Alyson Noël (the Immortals series) mines her New Mexico setting in this riveting kickoff to a quartet about Daire Santos, the reluctant heir to an ancient line of shamans.
Readers meet narrator Daire on her 16th birthday in Marrakesh where her mother, Jennika, is on location as a professional make-up artist. Noël conjures the smells of the Morrocan streets and the steady pulse of the gnaoua drum that induces Daire's first vision--a disturbing dream-like image of glowing people, decapitated heads and crows. Desperate not to institutionalize her daughter, Jennika accepts an offer from Daire's long-absent paternal grandmother, Paloma, to take Daire under her tutelage in her adobe house in Enchantment, New Mexico. Her first night at Paloma's, Daire has a prophetic dream of two identical twin brothers, one kind, one evil, and both magnetic. After resisting Paloma's guidance, Daire realizes that her grandmother is the only one who can help her harness her visions.
In Noël's capable hands, Daire straddles the otherworldly elements of her calling as a shaman and the familiar trappings of high school life. Fellow students Cade Richter, the corrupt brother from Daire's dream, and Dace Richter, his kinder, softer twin, make the perils of high school seem as threatening for Daire as navigating the Lower-, Upper- and Middleworld as a shaman. Readers will feel the pull of Daire's quest just as forcefully as Daire herself does and count the days until the release of Echo, the second installment, this fall. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness
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