In reading the second book in the Edinburgh nights series, I continue to have mixed feelings about his series which I had with the first book. In Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments Ropa, a ghosttalker and intern to one of the high figures in Scottish magic, is drawn into the case of a boy from a prestigious Scottish magic school who is currently in a mysterious coma. Ropa has to work to solve this case.
One of the things which do Huchu does excellently in this book is world building. The magical world of Scotland feels fully built and I find myself interested in all of the small morsels he gives about the world beyond that which Ropa interacts with. He is able to provide small tidbits about the world that make me curious about learning more of it. Huchu also crafts supporting characters who are enjoyable and feel as though they have an entire life other than that which our main character knows about.
In some ways, I think that Huchu’s success in worldbuilding and crafting interesting secondary characters leads to what does not work for me in this book. In this book, I enjoy and am interested in the secondary characters more than I am in our main character, Ropa Throughout the book, I found myself wanting to know more about the breadcrumbs Huchu dropped about her grandmother and teacher than about Ropa herself. When reading this I want to know more about the world and the characters other than our main character and in many ways this interests overrides my interest in the mystery at the core of this book and the character of Ropa. I’m unsure if this is simply due to my strong interest in the story of Ropa’s grandmother and teacher being so strong that the story of Ropa which I would normally generally enjoy pales in comparison.
The other thing which I found difficulty with this book is that of pacing. I personally found the pacing of this book to be a bit slow and I think as a story with a mystery and magic at the core, I think the story’s pacing could have either been sped up or that the author could have spent more time exploring the breadcrumbs he drops for the mystery.
Overall, despite my mixed feelings, I still continue wanting to read more of this series and learn more about Ropa and the world she lives in. I think that Huchu does excellently at creating a world which the reader wants to stay in and learn more about. If you read the first book and wanted to continue exploring the world of Scottish magic, I think this book stands up to the first one and would recommend it.

I'm really enjoying reading about this post apocalyptic Edinburgh, and the magic that bubbles beneath the surface. The idea of magical schools and mysterious societies is right up my alley, so this side of the book really hits the mark. I do feel like we're only just scratching the surface of what's possible here though, and hopefuly there is much more still to come.

I really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy and was pleased to find the second one also quite good! There is nothing like this incredibly voicey narrator, I love Ropa and her Edinburgh. Can't wait too give the third one a read too!

While I really enjoyed the first book in this series, The Library of the Dead, I was much less enamored with this sophomore offering. It should be noted that this book is solidly YA. The first book balanced between YA and adult fantasy, but this one moved itself firmly into the realm of YA with its subject matter.

Pros: I loved the caretaker for the Edinburgh school. She felt like she was a part of the land and landscape. Excellent characterization there.

Cons: I wanted more of the Zimbabwean magic, which was so great and plentiful in the first book. The highlight of The Library of the Dead was that beautiful mix of Zimbabwe and Scotland, and it was missing here. And the absolute best thing about the first book that was missing here? Ropa talking to the ghosts. What I loved in the first book was almost completely missing here.

At first glance, this book appears to be very inclusive. But that is definitely not the case. P**** is used as a slur to accuse someone of being weak. It's made in jest, but it's still misogynistic language. Later, Priya's school calls students from Edinburgh "nutters" because their school is next to a mental health hospital. Language like that shames people for having mental health problems, something they can't control. Now, you may say that, well, they're teenagers, they haven't learned better. And I'll say to you, "This is the author's. They decided to use that language. They decided to write in a misogynistic, othering way. They could have given the students any other nickname. They could have used any other joke between friends. But they didn't. Do better."

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments was just a letdown for me.

trigger warning
<spoiler> being possessed, mention of colonialism, gore, slur towards Sinti and Roma </spoiler>

When our ghostalker starts her new internship, she is full of hope for a better future, and of course, things don't pan out as planned. Not only do people throw stones in her way for fun, she gets tasked with finding out why a pupil from a magic school lies in a coma. Before the time runs out and he dies.

Same as with book one, really: At first I had trouble with the writing style and the distinct narrative voice, but then I was drawn in by the world and the characters and devoured the rest of the book.

I like the combination of distinct Scottish elements and Shona characteristics. I like having a badass friend, a healer, who just happens to be using a wheelchair but is not afraid to dish out damage in combat, who thrives on it.
There are open questions I'd like to see answered so I am going forward with book three.

Recommendations if you've liked book one, obvs, but also if you like fast paced crime stories in urban fantasy settings.

The arc was provided by the publisher. Sorry it took so long.

Ropa Moyo is back in book 2 of the Edinburgh Nights series and I’m here for it! I have really been enjoying this series which feels very Sherlockian with a ghostwalker twist in a dystopian Edinburgh. This book followed Ropa as she not only got deeper into the secret society and the library, she gets pulled into investigating a mysterious ailment by Pryia. We got more meandering clues and Ropa tenacity and I felt like this book did a great job of tying it all together eventually. The pacing in a few spots felt a little off, but not enough to bother me too much. I listened to the audiobook while reading and I love the narrator’s brogue, it really added to the story for me. All-in-all I really enjoy this series and love Huchu’s storytelling.

Ropa has a job lined up that could get her in with the magical society in Edinburgh. But instead of a proper apprenticeship, she ends up with an unpaid internship. So she decides to take on a job from her friend at the clinic to try to track down the cause for a student who is in a coma with an unknown magical cause. But before she knows it, she is well in over her head.

Overall I enjoyed this YA urban fantasy mystery. However, there is a lot of lecturing intermittently as Ropa is info dumping to the reader. And her voice is rambling and takes some time to get used to. But after you get beyond that, there is a distinct voice to the story, the world is interesting, and it's cool to see her develop as she struggles to become a part of a society that doesn't really want her there and isn't accommodating at all. But she makes it work the best she can. While this has a stand-alone mystery, there is a lot of information dropped in here and there suggesting a ramp up of broader more widespread tensions as the books continue. I really enjoy the side characters and hope to see them continue to develop. Overall, would recommend, especially if you like a fast paced, mysterious YA.

Thank you so much to Tor Books and Netgalley for the gifted copy and for partnering with B2Weird.

Dnf 8%

Book 1 had me really interested & when I requested the sequel, things were looking great..... then I ended up hating Book 1. I tried to give book 2 a change, but I couldn't do it.
Ended up hating the narrative style & just felt odd with some of the main characters' actions.

I had a fun time reading The Library of the Dead but struggled to continue reading the second book in the series. It felt like the momentum wasn't really there and I kept getting distracted by the author's use of a few terms that I've learned are derogatory. I wish I could give this a more in-depth review, but I ended up putting the book down. I'm not sure if I'll be picking it up again.

I picked up this sequel after not having a lot of success with book one, thinking that its exploration of the underground world found by the main character would be far more entertaining than I found book one. While I did find it slightly more entertaining, I found myself giving the same rating and unlikely to finish the series.

Ropa Moyo is back for another adventure in Edinburgh!. She got a job with the Society of Sceptical Enquirers as an unpaid intern under Sir Callander. To make ends meet she takes on a side gig from her friend Priya to find out what was causing the strange symptoms in one of their patients. But that got turned into a non-paying gig as well. So when she had a chance at a real steal, she took it. She should of checked out the dude first because she ended up being played. But in the end she managed to figure out who was responsible for the plague of sick students, and stop the takeover of Scottish magic at least temporarily. Plus she managed to learn more magic. It will be interesting to see what craziness Ropa will get herself into next!

I liked this more than the first book (which wasn't hard) but there's just something about these books that continues to confuse me. They're adult titles, but really feel like young YA or even middle grade. It's an alternate reality, but there's an over reliance on current pop-culture references. Also the Scottish slang is so hard to decipher as an American reader (not a fault of the book, just something that makes is personally harder for me to read).

I did really enjoy the world building in here and liked getting to see more of the societies and how the magic system works.

I absolutely fell in love with Ropa Moyo, the African-Scottish teenager who lives with her knitting-maven grandmother, younger sister, and fox companion in a broken-down trailer in post-apocalyptic Edinburgh. Hyper-responsible Ropa has been scratching out a living for her family as a ghost-talker by carrying messages from the deceased to their surviving families (who pay a fee). In the first adventure, she stumbles upon an underground occult Library of the Dead and various secret magical academies and societies. With the exception of her loyal, long-time magical student friends and a charismatic higher-up Sir Callandar, who is also her mentor, the magical intellectuals look down on her.

The book opens with, “So, I’m skint again. ‘Nothing new there, Ropa,’ I hear you say. Well, up yours. This time though, a lass is in luck – Sir Callander, Scotland’s premier magical bigwig, has hooked me up with an interview for an apprenticeship. Free food and a proper wage — all for a wee bit of filing. Yay.”

What Ropa hopes would be a paid apprenticeship gets downgraded to a crummy unpaid internship. So when her friend, Priya, who works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies magical hospital, offers her a paid gig investigating an enigmatic, possibly deadly illness striking students. Her sleuthing leads her to a lost fortune, a demented vengeful ghost, and a secret buried deep in Scotland’s past.

The action, world-building, and characters move the story right along, but by far the most enchanting part of the book is Ropa’s wonderful voice, a combination of teenage sass, way too many smarts, a huge dose of compassion, and neoScottish slang. I’ll hang out with her any day!

I enjoy T.L. Huchu's book, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, which is a dark fantasy about a teenage girl, Ropa, who is a ghost talker in Edinburgh. Because she needs money, she takes a job at an unusual hospital where both doctors and magicians have been unable to cure a strange, new sickness. As she tries to help a boy who has fallen ill, she begins to uncover secrets and a spirit bent on revenge, and she may find a missing fortune.

This was a fun adventure with occult elements, interesting characters, and a lively pace. My only issue was that Ropa didn't quite come across to me as a 15-year-old girl and the dialect was sometimes jarring. I'd recommend this to young adults and others who like dystopian and/or clever, dark fantasy.

Second installment of Edinburgh Nights series is a bit better than the first one. However, it still does a very poor job convincing me that the main character is a 15 yo girl, albeit the one who had a hard life. If you'd told me the 1st POV narrator is a 25 year old guy or 37 old non binary person I would have believed you all the same, since there's absolutely NOTHING that distinguishes Ropa as a teenage girl, even one existing in self proclaimed "dystopian" future (not that there's a lot of things dystopian about her world). I'm really reluctant about giving the third book a chance.

I thoroughly enjoyed Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, book #2 in the Edinburgh Nights series by T.L. Huchu.

This book moved at a much quicker pace than the first half of book #1 (The Library of the Dead) and I believe that is because T.L. Huchu did the majority of the world building in the first book. I love that Ropa is now known as the detective thanks to her help in solving the mystery in The Library of the Dead. I really hope that things turn around for her and her family in book #3, currently titled The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle.

I will definitely be looking for this book in the spring 2023 when it is set to release.

T. L. Huchu’s Library of the Dead was a book I absolutely adored so I was incredibly excited to pick up the sequel. This time we’re following Ropa as she gets a job at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies in order to pay her bills. There she hears about a new illness that is resisting all remedies – both the magical and non-magical kind. Ropa must do everything she can to uncover what is causing the illness, but discovering the truth will cause her to delve deep into’s Scotland’s past.

There are so many things to love about this series. Huchu has created such a fascinating world – this dystopian, magical future is completely unlike anything I’ve read before. Huchu puts in an incredible amount of detail into the depiction of Edinburgh and I love seeing all the streets and places brought to life. The story is excellently paced, with plenty of action and mystery to keep the reader intrigued. Just like the first book I was captivated right from the beginning and in all honesty, I didn’t want this book to end.

Where this series really shines is the brilliant cast of characters who you can’t help growing attached to. Ropa is full of attitude, but she’s determined to do what’s right and help those around her. While Ropa is the star of the show there are plenty of other clever characters and I loved both Priya and Jomo. If you’re looking for a dark, fast-paced fantasy read, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments will have you engrossed until the very last page. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I cannot wait to see where Huchu takes things in the next book.

Sadly this is just not going to be the series for me. I can't get behind the MC's "gangster" dialect and too tough to be dealt with attitude.

I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel to The Library of the Dead, getting more time with favorite characters as they tackle a new mystery. The tone throws me off sometimes, as the characters (especially main character Ropa) are very cavalier about events that often seem too fantastic or disturbing, but I know that's intentional—it's simply the world they live in. The ominous undercurrent of their reality (we get very little details about the ruler who conquered their world or how this leadership has maybe changed the day-to-day lives) keeps me hooked, and I hope to learn more about the history of supernatural, semi-oppressed Edinburgh in future books.

I love this series and how the author seamlessly incorporates magic into what is seemingly a modern day Edinburgh. The characters are wonderful and not shy with attitude. The story was well developed and I look forward to the next book.