This is definitely a strong beginning to a series. Ursu has a really great style, with lots of spunk, which made reading this book a lot of fun. You know, more so than usual.

The story begins in the middle, with Charlotte Mielswetzski's discovery of a kitten on her way home from school. She and her parents are all immediately taken with it. Her parents try not to get attached, since they're advertising to see if she's lost, but they all kind of know she's there to stay. Charlotte decides to call her Bartholomew, "Mew" being the best ever nickname for a cat.

Unfortunately, Mew seems to be the only good thing happening.

Charlotte's best friend doesn't come to school the next day, or the next, and when Charlotte decides to collect her homework to bring it to her, she doesn't like what she sees. Maddy's mother is looking haggard, and Maddy herself looks even worse. She can barely sit up, yet there's nothing physically wrong with her.

One by one, the students at school start to disappear, bed-ridden. Rumors circulate about a Piper Fly, and school is closed for the rest of the week.

Charlotte thinks this is great, despite the cause, but when she shares the news with her cousin Zee, his reaction takes her by surprise.

Which is when we go back to beginning, with Zee's summer in Exeter with his Grandmother Winter. It's the best summer in the world, until she dies. The next morning Zee wakes feeling completely out of sorts, but with breakfast and a little rest the feeling passes. He thinks little of it.

But then strange things start happening. One by one, all his friends in Exeter, the kids he went to camp with, all fall ill with some mystery disease. His parents want to send him home, but he stays to help them finish up.

When they do return to London, it starts to happen again. Zee believes it must have something to do with him. And after seeing a boy accosted by two strange men-like things on his way home one afternoon, Zee stops leaving the house. At which point the children stop falling ill.

His parents pretty much think he's lost it, which is how he ends up coming to live with Charlotte in America.

And so we're back to the end of the middle. Charlotte and Zee now both know something shady is going on, and that no one would believe them if they tried to say anything. That is, until they're rescued by their English teacher, Mr. Metos, who happens to be a son of Prometheus. He does believe them, because he knows all about it.

Long story short, the two end up in exactly the last place they're supposed to be, the Underworld, trying to stop the overthrow of Hades.

Definitely, definitely worth reading. I can't wait to see where she goes next!