The Blood Keeper

June 15, 2012
Blood and roses, love and death, past and present, the mundane and the magical; all intertwine in this dark fantasy, a stand-alone companion to the well-received Blood Magic (2011). Will Sanger, high school soccer star, only wanted to free himself from his recurrent nightmares. Mab Prowd, neophyte guardian of the blood magic, only wanted to understand the curse buried beneath her rose garden. But when their choices bind their fates together, an old love story and a long-concealed crime begin to creep into the present. As Will is forced to confront his family's recent tragedy and the demands of their expectations, Mab is called upon to devise rituals and seize powers well beyond her training. Their alternating perspectives interweave to form a nightmare of steadily building desire, obsession, sacrifice and violence. The power of this narrative lies in the gorgeous prose, lush with a gothic sensibility, ripe with sensual images of horrific beauty. The characters, while vividly drawn, are more poetic archetypes than real people, and the instant attraction between Mab and Will depends more on destiny than convincing chemistry. The workings of the blood magic make for spectacular unforgettable set pieces, but they rely upon the surreal logic of dreams rather than any rational system. But this isn't a tale for thinking; it's all about feeling: Passion, heartbreak, yearning and dread bleed from every page. A perfect book for those who loved Wuthering Heights and are looking for an essentially American gothic. (Horror. 14 & up)

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October 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-This somewhat ponderous companion to Blood Magic (Random, 2011) only glancingly involves the romantic couple of the first book, but it shares the same blood-sacrifice-without-vampires witchcraft, this time on the Kansas prairie land protected by its leader. Mab, daughter of the villain in the first book, is assuming her duties as Deacon, magical head of the blood witch family, after the death of Arthur, her mentor and surrogate father, who raised her as his "little queen." When Mab creates a magical creature imbued with the hostile spirit of a rose garden she was meant to destroy, the animated mud-man crashes into Will and his two dogs, bringing the two teens into a romance and a battle to win Will's health and freedom from the evil curse that has befallen him. Combed among the strands of a boy-girl dual-point-of-view story is yet a third: the account of Evelyn, a woman who sought blood magic sanctuary and eventually love with Arthur several decades before. Eventually, the significant link between the two women's stories comes into focus. Meanwhile, all manner of romanticized bloodletting, essential to the working of this magic, seems to glorify self-inflicted wounds. That said, the world could still be a rich one for patient readers of supernatural romance who prefer witches who must use blood and the earth, not wands, to work spells, more Wicca than Hogwarts. Characterization mostly works, but the narrative drags a bit until the last quarter. Its bloody spell may still bind readers old and new.-Suzanne Gordon, Peachtree Ridge High School, Suwanee, GA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Grades 8-11 When 17-year-old Mab inherits responsibility for the magic-rich acreage known in the family as the blood land, she becomes Deacon and is challenged to protect those she loves from a dark curse woven out of jealousy and desperation. This is a companion novel rather than a sequel to Gratton's Blood Magic (2011), and it only has a few characters in common with the first book. Mab and her love interest, Will, narrate the contemporary tale, which is intertwined with an older story of murder in the form of a confession from Mab's Granny Lyn. Long sentences and rich imagery make this a novel to linger over rather than rush through. Blood from a finger prick or skin slash is used as a source of power for spells and rituals, but these acts are portrayed as the realistic price of magic, instead of being sensationalized. Try this with fans of Ursula K. Le Guin or Alice Hoffman.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2013
Mab, a young witch stepping forward to sustain family traditions, and Will, a boy resisting familial pressure to go into the military, develop an unexpected relationship as they fight together to break an old curse forged in both betrayal and love. Gratton's mesh of contemporary reality and magic brewed in herbal teas and blood tattoos is simultaneously odd, gory, original, and interesting.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)