The Nightmare Garden: The Iron Codex, Book 2

Gr 7 Up—Aoife Grayson is on the run after destroying the Lovecraft Engine in Kittredge's sequel (2012) to The Iron Thorn (2011, both Delacorte). She is still desperate to rescue her mother, and this sets her off on a series of misadventures which eventually leads her to her father whom she has never met. Throughout it all, she keeps having dreams that tell her to go find the Brotherhood of Iron, and so she goes despite her father's warning, setting off further chains of events that will continue to shake her world. Katie MacNichol returns as narrator, ably capturing Aoife's despair and confusion, but her male voices are still weak. Her voice for Grey Draven, the leader of the Proctors who controlled Lovecraft, is a particularly poor interpretation of a stereotypical Boston accent. The plot is very haphazard and the constant running to and fro takes it toll, making it difficult for listeners to follow the action. Only for libraries where the first book is popular.—Necia Blundy, formerly Marlborough Public Library, MA