Capturing her audience with her first sentences, Hearn (Sign of the Raven
) paints an almost lush picture of a seamy 19th-century London as she describes two ladies from the “Ragged Children’s Welfare Association” who “pick their way along filthy streets, the hems of their crinolines blotting up slush and the beads of their bonnets tinkling like ice.” (It’s not surprising to learn that Philip Pullman was a mentor.) Among the ladies’ intended beneficiaries will be the orphan Ivy, a Pre-Raphaelite beauty—although she spends the bulk of the novel groggy on laudanum, an addiction she picks up very young. Ivy is practically passed around, half asleep, as more of a set piece about which other characters can frolic, scheme and swoon. Fortunately, there’s plenty of spunk to go around on Ivy’s behalf—from the good-hearted con artist Carroty Kate, who takes the child Ivy in, to the bumbling, aspiring artist Oscar Frosdick, for whom Ivy models, despite the efforts of his conniving mother to keep her away. A fast and absorbing read. Ages 12–up. (June)
