A child gets plucked from an orphanage, is taken in by a secret society of warriors fighting primordial evil and finds out he has super powers! Awesome! Except it's not because even though it's no fun being an orphan, it's a bit of an insult to injury to find that you have an aunt that has been ignoring your existence all your life and that she's an inflexible, obdurate, emotionally distant head of an order of people who have been scarred and worn down by a long endless war that will eventually take their lives if they are not consumed by the accumulated effects of the disfiguring price they pay every time they use their powers against their terrifying opponents, and which you will have to pay also.

Now, while I find this set-up appropriately angsty and difficult in a fantasy about children recruited to fight in a secret war, while in our world there's nothing particularly nice about being a child soldier, this is not a gloomy or an angsty read. It is, in fact, a fast and smooth read, exciting and emotional, full of dry wit and lovely pieces of writing and turns of phrase that can be very funny or very evocative or downright chilling, with well-developed characters that the author is not afraid to damage or destroy. The setting of the orphanage is particularly well-drawn, and when the book is focused on Denizen's doings in Dublin, the text is haunted by the terrible plight of the unfortunate Simon in the demon-haunted institution at the edge of the world.

Beyond that, however, the hints and glimpses of the dark and deadly adversaries from a different world become more and more intriguing as the book goes on, and it is clear that there is more depth and complexity to them than simple malevolent bad-guys, and if the sample chapter at the end of this edition is any indication, this series (trilogy? Can't remember) is going to some very interesting places indeed.