FINISHED:
Hardinge, Frances. (2011). Fly trap. New York: HarperCollins.

[[Reviewed from ARC.] Mosca Mye, a twelve-year old street urchin who is one of only a few in the land who can read, finds herself kidnapped while trying to make some money and brought to the town of Toll. Toll, she quickly discovers, is under the control of the Locksmiths and becomes a different, much more violent and harrowing town by night, when the day citizens are locked down to make way for the night dwellers. Mosca, her goose Saracen, and traveling companion/con man Eponymous Clent, trying to find a way to raise enough money to buy their way out of Toll, end up embroiled in the kidnapping of the Mayor’s daughter and the quest to find the town “Luck”, an object that the townspeople believe keeps disaster at bay. Along the way, plucky heroine Mosca, never one to dwell on adversity and always with her streetwise wits about her, finds herself in more than one dingy cell, impersonates a desert-dwelling girl and a mythic horse made of bone, and amongst a burning city hoping to stave off a war. This is a brilliant story brimming with intrigue, deception and social commentary, surrounding the notions of tyrannical leaders using fear as a method of control and labeling those who refuse to co-operate as “radicals”. Hardinge’s sequel to her widely acclaimed Fly By Night (HarperCollins, 2006), which doesn’t need to be read in order to get into this tome, is dense with detail, giving the story a vivid sense of place and helping to make the physical setting an active participant. The intimidating length and density make this one for serious bibliophiles only, thus limiting its appeal to dedicated young readers and adults. Though the journey is long, the payoff is definitely worth it.]

STARTED:
Clements, Andrew. (2011). Fear itself [Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School #2]. New York: HarperCollins.

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