Leanne Olson

by Amanda Glaze

Releasing October 4, 2022 from Union Square & Co.

I loved The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond.  It’s a wonderful mix of genres: young adult, historical fiction, paranormal fantasy, with a bit of mystery, romance, and spookiness.

This book feels so confident and clever that I was really surprised to see it’s Amanda Glaze’s debut. It’s one of my favourite YA debuts of 2022.

The Second Death is set in 1885 San Francisco and tells the story of two runaway twins, Edie and Violet, who work in a travelling spiritualism show.  They both have genuine powers to contact the dead and move beyond the veil separating life from death. They’re on the run from their father (who is planning to have them committed to an asylum) and reeling from the mysterious death of their mother (who was also a medium).

I loved Edie and Violet.  The book is told from Edie’s perspective, and she sees herself as responsible twin hiding a secret about how their mother died, while Violet is more flighty and yearns to be a stage actress.  They’re both strong and flawed in different ways and I completely believed them as twin sisters.

The setting is totally immersive, and I loved that Amanda Glaze combined a ghost story with the history behind young female spiritualists: both the positive aspects of how spiritualism empowered women to speak their minds and support themselves, and the terrifying way that any woman seen as crazy or hysterical could be dismissed and imprisoned.

The paranormal aspects also felt well thought out and immersive, and the romance between Edie and a young reporter named Laws was adorable and believable.  (I wish we could have spent just a smidge more time with them…deleted scenes somewhere, maybe?)

I’d recommend this book to fans of Libba Bray, Kendare Blake, and Dana Schwartz, along with anyone who loves a genre-bending tale with strong female characters.

🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co. for my review copy of this book.