Mara is beginning to settle into being apprentice to the Messenger of Fear, who punishes those who wrong others, but she yearns to find out what the Messenger did to sentence himself to this role and how it relates to his lost love, Ariadne. As the two work together on cases involving a bigoted boy and a girl who overdoses on heroine, they must contend with the creature Oriax, who wants to seduce Mara away from Messenger and the goddess Isthil, and with their own feelings for one another. The second book in Grant's series moves as quickly as Mara and Messenger do when they are working, gliding from one event to another, narrated by Mara's sometimes-philosophical, sometimes-snarky voice. The horrific punishments are sobering, but so are the realistic horrors that the guilty inflict on the innocent. One character redeems himself perhaps too easily, and a few loose ends hint at a possible sequel, but readers will still be satisfied with Mara's growing maturity and acceptance of her own fate.

In this second book, Mara, apprentice to the Messenger of Fear, is continuing to learn how to punish the wicked, selfish, and violently hateful. But in meting out justice, Messengers are themselves being punished: a tattoo marks each horror they've inflicted. Cloaked in contemporary geopolitical events and prejudices, the gory, otherworldly fantasy offers readers a window into the value of compassion.

Gr 9 Up-Mara and the Messenger of Fear are back to mete out their particularly brutal brand of justice to those who have caused harm to themselves as well as to others. In this outing, they track two cases, one involving two teenage boys who have committed heinous hate crimes as well as those who have caused a young teenage runaway to overdose on illegal drugs. As in Messenger of Fear (HarperCollins, 2014), the punishments dispensed by the Messenger and his apprentice are graphic and will cause some readers to wince, though those who like their stories on the gory side will enjoy this work tremendously. Grant adequately expands the series' universe, gives readers more of the Messenger's backstory, and explains why he does what he does. There is sufficient summary at the start of this volume for those who have not read the previous title, but readers' experience will be greatly enhanced if they have. The ending is a bit rushed, yet teens will be satisfied with a few loose ends. VERDICT This will appeal to fans of the first installment as well as those who enjoy gory reads. Christopher Lassen, Brooklyn Public Library