The Wood Queen

Gr 8 Up—Seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood is being tried for her theft of the Elixir of Life and related events from Iron Witch (Flux, 2011). The hearing is being conducted by Quentin Frost, archmaster of the Order of the Dragon with members of all four alchemical Orders present. Donna's mother, Rachel, is already in residential care and has taken a turn for the worse so that she is now under sedation for seizures of unknown origin. Donna asks her half-fey pal and potential love interest, Xan, to examine her mother, and he detects that Rachel is elf cursed. Donna must make a deal with her nemesis, Aliette the Wood Queen of the dark elves, in order to save her mom. Mahoney establishes up several plot threads that don't play out satisfactorily. Although the hearing is set up as a major event, the result isn't proportional to the narrative tension created. On another front, Donna agrees to do Aliette's bidding to save her mother without considering potential traps or consulting her friends. She goes to a fair amount of trouble to get her mother's journal but readers don't see her learning about her power to open gates between worlds, which the queen wants her to use. Although fans of Iron Witch will certainly be interested in this volume, it doesn't stand on its own, and Donna doesn't come across as a very smart or resourceful heroine.—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI