Author: Lucy Winton
Date: 2022
Publisher: Lucy Winton
Quote: “The board was divided into two sections: Gifted and Non-Gifted.”
Here's another book for those for whom "Christmas" is the name of the season between school terms. "Angels" are buddies, "Gifted" means psychically, and "Christmas" is the school holiday season here.
In this fantasy novel, students assigned to work as a group at school find themselves working as a group even during the holidays when a classmate is in trouble.
The narrators are girls, each girl narrating a few paragraphs at a time, in a style I find hard to like. No sooner have I got into my head that "I" in this novel means the character Zara than the narrative bounces from Zara's head into Lexi's, and so on. Anyway, the group is mixed. The "I" is always a girl but two of the main characters are boys. One boy and one girl are fake dating, and one boy is in trouble with the Gifted self-policing force for abusing his Gift. We learn that although the Gifted seem to be the high-status group, some kids don't want to develop Gifts because the Gifted arrange marriages for their young, based on status seeking as well as genetics. The main theme seems to be that people who don't know each other well can become friends when they have something to think about. In November all of the main characters had "best" friends who weren't part of this group, but over the school break they become a social unit, the Secret Angels.
There's more. It's meant to be a series. The Secret Angels will share more adventures as they grow up.
It's sort of like Harry Potter, only it's not. If you are a teenager looking for a fantasy adventure about ordinary teenagers who go to school and live with their parents and haven't even thought very hard yet about what they're going to do for a living, here is one, set in England, with a sweet, discreet, mutually attracted but very sensible couple in it.
I didn't fall in love with the story, the premise, or the characters. You might. If this sounds like your kind of book, it's worth reading.
It's sort of like Harry Potter, only it's not. If you are a teenager looking for a fantasy adventure about ordinary teenagers who go to school and live with their parents and haven't even thought very hard yet about what they're going to do for a living, here is one, set in England, with a sweet, discreet, mutually attracted but very sensible couple in it.
I didn't fall in love with the story, the premise, or the characters. You might. If this sounds like your kind of book, it's worth reading.
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