CREATURES OF WILL AND TEMPER

Charlotte Gray ably narrates the fin-de-siècle coming-of-age story of two sisters. Evadne and Dorina Gray are spending the summer in London, where they become embroiled with demons and diabolists and have to choose what is most important to them before they lose everything. Gray's greatest strength is depicting the relationship between the two sisters: elder sister Evadne has a tendency to be brusque and standoffish, but only to mask her insecurity, while younger sister Dorina is spoiled and willful, but is actually much smarter than anyone realizes. Naturally, they clash continually, but Gray also teases out the underlying love that unites them. The plot occasionally falters, but Gray's adroit interpretation of the dramatic events that occur makes up for this weakness. K.M.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2018]