Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay

Ned Marriner is feeling babied. He's in Provence, France, where his dad, a famous photographer is taking pictures for a book. His mother is in Darfur where she is a doctor with Doctors Without Borders. Normally Ned would love the chance to get out of school and help his dad but he's worried about his mom and he feels that his dad's assistant is treating him like a little child. Melanie has researched all sorts of things for him to do as if he can't take care of himself. But Ned's irritation at Melanie is replaced by fear when he walks into the old chatedral his dad is shooting picures of.

Inside he meets an American exchange student named Kate. And then a strange man climbs out of a grate on the floor, carrying a knife, and tells them to go away because he has killed children before. The weird part is Ned knows things about this man such as where he is when he can't even see him. Then the man follows him and Kate to a cafe the next day where dogs attack them. Needless to say, Ned is getting very freaked out by all this. When his long estranged Aunt Kim shows up, Ned is anxious for answers.

Apparently Ned has been drawn into a story from long ago about two men who are desperate to kill the other in order to have the woman the both love, Ysabel. Even though Ned has been warned, repeatedly, to not get involved, somehow he can't resist. But by trying to find out the answers to what he's feeling, he ends up potentially endangering Kate, his family, and even his dad's assistants. Now, the only way to help them all is to find the mysterious Ysabel, and maybe, just maybe, Ned will also learn the truth about himself.

No comments: