I’m so happy that Orphans of Chaos was shortlisted for the Mythopoeic Award, because now I can add it to my challenge list. (Whew, I’m running outta time here!)

Amelia Windrose is one of five students at a vast and almost empty English boarding school on a sprawling country estate where faculty outnumber students, and each student possesses a remarkable ability: Victor can rearrange matter, Quentin is a warlock, Colin can change things to be as he desires, Vanity can locate secret passages, and Amelia herself can see into the fourth dimension. The faculty themselves are a peculiar lot with their own secrets, and the students view them as enemies in their goal to determine who and what Amelia and her friends really are.

I read some reviews of this book in advance, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Yes, there are some mild sexual situations. Yes, there is a naughty schoolgirl spanking scene. Other than that, I don’t know what the fuss is; ladies, are we really so missish that a couple of risque scenes in a book written for grown-ups bothers us? Please. I thought the book—questionable scenes included—were good fun. Fun is what this book is about, and even when the exposition gets heavy and there are more names (and aliases) and in-depth discussions of the nature of the fourth dimension and beyond thrown at you than you think you can handle, the story is gripping enough to carry you through.

I didn’t know authors were still allowed to write books this imaginative. Orphans of Chaos is a boarding-school story all grown-up, with all the fantasy and sensawunder of the glory-days of pulp fiction, deep mythological roots that will have you reaching time and again for your favourite mythology reference (or Wikipedia if that’s your thing), a female narrator whose voice rings true and whose intellect must be called “ageless” rather than merely precocious, and a setting that seems both contemporary and dislodged from time.