My book reviews for the Edinburgh Nights series by T.L. Huchu, including The Library of the Dead, Our Lady of Mysteries Ailments, and The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle. Please be aware that the reviews for later books contain spoilers.

Sixth Sense meets Stranger Things in T. L. Huchu's The Library of the Dead, a sharp contemporary fantasy following a precocious and cynical teen as she explores the shadowy magical underside of modern Edinburgh.

WHEN GHOSTS TALK
SHE WILL LISTEN

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and they sure do love to talk. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to those they left behind. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children – leaving them husks, empty of joy and strength. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will rock her world.

Ropa will dice with death as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. And although underground Edinburgh hides a wealth of dark secrets, she also discovers an occult library, a magical mentor and some unexpected allies.

Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

This book was provided for free by Black Crow PR and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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The Library of the Dead was an absolute delight to read from start to finish. Ropa is such a spirited protagonist who lives in the future, an almost dystopian time when the cities have been abandoned. I say “almost” dystopian because the world that Huchu has created is not the apocalyptic future that we usually see in books and films, where nuclear war or disease has decimated the world. It’s almost subtle changes at first that give it away. People still live in houses with all the mod cons we take for granted, it’s only when Ropa has an altercation with the police, and she refers to the motorised vehicles they used to have, that I realised we’re not in Kansas any more, Toto!

Huchu doesn’t make a huge deal about what happened, and I’ll admit that I struggled with that a bit as I read The Library of the Dead. As a reader, I like a clear picture of what is happening, what has happened and where we are. I kept trying to put the pieces together, scrambling for crumbs of information, and it’s only now, as I sit down to write this review, that I realised why there’s so little information about the before time; it doesn’t matter. I don’t know whether Huchu thought it would be a distraction, or whether it was because Ropa was born into this world; either way, the point is that what happened doesn’t change the life that Ropa and her family live in now. It doesn’t change the fact that Ropa left school to become a Ghostalker, a path that ultimately leads her to investigate the missing children and onto something much, much bigger. Could we call it destiny, or is it too early to go there?

In short, what’s done is done, and getting too hung up on the past is a dangerous thing. It’s something that Ropa knows all too well, as she talks to ghosts and ferries messages between them and their living friends and family.  In doing so, she earns a living, and if she helps ghosts move on, that’s a bonus. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s got a little sister and a sick grandmother to look after, and no one else is going to pay their rent or bills for them. Definitely not the dead.

Recently, I’ve found myself reading a lot of magical realism novels masquerading as fantasy, and The Library of the Dead is a fantastic example of how you can combine realism and fantasy (or urban fantasy, technically). Huchu has kept all the urban fantasy elements: ghosts, magic, rituals, monsters and so on, and without the cost of any real-life situations at all. In fact, this book feels more real than the magical realism ones do.

Take, for instance, the disabled character Priya. How does someone in a wheelchair get around an ancient library filled with stairs? Ambulatory magic! Ambulatory is a medical term that has various meanings, one of which is to refer to mobility aids. If you follow my blog, you may have heard me talk about Ambulatory wheelchair users, disabled people who require the use of a wheelchair for some activities. I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user in some extreme situations. So, in ambulatory magic is magic that is connected to mobility devices and/or for accessibility! You can see it in action for yourself in The Library of the Dead 🙂 I’m not going to spoil it any more for you. I wanted to mention it because this is a fantastic use of applying magic to disability representation and not using it as a cure. I’ll be honest, it blew me away, and then I kicked myself for never thinking of it myself!

The Library of the Dead is chock-full of diverse representation, but none of it is forced. It is one of the most natural novels I’ve read in a long time. For example, Ropa visits one of her Ghostwalking customers, and they are a gay couple. It’s not even mentioned that they are gay, and that is the way it should be. The only reason we know they are is that Ropa’s thoughts tell us that the two men are partners, which she does with everyone she meets.

Ropa is a joy to read as a protagonist. She’s salty, down to earth and takes no crap. Yet she also knows when to back down and play it safe when the risk is too high. She’s only fifteen and manages to get things done, especially when none of the adults can be bothered. One thing I liked about Huchu’s writing was that he doesn’t write Ropa as a superhero who gets away with everything. There are some serious consequences to her actions that she has to deal with at the end of the book, which lead nicely into book two (the synopsis and cover have just been released). She’s not the only interesting character. Priya became a quick favourite of mine for many reasons, as did many of the cast. Even the minor characters are so well-defined.

As for the plot of The Library of the Dead, be prepared for a wild ride (at one point, quite literally!). Huchu is a master at subtle messages and manipulation. He pulls you in, lulls you into a comfortable complacency, and then pulls the entire rug out from under you. It almost feels like you’ve picked up an entirely different book,  and it’s not a cosy ghost hunting novel any more – it’s a horror novel! Rest assured, you are still reading the same book, and it’s just clever writing, not the sign of a clumsy writer who forgot what they were writing. Everything makes sense as you keep reading, and all those subtle messages finally begin to catch up. By that point, I’d begun to work out what was going on, but that doesn’t change my admiration for Huchu’s writing; it just made me more eager to see if it was on the right track!

The Library of the Dead is a brilliant start to a new series, and urban fantasy fans will love the new characters and magic system that Huchu brings to the table. Geeks will love the obscure pop culture references, such as Mortal Kombat: Conquest. By setting it in Edinburgh and drawing on Zimbabwean magic, Huchu has created a delightfully unique protagonist who takes no crap and stands up for what she believes in. At only fifteen, Ropa is already a force to be reckoned with, and we’re only at the start of her journey. I can’t wait to follow it further and see who else she meets as she learns more about her magic, the secrets of Edinburgh and herself.

Some secrets are meant to stay buried When Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great things. She's really into Edinburgh's secret societies - but turns out they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she's had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. And her with bills to pay and a pet fox to feed. Then her friend Priya offers her a job on the side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike. The first patient was a teenage boy, Max Wu, and his healers are baffled. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns - and impress her mentor, Sir Callander.Her sleuthing will lead her to a lost fortune, an avenging spirit and a secret buried deep in Scotland's past. But how are they connected? Lives are at stake and Ropa is running out of time.

This book was provided for free by Black Crow PR and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

Today is my spot on the Black Crow PR tour for Our Lady of Mysteries Ailments by T. L. Huchu. Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is the second book in Huchu’s wonderful Edinburgh Nights series, which follows Ropa, a Scottish teenager with Zimbabwean heritage who lives in a post-catastrophe world. Ropa is a ghostalker, ferrying messages from the dead to the living (for a price, of course, because a girl’s got a family to look after) when a trip to Edinburgh’s magicians’ Library throws her headfirst into their world. Suddenly, she’s the first apprentice that a higher up has taken in decades, and in this sequel, we follow Ropa as she takes her first steps into that new world, trying to navigate the ins and outs of that society while trying to keep her head above water.

But there’s an unsolvable mystery to solve, and Ropa’s the only one who can get to the bottom of it before kids start dying. Join me as Huchu takes us deeper into the fascinating world he gave us a peek of in The Library of the Dead.

Returning to the Edinburgh Nights series was a joy, Ropa’s unique dialogue and infectious thirst for knowledge a breath of fresh air, as it was the first time I cracked open The Library of the Dead. I always feel at home when reading in Ropa’s voice. As a 30-something Londoner living in Glasgow, her dialogue reminds me of the late 90s and 00s because she’s picked up bits from TV and other pop culture sources that have survived from before the catastrophe. She sits down with her family to watch Diagnosis: Murder, something I used to do when I was her age (albeit minus the family).

The way she blends words is reminiscent of that time in my life, too, of slang from high school and college, where we were all making up our own words to express ourselves. This was especially noticeable to me growing up in south-east London, where so many young people from different cultures were merging, everyone trying to understand each other and themselves. I remember one day in religious studies when a group of girls came in and started loudly talking about “The Power”. “Have you got The Power?” they asked me, like it was some huge secret, and no, they weren’t talking She-Ra. This was their secret code for a woman’s period. Funny enough, it didn’t catch on. I remember shaking my head because we were sixteen at that point, and I’d started mine at age ten, way before most of my classmates. By that point, it had long ago lost its mystery to me.

So the way that Ropa and her pals talk, creating new language on the spot, is wonderfully familiar. The way that Jomo always has a new “Ropa-” name for her every time he greets her always makes me smile. I get the feeling that he doesn’t know what he’s going to say until she appears, and that’s a feeling that Huchu conveys throughout the dialogue in Our Lady of Mysteries Ailments. He’s very good at making it feel natural, of making his character’s responses feel just like something you or I would do, rather than something constructed, which is a danger when they’re quite literally created characters.

As expected in the second book, a lot of things progress in terms of overall story and character development. We start to find out more details about individual characters. The Library of the Dead was primarily focused on Ropa and introducing us to her and her world. Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is more about introducing Ropa to the world of magic, and in doing so, we learn more about her friends and associates. Naturally, this means Priya and Jomo. Priya is hell on wheels again, and Huchu doesn’t hold back with the realistic wheelchair representation. We learn more about Priya’s past and present, where she went to school and where she works. I appreciated that Huchu was candid about the animosity between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and funnelled it into the magical academic institutes in the Edinburgh Nights series. With Priya representing Glasgow as a graduate of the Lord Kelvin Institute in Glasgow, we learn via her about that school and during Ropa’s investigation of Max Wu, Priya’s patient, we learn about the Edinburgh Ordinary School for boys. Additionally, we learn that there are two other schools: St Andrews College in St Andrews and the Aberdeen School of Magic and Esoterica.

In the first book, Jomo felt quite underused, and in this one, we see a lot more of him and learn more about what he does in the Library. Huchu is peeling back the layers slowly, throwing us bones of information here and there, which feeds our thirst for knowledge but also conjures so many more questions. We get to see more of what Jomo does inside the Library, and what his career as a librarian is going to lead to eventually. It’s both fascinating and creepy as hell, in the same way that Huchu served up in book one. It’s morbidly interesting, despite the way your mind is telling you that you shouldn’t be that interested in it. That something about this situation isn’t quite right. It’s a hugely morally grey area that you just know wouldn’t and shouldn’t be allowed to happen, except, you know, the secret world of magic. 

If you’re familiar with the first book in the series, you’ll recall a rather dramatic chase across the city, and if you enjoyed that, I’m happy to tell you there’s another fabulous, chaotic scene in this book involving Priya and Ropa. It’s as wild as their first adventure, but in a totally different way, and it’s magnificent. Jomo fans, don’t worry; he and Ropa have one of their own, too, although in a much more Jomo-like fashion.

It’s not just Ropa’s relationship with her pals that is developing in this book; it’s their relationships with each other, and growth isn’t always sunshine and roses. While their friendships are strong, they’re still in the early stages, and it was so nice to see an author realise this. Too often, I see characters become besties and then never disagree, or they have huge bust-ups and melodramatics over trivial things. In Ropa’s world, there’s no time for that, and when there’s a disagreement, it’s over something important; two people just seeing things from a different perspective. Additionally, we see some other relationships happening, some that are sweet and some that are a wee bit of a shock that you’re going to need to read the book to find out about. Huhcu is making us work for every scrap of information, every secret, just like Ropa has to. This isn’t a book where we, the reader, know things. We’re on an equal playing field with Ropa when it comes to the secrets that people are hiding.

There are a lot of different perspectives in Our Lady of Mysteries Ailments. As Ropa steps into the magic world, she’s prepared to do what it takes to make a good impression, and it quickly becomes evident that there will always be people who don’t care what she can do, just who she is and where she’s from. She’s constantly made to feel as though she isn’t good enough, doesn’t know enough and is taking up a spot as Sir Callander’s apprentice that should have gone to a more experienced magician. Ropa takes it on the nose, shrugs it off and dazzles them with a smile that often terrifies them because they don’t know what to make of her. Now that Ropa is “in” their world, we get to learn alongside her, too, and I adored the way Huchu tied in Scottish history.

Ropa continues to talk about the catastrophe that happened as a known fact, and I’m even more convinced that Huchu has chosen not to give the reader details about what happened as a way to keep the reader focused on the here and now. The past isn’t important; it’s Ropa’s life and the present that matters. Huchu is gradually giving us more information about the King, a terrifying figure who rules from London (the parallel between this and modern-day Westminster is neatly done), and I think in the next book we’ll find out even more, especially as dark events have been foretold.

In Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, we see more of the world post-catastrophe, and it was chilling to find out that so many people live as we do now with all the mod-cons. The focus of the first book was much smaller, character-wise and geographically, and in book two, the full reality of life after the catastrophe becomes clear. Namely, that the majority of people have just gone on with their lives and turn their backs on the people and families struggling to survive in the slums, like Ropa and her family. It reminded me of how people are just moving on from the pandemic and how so many of us do it with disasters worldwide. We don’t see it, so it’s not our problem. It was a very humbling reminder that we all need to be more aware.

For me, Our Lady of Mysteries Ailments was a four-star read compared to The Library of the Dead being a very clear five stars. It is difficult to compare the two books as they feel very different to me, and that’s not a bad thing. Book one was very dark with a horror flick essence at points, while this second outing with Ropa is about her starting her journey. At one point during Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, she says to her gran that she can’t stay in the caravan doing the same thing all her life. That is what this book is about. Yet at the heart of it, it’s still Ropa being Ropa and making her own reputation despite people pulling her down. As she battles racism and classism, sometimes casually and other times without shame, Ropa is doing what she does best, and that is solving a mystery that no one else can solve. While the overall storyline is very different from The Library of the Dead, all the same elements I love from book one are here. Ropa with a mystery, following clues while trying to make ends meet, doing her own thing and finding her place in the world.

Library of the Dead was about Ropa’s journey to the magic world, whereas Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is the start of Ropa’s journey within it. We walk alongside her as she opens her eyes to the magic world and the idea that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. It’s just as messy and complicated, with bad stuff as the world she has come from, just people think they’re better. But there are some good apples too, and even as people try to keep her down, there are people looking to give her a helping hand. The way Huchu chooses to end this one is a reminder that there’s always a way to triumph over people who stand in the way; sometimes you just have to be a bit sneaky about it 😉

She came for magic. She stayed to solve a murder . . .

Ropa Moyo is no stranger to magic or mysteries. But she’s still stuck in an irksomely unpaid internship. So she’s thrilled to attend a magical convention at Dunvegan Castle, on the Isle of Skye, where she’ll rub elbows with eminent magicians.

For Ropa, it’s the perfect opportunity to finally prove her worth. Then a librarian is murdered and a precious scroll stolen. Suddenly, every magician is a suspect, and Ropa and her allies investigate. Trapped in a castle, with suspicions mounting, Ropa must contend with corruption, skulduggery and power plays. Time to ask for a raise?

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

I had planned to review the latest Edinburgh Nights’ book, The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T.L. Huchu, for GeekDis due to the great disabled representation in the series in the way of Priya, the main character’s best friend. It was a pleasant surprise to find even more in this book, which means it’s even more suitable for GeekDis.

T.L. Huchu is back for another fantastic addition to the Edinburgh Nights series with The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle. Ropa has bagged a ticket to the worldwide Society of Skeptical Enquirers’ biennial conference on the Isle of Skye, but of course, it comes with strings attached. She’s there as Sir Callander’s apprentice, and that gives her a seat at the dinner table with the magical bigwigs. But that’s only dinner, and until then she answers to Frances Cockburn, Director of Membership Services at the Society of Sceptical Enquirers and general thorn in her side. Cockburn has had it out for Ropa from the start and doesn’t believe that Ropa belongs in the Society. She has her running about, doing all sorts of chores in preparation for the conference, jobs that Cockburn sees as more fitting for Ropa as a ghost talker.

The guest of honour at this year’s conference is the high wizard of Ethiopian magic, Qozmos, who has brought one of their most valuable magical scrolls to exchange with Scottish magicians. It all seems like everything is going to go well until the scroll is stolen moments after it leaves Qozmos’s hands. The scroll is stolen, and tragedy strikes as someone is killed during the heist. In hot pursuit alongside Qozmos’ assistant Kebede, Ropa almost gets her hands on one of the perpetrators before being foiled by an invisible wall.

Believing it to be a trick utilised by the thieves, they return to learn that the wall is, in fact, a spell Sir Callander has conjured to stop the thieves from leaving. A giant bubble is now keeping everyone, including the thieves, in Dunvegan Castle and its grounds. With limited supplies, space and tensions rising, Ropa needs to find the thieves and fast. There’s added pressure from Sir Callander, who only trusts her to investigate, the Extraordinary Committee breathing down her neck, and then England’s Sorcerer Royal, who turned up unannounced. Ropa needs to be at the top of her game; otherwise, there are going to be some very serious consequences for Scottish magicians everywhere.

Joining Ropa in The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle are her best friends, Jomo and Priya, and together the three of them have a maze of secrets and politics to investigate. Rather than narrowing down their list of suspects, it seems like their list gets bigger with every single person they speak to. To top it all off, Ropa is struggling when she needs to be on top of her game. Everyone is watching her, and too many people are waiting for her to make a mistake. She doesn’t need her body to let her down, so when she starts having panic attacks, her first instinct is to try to ignore them, to deny that they’re even happening.

I’ve read many books that include scenes of panic attacks; however, this is the first one that has ever mentioned pins and needles in limbs, something that I’ve personally experienced during an extreme panic attack. Huchu has taken great care when writing Ropa’s panic attacks, and in how Ropa vocalises how the loss of control makes her feel. As a healer, Priya instinctively and professionally recognises what her friend is going through. Rather than pressuring Ropa to accept it, she is there for her friend, waiting for Ropa to open up to her. Only then does she broach the subject of panic attacks, and rather than try to fix Ropa, Priya’s support is unwavering.

When Ropa is ready to ask for help, Priya talks her through what is available, explaining that there isn’t a magic spell that can fix her. I appreciated the way that Huchu handled this sensitive topic, especially as he is writing in a fantasy setting. Too many authors see fantasy as an excuse to ignore mental and physical health, to sweep it under the magical rug. The fact that Huchu has not chosen to do this in a young adult novel is extremely important, and there is a great scene between Ropa and Priya that I believe will be very insightful to young readers.

Priya herself is another example of the way Huchu doesn’t use fantasy as an excuse. As a wheelchair user, she has been alongside Ropa in her adventures from day one, right in the middle of all the chaos and danger. Unlike other authors who push their disabled characters off into the sidelines and would never dream of letting them near a battle, Huchu has created a disabled character who is a spell-slinging fighter that uses ambulatory magic to move around. In The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle, we get to see just what Priya can do, and she’s a complete badass!

There is also a character, Murdo, the Castle gardener, who may be autistic-coded or coded for an intellectual disability. Ropa doesn’t have the knowledge or the language to recognise Murdo’s disability, but the way he is described and how other characters react to him suggest that he may be.

The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle brings us more information about the way magic and politics work in Scotland and England. There are many moving parts in this one, and from the moment the Lord Sashvindu Samarasinghe, England’s Sorcerer Royal, appears, it is clear that things are never going to be the same after this conference. The setting of a conference also means that we get to meet a lot of interesting characters and see ones we’ve already met before. A personal favourite of mine was Mrs Featherstone, who has some cracking lines. Speaking of language, Ropa’s pop culture slang keeps getting better with each book and some of my personal favourites this time include “frostier than Bobby Drake”, “prick to the nth power” and “I need the Prince of Persia’s rewind button”.

I could keep going on and on about this book and every book in the Edinburgh Nights series. Huchu delivers a fantastic book every time, and I can’t wait for the next Ropa adventure.

A dangerous cult craves a dark power. The Legacy of Arniston House is the spellbinding fourth instalment of the USA Today bestselling Edinburgh Nights series by T. L. Huchu

Ropa Moyo is a wannabe magician, can speak to the dead, and has officially given up being an intern. Leaving Scottish magic behind, she now works for the English Sorcerer Royal. But just as she adjusts to working for the English, an old enemy reveals a devastating secret about her Gran, and Ropa’s world falls apart.

Outraged, she rushes home, but finds her grandmother dead – murdered – with no killer in sight. What’s more, she’s the prime suspect. In her quest to find the true murderer, Ropa becomes caught in the dark tendrils of a cult, hell-bent on resurrecting an ancient power. Ropa must use her wits, her magic, and call in all favors to stop the ritual – and clear her name.

Edinburgh Nights series:
The Library of the Dead
Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments
The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle
The Legacy of Arniston House

Review coming soon!

One final adventure for Ropa Moyo – orphan, mischief-maker and failed magician. Secrets of the First School is the mystery-filled finale to T. L. Huchu’s enchanting Edinburgh Nights series.

‘I’ve had my arse kicked more times than I can count’

Ropa Moyo is dead, banished to the Other Place by the reanimated spirit of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville of Scotland. Turns out being on the losing side sucks worse than being skint.

Now, the Cult of Dundas intends to ascend to godhood, spreading their corrupting reach from Edinburgh to all of Scotland’s schools of magic. Ropa must find some way to escape the Other Place, save her sister and gather allies across the country before Edinburgh falls.

A royal plot, a family secret and a stolen body. As Scotland descends into petty in-fighting, Ropa’s only hope lies in her grandmother’s final the first school of magic.

An ancient power is returning . . . and is hungry for revenge.

Review to come in the future!

Thanks for reading my book reviews for the Edinburgh Nights series by T.L. Huchu!

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