Michelle Harrison’s debut novel, The Thirteen Treasures, won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize in 2009, and its sequel, The Thirteen Curses, is another story of a young girl struggling to deal with a gothic and dangerous world populated by fairies and other creatures out of myth and legend.

The Thirteen Curses follows Red, a young girl who has been haunted by fairies and the disappearance of her brother.  Trapped in the fairy-realm because she took Tanya’s place, Red knows that this may be her only chance to find her younger brother, stolen by the fairies years before.  Armed with little more than a pair of silver scissors and the research she had done to protect herself from the denizens of that land, Red sets out to make a bargain with the fairy court, determined to bring her little brother home.

Red’s determination to find her brother leads her deep into the fairy-realm and in spite of all of her precautions and knowledge, she is quickly captured by the Hedgewitch, an evil woman with a sinister purpose for Red. In her fight to escape, Red discovers another prisoner in the house, someone that holds the key to the mystery of Red’s past. The Hedgewitch is in more danger than she realizes, though, because Red is more powerful than even she knows, and her history is even more complicated than any fairy tale.

While Red struggles through the fairy-realm, Tanya, Fabian and the rest of the folks at Elvesden Manor (familiar to those who have read The Thirteen Treasures) are dealing with a new housekeeper and the work needed in keeping the fairy residents of the manor happy.The new housekeeper, Nell, is unaware of the secrets that the rest of the manor keeps, and she puts herself and others in danger because of her ignorance.  Finally, she falls into a fairy ring and pulls Fabian’s father in after her, separating the children from one of the two adults in the world they can trust with the manor’s secrets.

This is where the story really begins.  Red frees herself from the Hedgewitch and manages to make it to the fairy court to beg for her brother’s return. But nothing comes free from the fairy-folk, and they demand Fabian’s father as hostage and a task from Red—she must gather the thirteen charms from Tanya’s bracelet, scattered to the winds by the fairies and imbued with possibly deadly curses. Red does not search alone; Tanya and Fabian are both valuable help, and, in the best traditions of fairy tales, the strong, brave, and good win through in the end.  The search for the charms goes quickly, with interludes that explain Red’s motivation to learn everything she can about fairy and her despair at losing her brother.

Harrison has also done all of the chapter-head illustrations, and they are whimsical and lovely.  They go well with the light tone of the writing and the pace of the plot.  This book moves quickly, and although the events in the book are dark and could be frightening, Harrison’s writing keeps the reader confident in a happy ending and invites young readers to investigate the world of fairy along with Red.

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