cover image Mystic City

Mystic City

Theo Lawrence. Delacorte, $17.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-385-74160-6

Several generations into climate change, parts of Manhattan are 30 feet underwater, and class divisions are progressing rapidly down the path H.G. Wells envisioned. The air-conditioned heights of the Aeries are havens of thuggish privilege, while in the swampy Depths are the poor and the mystics, a strictly controlled class of magicians whose powers are drained to keep them in check. Aria Rose is the only daughter of a city powerbroker and has lost weeks of her memory to a recreational drug overdose. In that lost time, she had a whirlwind romance with the scion of a rival family—or so her parents tell her. A dynastic marriage has been arranged in the name of “true love.” But if Aria was so in love with Thomas Foster, why is she obsessed with a rogue mystic who haunts her movements and her dreams? Debut author Lawrence’s writing is assured, though pacing and characterization take second place to the milieu. Aria is surrounded by gorgeous yet bland secondary characters, and it takes a while to warm up to her predicament. Ages 12–up. Agents: Michael Stearns and Ted Malawer, the Inkhouse. (Oct.)