Well I finished it. It's a real pity that there wasn't some tighter editing on this as the story is quite good but it tends to meander and drag out a fair bit, which had me battling to finish the book. That being said, it is a stand alone novel (Something all too rare in the world of YA fiction these days) and the cover is awesome!
Set in Victorian times, It starts off with three men traipsing through the jungle to try and find the Amarant - a flower that supposedly holds the power over death After witnessing its power the 3 swear a blood oath to leave the flower in the jungle and never return. . Fast forward to some 20 years in the future and young Josie is performing her knife act at the theatre with her guardian who is a brilliant magician. One night, they are visited by three evil crow like women called The Aunts who accuse the magician of having the Amarant . The magician gets sicker and sicker and soon Josie is forced to flee for her life as the aunts true purpose becomes apparent.
She discovers that she has a twin brother who works at a nearby undertakers and together they try and unravel the mystery of the 3 men in the jungle, their father's true identity and the actual whereabouts of the Amarant.
As noted before, there are a few side meanderings - the twins imprisonment in a manor and then their escape and entrapment in a ghostly circus in the swampland that could have used some tightening up in the editing process but all in all an ok horror story that isn't too gory for younger readers. ( )

Good YA fiction, but interesting enough to hold the attention of someone older too. ( )

The sister is a knife-thrower in a magician's stage act, the brother an undertaker's assistant. Neither orphan knows of the other's existence. Until, that is, three terrible Aunts descend on the girl's house and imprison her guardian, the Great Cardamom. His dying act is to pass the girl a note with clues to the secret he has carried to his grave. Cardamom was one of three explorers on an expedition to locate the legendary Amarant, a plant with power over life and death. Now, pursued by flesh-eating crow-like ghuls, brother and sister must decode the message and save themselves from its sinister legacy.

The sister is a knife-thrower in a magician's stage act, the brother an undertaker's assistant. Neither orphan knows of the other's existence. Until, that is, three terrible Aunts descend on the girl's house and imprison her guardian, the Great Cardamom. His dying act is to pass the girl a note with clues to the secret he has carried to his grave. Cardamom was one of three explorers on an expedition to locate the legendary Amarant, a plant with power over life and death. Now, pursued by flesh-eating crow-like ghuls, brother and sister must decode the message and save themselves from its sinister legacy.

Josie’s parents are both dead so she lives with her uncle, the Great Cardamon. He works as a magician at a local theatre and she is a knife thrower. Josie senses there are some mysteries surrounding Cardamon and when she answers the door to 3 tall, skinny old women in black dresses she is thrown right into the middle of them. Before long Josie discovers she has a twin brother and that the two of them need to flee for their lives.
This book is gripping but not for the fainthearted – for lovers of horror only. Each chapter is prefaced with a gruesome section of a traditional song or rhyme.
Suggested for readers aged 10 and up. ( )