He caught sight of it then. The fog parted, the dim light illuminated the gloom, and the facade rose up in front of him like a soaring, breathing nightmare. And the moment he saw it, Ollie knew he had made a terrible, terrible mistake.
Ollie is trying. He really is. He's trying to lose weight in the biscotti-and-bolognese wonderland of Boston's North End. He's trying to recover from his mother's recent death. Most of all, he's trying to battle the loneliness that comes with being 19, living in a shoebox, and working a dead-end job. No girlfriend, no parents, no friends.
Well, he does have one friend. Nell. But she's gone missing. At first, Ollie pretends that he hadn't noticed Nell's bruises and skittish behavior. Then, finally, he faces the facts: Nell is gone, and probably in danger. And he might be the only one who can help.
What he doesn't know--couldn't know--is that his journey to find her will take him far below the streets of the city into a dangerous, underground world: a place where magic spills like blood, humans are not quite human, and notions of justice and revenge are as murky as the cavern's brackish waters. And this time, trying just won't be enough.
"A thoughtful and empowering hero's journey."
-Kirkus