The Tombs

Gr 9 Up—After the men in the crow masks drag her mother off to the asylum beneath the notorious Tombs prisons, Avery Kohl's privileged life crumbles: she's forced to move with her father to a grimy tenement and leave school for a job at the ironworks. Now, years later, she's barely getting by in the slums of 1882 New York City. When a shocking incident reveals that she's inherited the psychic power that got her mother locked away, Avery begins a quest to understand her abilities and rescue her mother, all while evading capture by the crow-masked men and their villainous boss. The plot of this steampunk-tinged historical fantasy ticks along steadily, though at 400-plus pages, the latter half will begin to feel overlong. A late-breaking love triangle feels particularly tacked-on, with Avery declaring a baffling instant bond between herself and a boy she hardly knows. The book's final act, however, builds to a pulse-pounding conclusion that leaves plenty of room for a sequel. As a heroine, Avery (who is white) alternates between confused and capable, and she's surrounded by lightly sketched diverse supporting characters: her protective friend Khan is African American, and a Romani community offers psychic guidance. (The Romani are repeatedly referred to as Gypsies, a deliberate choice noted in the afterword.)