Andromeda Kleinis a misfit. Stringy hair, boy body, oily skin, brittle bones and faulty hearing are just the start. Socially awkward, shy, sarcastic, and uncomfortable in crowds, Andromeda Klein finds solice in the intricacies and minutiae of Renaissance magic, occultism and Tarot and the quiet halls of her deserted local library branch (“the International House of Bookcakes”). She has no real friends at school and is the subject of frequent teasing and bullying, no boyfriend to speak of and little hope of attracting one, and a dad who is bi-polar and a mom obsessed with online role play. 
Andromeda Klein’s only real friend and partner in the occult, Twice Holy Soror Daisy Wasserstrom has recently died of cancer; the older guy Andromeda was “seeing” has broken off their relationship with a cryptic “hi there” text; the beloved magical tomes Andromeda protects at the library are being culled to make room on the shelves; and someone or something from another plane of existence is haunting Andromeda’s dreams and crossing over into her daily life.
Andromeda Klein has a razor sharp sense of humor, and is brainy, caustic and comic and her isolation and struggles will resonate with any teen reader. Her hearing disability produces a lexicon of words and phrases that take on their own twisted and hilarious meaning throughout the book that help to connect her to the reader, like we have a secret language in common that the rest of the world is clueless about. Frank Portman creates Andromeda’s inner world so completely and with such detail that it’s easy to become lost and overwhelmed by the overload of detail and complexity of her magic/occult-drenched world. She’s a likeable, well-developed character that readers, even those who aren’t necessarily interested in Renaissance occult, magic, Tarot and numerology, will love.
- Posted by Cori
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