NZ Author: Karen Healey - Guardian of the dead

The heroine lives in an unspecified city with uncanny resemblance to Christchurch, in a boarding school near a university campus and has all the usual teenage girl worries about looks, weight, boyfriends (including a mysterious brooding gorgeous guy).

This could have become very boring, but fortunately the action, the mystery, some truly creepy characters and the mythology make this a page-turner. Readers looking for a supernatural vampire/werewolf romance may be disappointed however.

If you enjoy a strong female protagonist who is able to cope with whatever human and supernatural villains throw at her, this is an interesting, at time quite dark and grim fantasy cleverly using both European and Maori mythology.


Reviewed by Anneke a Campo.

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