Full of dark and menacing settings, mysterious and exotic peoples, secrets and magic, and a surprising amount of submerged sexuality, this novel quite lives up to its gothic and Victorian pretenses, though married to some mildly anachronistic feminist ideas. The author has done her homework on Victorian England, and yet the main character seems very modern in her persona.
The catty and vicious cliques are particularly well-drawn, as are the mercurial tempers and friendships of these adolescent girls. As the story develops, the main group of protagonists becomes more rounded and developed in their particular characteristics, and they have unique and real personalities, common struggles, and believable flaws. These girls are wonderfully self-absorbed and consumed by their personal dramas, as is so characteristic of adolescence, and they take even the most shattering events in a very egocentric way, which shows an adept understanding and skillful portrait of youth.
The "magical" plot that is growing beneath the external and superficial happenings at the school is slow to develop and does not come to the expected fruition or denouement at the end of the novel, as it is apparent that this is a first book in a trilogy or series. This "magical" plot is by far the weakest in this story, as the main antagonist is never revealed nor met, and the mysterious groups of the Order and the Rakshana are never fleshed out into anything but hazy references, though they seem important. An intriguing read, but one that leaves the reader a bit at a loss to understand what has happened in the magical and other-worldly Realms, and what these events portend.
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