This inventive, eerie tale of modern London is urban fantasy for young adults who love to shiver. MOONLANDS starts with a pack of wolves hurtling through the darkened streets. Places of weakness between their moon-ruled world and ours occur at the gates of the old Roman city wall; Newgate, Cripplegate and so on. Since weapons cannot pass these gates, the wolves have been sent. Their mission is to pursue and kill a girl.
Ashley has no notion that a werewolf, Blackwater Blaze, stalks her. Nor that subtle earth magics are at work to protect her. She lives in expensive Mayfair - how her family come by the money we're not told, but her mother runs a busy talent agency and her father is a big-business accountant. Her fusty girls' school uses Regent's Park for sports practice. When her aunt dies, red-headed Ashley is left a key and an address at Clerkenwell, so she blithely heads off there after school to see what the key will open.
Tension and feelings of otherworldly unpleasantness are initially generated by the wolf thinking about corpses, rot, foulness, decay and so on, rather than action. He spots crow-people perched spookily on roofs and meets an otherworld assassin called the Nightgaunt. Blackwater Blaze communicates with his master in his own world which fills us in on who wants Ashley dead and why. What a horrible motive. The wolf is also now devoid of a pack. But he can't go home until he's finished his work. However, the wolf in him does get to work on someone, and it's not pleasant.
This starts a panic of running, old magics like wolfsbane and silver, and revelations. Some of the action, like Ash deciding to go off on her own, didn't make much sense to me. Ashley's pal, party girl Mel, is oblivious and gets caught up in the danger. Again, why wouldn't Ash tell her what was happening? The up to the minute atmosphere of wearable music and phones that double as torches contrasts nicely with old personal effects like lockets, tatty books and aviator goggles which help reveal secrets to Ashley.
Steven Savile has written for series like Doctor Who, which may explain the blend of this world with otherworld, and the visual aspects of his writing. I felt the story lost me a little when Ashley travelled to the Moonlands of the title, but other readers might enjoy the exploration. The end of the tale leaves us with foreboding but I don't know if there will be a follow-on story. I suggest that MOONLANDS would be good for older teens who enjoy a blend of fantasy and chillers.
Ashley Hawthorne thinks of herself as the Cuckoo Girl. No matter where she is it feels like she doesn’t quite belong. Everything changes when her eccentric aunt, Elspeth Grimm, leaves her the key to a safety deposit box in a bank that was destroyed during the Blitz. That box contains the first part of her true inheritance: an umbrella, a battered old notebook, a pair of aviator’s goggles and a locket. Each of these gifts is a unique part of who she really is. Elspeth is a Grimm, a descendent of the brothers who purged this world of monsters by trapping them within the Concord. She is the Oracle. A keeper of all the knowledge we have amassed about the creatures of the Fae and other worlds. And someone intent on destroying the Concord has murdered her! When Ashley looks through the goggles that night she sees curious creatures on the roof of the house across the street watching her. To the naked eye they look like crows but they are not. It is the first glimpse of the other place—the place where she will finally belong. The journal is crammed full of things, but there’s no actual writing in it. Ash decides she’s going to use the book as a journal, and begins the first entry: My name is Ashley Hawthorne. The ink fades so she writes it again. My name is Ashley Hawthorne. Again the ink fades. She tries again and again until the ink scratches out an entirely different first line: That is not who you are! "Savile's writing is achingly beautiful and sweeps the reader away into a fantastic world they'll never want to leave. The story grips you by the throat and doesn’t let go, leaving you hungry for more. The author mixes political intrigue and epic fantasy in a coming-of-age story that will leave readers desperate to know how it’s all going to turn out for the young heroine and the assassin sent to hunt her down. This is a classic in the making." Debbie Viguie, NYT #1 Bestselling Author of The Wicked series
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