author is a master of descriptive writing, with some parts reminding me of Tolkein, and that is a great compliment.

So far, the characterization seems to be good, with each of the main characters clearly delineated.

All the main characters are female. Whereas we women are used to reading books mainly about men, I think this book might appeal more to female than to male readers.

All in all, I'd be happy to read the rest of the book. I'm not crazy about the cover - the words of the title should be kept closer together and the dripping of ? blood on the face is a bit too creepy for my taste. I prefer my creepiness in words rather than in images.