Harper has based her book in Lilydale, New York, USA - a spiritualist community founded in 1879. It's occupied by mediums and healers and a gate pass needs to be purchased to enter. The community is open all year round and runs workshops on spiritualism. In many ways it seems like a little nation of its own with rules and regulations that maintain the spiritualist way of life.
Into this world was born the character Sparrow Delaney, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and believed to be the most powerful medium her family has had - only she doesn't want to be. Sparrow has spent her life hiding her abilities from her family, pretending she's as psychic as a rock and ignoring the ghosts who come to her to have their messages passed on. She's even gone so far as to enrol in a high school outside Lilydale, away from all the hocus pocus in her attempt to live an ordinary life. But the ghosts just won't leave her alone and when she makes a friend who is in deep pain from the death of his brother Sparrow has to decide whether to help or continue to turn her back on her abilities and make her own path in the world.
The book is interesting, mostly because I'd never heard of Lilydale before. I found the writing a little flat, even for a teen novel. It gets a slightly disjointed towards the end of the book and rushes into the ending, almost like the author was running from something - probably an angry ghost or a grumpy orc. Seriously, it's an okay book with an interesting premise. But, I thought it could have been developed better and ended more sincerely, with a bit more compassion for its subject matter. Teen's though, in this era of paranormal novel obsession, will enjoy it.
http://www.lilydaleassembly.com/ The Link to the Lilydale Community.
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