Ivy is a normal seventeen year old girl with a normal suburban life… right? Until one night when she runs into (almost literally) a naked girl in the middle of the road. That naked girl turns out to be the key to understanding the strained relationship between Ivy and her mother, Dana - but that actually sounds a lot nicer than it is. See, Dana has a secret that she’s been keeping from her daughter, and this naked girl, she threatens to unravel everything. Then, when Dana disappears, Ivy has to figure out what her mom’s big secret is in time to save her. 

Melisa Albert writes like Alan Ginsburg. There are moments when I’d swear I was reading dark and gritty poetry. Her craft is almost magic, which makes this novel that much more fascinating. I flew through this book, not because it was simple or a particularly easy read, but because it was beautiful and tragic and it hooked me. 

Albert uses parallel timelines to tell the story of the mother, the daughter, and the secret that keeps them apart. Those parallel timelines build suspense and tension in a way that a single timeline never could. Half of what made this book so compelling was coming to understand Dana’s trauma and how it led to her dark secret, then the way that secret shaped Ivy. It was a lot like reading The Joy Luck Club but with witches. 

The book does start off slow, with tension and mystery but no real sense of danger. But the back half of this book moves at such a quick pace that you almost forget how you got there. I found myself swept along in a current of suspense and danger, and the payoff was phenomenal. This one was a fun read, full of mystery, tension, suspense, action, and even a tiny bit of romance.