Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright

Synopsis stolen from this Wikipedia entry:

Five orphans who have spent their lives living in a strict secretive British boarding school begin to discover that they are different from the other children that they so rarely see. As the story progresses, these five discover that the patrons of the school and their own guardians are not the English lords that they have claimed to be. Instead these adults represent strange powers from far removed locales. Their curiosity is further peaked when they learn that they themselves possess unique paranormal abilities.

The story largely concerns the main characters investigations and discoveries about an otherworldly power struggle, and their place within it.

Title: Orphans of Chaos

Author: John C. Wright

Year published: 2005 (paperback Oct. 31, 2006)

Why I picked up this book: I liked the cover. Was an impulse buy at the bookstore.

Do I like the cover? Yes, it’s the reason I picked the book up.

Is this part of a series? Yes, it’s the first in a series.

What I enjoyed about the book: I liked all the mythology that’s woven in and the way that you really don’t quite know what’s going on. I purposely stayed away from any information on the book so that I wouldn’t get any spoilers. It’s a bizarre book, yet I really enjoyed it. It’s told in first-person from Amelia’s point of view, but because of how the story is, you’re never quite sure what’s real and what isn’t because things really aren’t as they seem. Or aren’t what they seem to not be. Overall I liked much of the book. Enough to try to read the sequel someday.

What I didn’t like about the book: Well, it does rather end on a cliff-hanger and it can get slow and overly wordy at times. I would imagine it might be more confusing to someone who wasn’t very up on their mythology, but I knew enough to get a lot of it, perhaps most of it.

Is this a new-to-me author and would I read something by this author again? This author is new to me and I was intrigued enough to read more.

Am I keeping it or passing it on? I’m going to keep it for now.