Review: Threadneedle

Threadneedle by Cari Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anna has led a very sheltered life. After her father murdered her mother and then killed himself she has been brought up by her aunt. Her aunt is part of a witches grove called the binders who hope to protect witches from the Hunters who would torture and kill them, by binding their magical powers (which is just as nasty as it sounds). Anna's aunt wants her to be bound and has been training her to repress her emotions in various rather cruel ways.

Anna goes to a girls school in Dulwich and has spent her entire life trying to hide away, which has earned her the title of Nobody from the clique of mean girls who rule the school, led by the Head Girl Darcey. But all that changes when Anna cousin Effie and her boyfriend Attis announce that Effie will also be attending Anna's school and Attis will be attending the boy's school. As sixth formers they have classes together so it's as if they are at the same school.

Soon Effie and Attis are attracting all the wrong attention, especially from Darcey, and openly using magic in front of the non-magicals (cowans). Against her will Anna is drawn into their group and soon they form a coven - but are Effie and Attis all that they seem? And how will Anna avoid having her magic bound?

This is a dark twisting magical plot which really kept me guessing the entire time. Having failed to read more than a few pages when I first received the ARC (cough, 21 months ago), when I picked this up again I raced through it. There is clearly meant to be further books in this series and I would be intrigued to see where this goes.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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