Sacred Scars - Kathleen Duey, Sheila Rayyan image

This is my first five star rating since Froi of the Exiles - so I hope you get some idea just how awesome this book is. I didn't even plan to review this book with it being the second in a series and not a new release, but then I thought it was such a step up from the first book that I had to say my piece.

Skin Hunger is a book of dark originality, there is cruelty and child abuse and magic. The best thing about the first book in the series is that I can honestly say I have never read anything quite like it. This second installment, however, had even more going for it. It was meatier - the extra two hundred pages undoubtedly helped - and the characters were developed further, it's full of mysteries and it's impossible to know who to trust. I was entirely captivated by the story.

There are two stories being told, each set centuries apart from the other but eventually starting to come together and paint the bigger picture. Sadima lives in a time long before Hahp's when magic is outlawed, but the evil Somiss and his assistant - Franklin - are attempting to restore it. But it is Hahp's story that most horrifies and enthralls me. Imagine if Harry Potter had turned up at Hogwarts and been told that he would have to magically produce his own food or face starvation. Imagine that he was subjected to a series of gruelling tests that could easily kill him... all to prove he is worthy of graduation.

I am very highly anticipating the climax to this series and I can only hope that Kathleen Duey knows what she's doing. These books are impossible to read alone, too many questions are left unanswered, but they are also unputdownable, exciting, horrifying and refreshing. Please, please, please let the next book be just as good!