Marked

November 9, 2015
After a strong opening, Tingey's urban fantasy debut falters. Lucinda "Lucky" De Salle is a psychic whose best friend (her only friend, really) is a ghost named Kayla. In a powerfully creepy opening scene, Lucky encounters a demon, Henri le Dent, sent from the "other side" with a message for Kayla: they want her back. But back where? And who wants her? After Henri le Dent's visit, Lucky's life abruptly slides out of normality: she's attacked by another demon, Kayla begins acting strangely, and her quiet home is invaded by a group of characters straight out of fairy tales. Tingey stumbles into amateur territory with coincidental plot saves and a cartoonish cast. Ideally the rest of the series will live up to the promise of this volume's first chapters.

Starred review from November 1, 2015
In this compelling debut, urban-fantasy readers are introduced to Lucky, a young woman who can see ghosts, a gift that has made her an outcast her entire life; in fact, her only friend is a spirit named Kayla. Lucky leads a quiet, solitary life debunking fake psychics until the day her life is turned upside down, and she is called back to her former school to investigate the appearance of an evil daemon, a daemon that appears to have come from a parallel world to use Lucky as a pawn in a political drama. Reluctantly Lucky travels to the Underlands, where she is confronted with new truths about her friend, her family history, and her special place in the daemon world. Readers will eagerly follow the plucky and headstrong Lucky and her new champions, including two handsome daemons vying for her affections and a loyal pet, Drakon. Lucky must become her true self under trying circumstances while fighting for what she believes is right in a brutal, foreign land. This is a brisk paranormal tale, with outstanding world building, a large cast of well-drawn characters, and an intricate plot filled with intrigue and adventure. Marked reads like a PG-13 version of the Sookie Stackhouse series, combined with some of the sinister and thought-provoking undertones of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. This trilogy opener will find wide appeal in libraries hungry for more quality urban fantasy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)