Review

Rory is a 17 year old student from Louisiana who’s enrolling in a posh and very academic boarding school in central London for her senior year. At the same time, London is gripped by fear and fascination as a series of grisly copycat Jack the Ripper murders take place right near her school. The killings are caught on CCTV, but the film shows no visible killer. On the night of one of the murders, Rory sees a mysterious man that her roommate can’t see. She’s now a witness. And a target…

This is a great book, despite its über-cringey cover: clichéd, outdated – and not a good representation of the main plot. Of course, my library copy is from 2011, so fair nuff on the outdated bit, but still. It’s bad. (WHO is this redhead??)

The only reason I overcame my dislike of the cover was because I loved Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series (also set in a boarding school full of traditions & whatnot). And her writing didn’t disappoint. It has a lively first person narration and lots of fun English boarding school, fish-out-of-water observations, not to mention a nice little romantic subplot. There are some good thrills and some YA descriptions of Ripper-style murders, but it’s not really scary (and I’m a wimp). I also love the cliffhanger ending that sets it up for the next book without being annoyingly anticlimactic.

> Click here for commentary with some spoilers

I was also super interested to see the similarities between this and Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London. Granted, no one’s ever going to mistake them for each other, but they’re both set in London, and feature ghosts, people who can see ghosts, and a special supernatural police force. And they were both published in 2011. Coincidence? Most likely. 😊

I would definitely be interested in reading more of this series. And I’m really looking forward to reading Johnson’s new book, out in December. (Newsflash! Although the print book’s not out yet [Aus], the ebook’s out and on special on Google Books. Have bought, will read.)

> Click here for content warnings with potential minor spoilers

YA descriptions of gruesome deaths and death threats, including mutilation (not too graphic at all); violence and threats of violence; some underage drinking; near-death experiences, including choking (main story), and electrocution, hanging, asthma attack and a motorbike accident (backstory); depression and attempted suicide (backstory); accidental drug overdose of a young person (backstory); unfeeling family; ghosts – some benign, some not; pedestrian car accident; some sinister and extremely perilous situations; some skilfully described but PG kissing

*

Johnson, M. (2011). The name of the star. HarperCollins.

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