Ropa is hoping that her internship will provide the cash her family needs since her ghostalking business has fallen to the wayside. The internship is unpaid, but it looks like she has a small side job helping her friend Priya find out the cause of a patient’s coma. Ropa also picks up a job that she is uses her new liblrary access in order to help someone recover an inheritance. As she is working both cases, her boss is also trying to get Ropa’s younger sister into one of the magical schools and Izwi doesn’t want to go even with a free ride and all the opportunities it will give her. Even with her plate overflowing with work Ropa knows she still has to study and learn more so her internship can be converted to a paid one and also become a full fledged magic user.

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is T.L. Huchu's second novel in the YA series, Edinburgh Nights, which follows the adventures of Ropa, a ghost talker, plus her family and friends, who all live in a magical yet gritty and dystopian version of Edinburgh. The first book, The Library of the Dead, introduces this dark, dangerous, but strangely compelling world, and should be read before tackling the second.
In this installment, Ropa is still struggling to make ends meet. After all, she has a grandmother, younger sister, and a fox to feed and shelter. She was hoping to use her involvement in one of Edinburgh's secret societies as a way to make money but, instead, she's stuck in an unpaid internship helping her mentor, Sir Callander. Enter her friend, Priya, who works as a doctor at Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, a specialized hospital. She offers Ropa a job on the side helping to discover what, or who, is causing teenage students to come down with a new illness that appears to be resistant to both magical and medical remedies. If Ropa can solve the mystery, she can earn enough money to keep her family afloat and maybe learn more about the city's magical societies. But nothing is every simple for Ropa and murder and mayhem soon follows.
I really enjoyed my second literary dive into this mysterious world of ghosts and magic. I find Ropa to be a humorous and compelling character. You never know what kind of trouble she's going to get into next. And her friendship with Priya and Jooma is at a level we should all aspire to. This romp through the underbelly of Edinburgh was extremely entertaining and I look forward to the next novel in this series.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, "Library of the Dead", but it suffered a lot from set-up issues - there was a lack of worldbuilding and we barely spent two scenes in the titular magical library, for example. However, I loved the protagonist, Ropa, so much - her voice is so much fun and unique - that I was excited to read the sequel. I'm happy to report that there is a lot more detail in terms of worldbuilding in this book, and that we jump right into the main plot - a lot of the pacing issues from the first book were initially gone.

Unfortunately, things took a turn about halfway through, with Ropa getting pulled into a side quest that takes up a LOT of time. I just couldn't connect with the mystery of the book, and once again pacing issues just made this book difficult to get through.

Ropa continues to be one of the most appealing first-person protagonists I've read. It's just everything else that doesn't hold up for me. It's a shame, because this world is so interesting and I'm always very into the juxtaposition of the post-apocalyptic world and classical magic, but the main plots just don't really seem to want to pay much attention to it.

NOTE: I received early access from NetGalley, for this manuscript, in exchange for writing an impartial review. Completed on March 20TH, 2022.

I read the first in this series, and greatly enjoyed it, so I was excited when I saw this being offered as a pre-release.

Good to get back into Ropa's story, and watch it develop further, as she takes on bigger challenges than she had in the first one. Good to see her partners in crime, Priya and Jomo back amongst her too.

The story unfolds at a pretty good clip from the beginning, and keeps the reader engaged throughout.
There was a spot toward the end, where Ropa had begun to figure out what was going on, that caused me to become lost and confused though.

It's obvious from the way the book wraps up that there will be another novel to follow. Not so much from a teaser, or by anything said, but more by what wasn't said. There's a few loose ends that have been hinted at throughout the series that still go unresolved.

Still not happy with a couple of the vulgar terms the character used in a few places in the book. Just more than a little excessive than what you would expect for the targeted age group, let alone anyone, in my opinion. Ropa is presented as a highly intelligent young female, not raised in the best of circumstances, who has furthered her education by her desires to be better than her upbringing and previous behaviors. But this presents as a negative stereotype that's just not aceptable, or necessary, to me.

Also the slang seems to be even heavier than the first, at times, making it next to impossible at times to follow just exactly what is meant.

I'm assuming that since this is a pre-release, the typos, grammatical errors, and such, will be fixed before the final copy goes to print.
There's also some repetitive issues mentioned multiple times, which are totally unnecessary. I get it by now-I understand what a mbira is! And that's just one of the repeats that comes to mind. It causes these to come across as fluff-unnessary page fillers.

All in all though I would give this a final recommendation of being worth the read!

Our lady of Mysterious Ailments is the second book in the Library of the Dead series by T L Huchu and seems to pick up where book one ended. Unfortunately I haven't read the first book yet but I thoroughly enjoyed this one anyway!
Ropa Moyo lives in a complex fantasy world and is trying to mold a future she wants and needs as well as caring and providing for her family who desperately rely on her. Set in Edinburgh, this book will take you on an amazing, fantasy journey full of twists and turns to keep you gripped. Ropa is such a fun, strong, fierce and kind character and I enjoyed getting to know her in this book and will visit book one as soon as possible!
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Edinburgh is in trouble again in T.L. Huchu's newest work, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, out April 5th.
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Ropa Moyo is my favorite kind of protagonist. She's smart, but not insufferably so. She takes care of business without taking herself too seriously. And she doesn't always magically just get it right, she stumbles through. Occasionally things work out, occasionally they don't, and she keeps it sassy throughout.
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This series takes a moment to get into, primarily because of the interesting vernacular that truly throws you into Ropa's mind. Personally, I liked this plot a bit more than the previous installation. It felt better mapped-out and was a bit easier to follow. The world that was created in this series is still somewhat mysterious, and since we are operating in Ropa's mind, this makes absolute sense. This book is full of fun, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Library of the Dead.
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Now, for a favorite quote regarding audiobooks and podcasts, "I dig listening to stuff like this when I'm about. It's the only thing that stops my brain from atrophying into full-on zombie mode. If there's anything I can put my ear to the keyhole and eavesdrop on, I'm game. It's the only method I know of teleportation and time travel too. Do enough reading and you come to realize this world's been insane right from the beginning."

The Library of the Dead was one of my favorite reads of 2021 so I was very excited to read Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments. The dystopian world that TL Huchu has created is so wonderful and hauntingly fantastic to read. This story picks up right were Library of the Dead left off, so it was very easy to get back into the story. The Character development from the first book continues and as a reader you cant help getting sucked in. Thanks for the opportunity to read Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments in exchange for an honest review. I can't wait to buy this on April 5, 2022!

For all the same reasons that I liked the first book of the series, I liked the second also. Character development and world-building are excellent. I don't normally enjoy reading dystopian fiction, but in this book it was incorporated into the setting creating the mood but not overwhelming the story. The magic system is also excellent, having at least a scientific veneer. I am generally not fond of mixing science with magic, but this story did it very well. It is at least as good as the blending in the Prospero's War series by Jaye Wells. I found the book hard to put down, because I loved the characters and wanted to know what happened to them. But there were certain things in the book that annoyed me, more so than in the first book. I thought that there were too many pop culture references. I also didn’t like the slang and language shortcuts used when the protagonist narrates; I thought it interfered with the flow of the story. Overall though, I recommend this book for anyone who likes urban fantasy. Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the advance reader copy.

I enjoyed The Library of the Dead, so when I saw it’s sequel on Netgalley I requested it. And I was lucky enough to get approved for it.

What makes stands out for me in this series is its setting. It is a wonderful blend of dystopian (near)future, mystery, paranormal and fantasy that feels very refreshing. There are different forms of magic in this world, but the one we mainly focus on is science based. Our main character is very smart and it great to see her work through the theory how a spell could work and do the maths. I now make it sound quite boring, but really it isn’t.

Ropa herself is a very interesting character. She lives with her gran and little sister in a caravan and has to provide for them. She has dropped out of school, and now just learns what she wants by listening to books and podcasts as she makes her way through Edinburgh. She is kind, but doesn’t do charity. She is feisty and unyielding and has a lot of sass in her.

I preferred the plot and the darker atmosphere of the first book, but this was certainly still a fun read. We learn more about the Library and the society, and the stakes are definitely raised. Still I found myself less engaged with the book than I had hoped.

My main problem with the book is the writing. This is definitely a me-problem though, but it made reading it a struggle. It also did a great job of making me feel old and very un-cool, and reminded me of the fact that English definitely isn’t my first language. It is sort of a stream of consciousness, from a 15yr old, filled with slang and not always accurate grammer and sentence structure.

<i>Would rather pick my own nose than this, but there’s mega moolah riding on it and I’ve done harder gigs for a lot less, so I jam on it.</i>

I definitely got lost a few times having no idea what certain words meant which I can’t say approved my reading experience. Some of the slang Ropa and her friends use can be quite vulgar, which I guess is realistic? I would never have said those things though (but I guess I was a boring teen?).

Overall this was an enjoyable and more unique read, but it isn’t quite for me. Then again, I don’t quite fit into the target audience.

This is a strange series... I really liked the first two-thirds of the first book. It was a marvelous concept and the characters and setting and magical constructs felt fresh and new and engaging. Then the plot twist involving the abduction occurred, and the book went a little sideways for me. It redeemed itself in the end and I was very excited for the next installment.

This one also started out very strong and drew me in straight away - then once again lost me, although this time it lost me a lot sooner. Not totally, I never considered not finishing it. But the all-encompassing immersion in the story that I felt as each book opened faltered significantly - and in this second book it faltered even sooner (which I find to be a dangerous trend mid-series).

I still think Ropa's world is a fascinating one, and with the explanation of the nature of the true Library of the Dead late in this book, I was once again drawn back into this universe by the way things ended. But if I keep floundering in the middle I fear that eventually the series will lose me... It's frustrating because I'm not sure exactly what it is that keeps resulting in my losing the thread. There's nothing I can put my finger on as the issue I keep stumbling up against, but something is keeping me from totally falling in love with this series the way I want to...

4.5 Ropa Moyo is such a fabulous character! She is what makes this second book in this magical fantasy series set in future Edinburgh so dang good, with her humor, her surprising callbacks to books she's read and taken to heart, and most especially her optimism despite her poor circumstances.

I loved that the author had a glossary at the beginning-- that helped as it been a while for me since the last book. But it was easy to slip back into this world and Ropa makes it so worthwhile!

I definitely get Harry Potter vibes, and probably due to the futuristic post- cataclysm plus the main character's weird speech habits, Koli's Rampart series. Really can't wait to see more of her gran's powers and what Ropa is going to become!

T.L. Huchu’s The Library of the Dead was one of my favorite books of last year, so you better believe I went nuts when I saw that unbelievable cover. Just like the first, this book is captivating, immersing you in the world of a post-catastrophe Edinburgh through the eyes of one teen girl who can quote Sun Tzu one moment and then fall back into Scottish slang the next.

After the events of the last book, Ropa’s ghostalking business has tanked. But that’s ok because she’s soon to start a paid apprenticeship with Sir Callander, her mentor and one of the most important magicians in Scotland. But when opposition to her appointment turns it into more of an unpaid internship, Ropa’s left scrambling for a way to support her family again. Luckily her bestie, Priya, has a mystery for her to investigate as part of her job at Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments. A rich schoolboy is in a coma at the posh hospital, and detective work is right up Ropa’s alley. But Ropa’s investigation will lead her from the campus of one of Scotland’s most prestigious schools to Edinburgh’s underbelly to the astral planes, from the Library of the Dead to an even more secretive archive.

“But this is me, this is my life. Everything I do, I do for them two, and I wouldn’t change that for anything in the whole wide world. Mornings like this in the eye of the storm, I just wanna freeze time. Here, now, this moment. Me, Gran and Izwi. That’s my real fortune, and I wouldn’t place it in any bank in the world, ’cause I keep it right here in a vault in my heart.”


I absolutely adore Ropa. Sure, she makes some questionable decisions (ok, maybe a lot of questionable decisions) but her heart is in the right place. Everything she does is in service to helping out her Gran and her sister Izwi and there’s no question of how much she loves them. Her voice is so evocative and immersive that it feels more like having a conversation with her than reading a book. Ropa’s an amazing combination of booksmart and practical, deeply aware of the social and class differences between her and the others she interacts with but more apt to thumb her nose at them rather than simply accept them. She’s fierce, always hustling, and always learning, and honestly I want to be her when I grow up!

As with the first book, the world building as well is absolutely stellar. Set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian Edinburgh, the absolute depth of history and culture is astonishing. Ropa’s (and the author’s) obvious love of the city comes through loud and clear. There’s some interesting detours through Scottish history (like the Darien scheme, which I had to look up to see if it was real) which are worked into the plot seamlessly. There’s lots of new places to visit, but some old favorites are revisited as well, often with a new light. There’s a reason, for instance, why the librarians in the Library of the Dead refer to things as “texts” instead of “books,” and that part left me wide-eyed. Old favorite characters are back as well, like adrenaline junkie Priya and Ropa’s other bestie Jomo (still cleaning wax off tables, alas), though they’re also not exempt from some shocking twists (looking at you, Gran). There’s also some tantalizing hints about the identity of the One Above All which leads me to be even more excited about what could possibly happen next.

“Life’s relentless like that. The world don’t stop for a minute, not for the worst grief, not for the worst tragedy. The sun rises on cue every morning. The wind blows on her course. Rivers flow and rain falls. Vows are taken and later broken.
I am bloody moved by it all.”


Overall, this is an excellent sequel to an equally amazing book. I miss Ropa already and can’t wait to see what she gets up to next!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Stop what you're doing and go buy this series now. Seriously. Why are you still reading my review? Go!

If you love Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, you'll be captivated by T. L. Huchu's Edinburgh Nights. Ropa Moyo might finally have gotten a break after the disastrous events in the first book led to an unpaid internship and the loss of her primary ghostalking clientele. Her friend Priya offers her a job investigating the victim of a mysterious new magical illness. Ropa has to navigate post-catastrophe Edinburgh and, even worse, a high-society magical boarding school to get the answers. But what she uncovers is a threat hundreds of years old, and no one today may have the power to stop it.

Ropa is doing her best to stay under the radar of the various Edinburgh gangs, keep food on the table for her gran and her younger sister, and not get into any more trouble with the Library. She's an amazing character, and you'll root for her even as you marvel and the wonderful (and awful) world Huchu has created. While there are similarities to Aaronovitch's series, Ropa is very much her own character and has had a much rougher time of it than Peter Grant. She meets every challenge head-on, and will undoubtedly change the magical society of Edinburgh before they change her.

4.5/5 stars Highly recommended

I received an advance copy from Tor Books and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Ok i must say i am definitely a Huchu fan! I absolutely loved the storytelling in this and the world created. I want to read more. Thank you so much for this book. If you're not a fan, you will be! Please read the series. I am jealous of those who get to experience the book from the beg as a new reader!

I have absolutely zero concept of what happened in this book.

Ropa continues to try to make money and always fail in a way that is almost <i>too</i> pat, like Wile E. Coyote predictably failing to catch the Roadrunner. There wasn't much ghost-talking or client-taking at all, which was sad. I really enjoyed that in the first book.

Aside from that... I'm not sure I can even comment.

There were some magic fights, a lot of running around on a bicycle, some random posh kids in comas, some financial wangling, different banking institutions, Ropa doing a lot of low-level crime that it seems like she shouldn't need to based on her new position... But what did it all MEAN? I don't know. If anything, things hinted at in book one became even murkier here, rather than clearer.

I'm happy to listen to Ropa natter on using about 50% words I've never heard before. It's strangely mesmerizing, and I continue to like her character and personality. But yeah, plot? Never heard of her.

I love this series. It a fresh take on fantasy with a tinge of (very) light horror. Ghost stalking, library, magic, and family are all intertwined beautifully in a great plot with characters that feel real.

Our Lady Of Mysterious Ailments
Book 2 of Edinburgh Nights

This is the second installment of T.L. Huchu’s Edinburgh Nights. This book is an excellent continuation of the story started with Library of the Dead. Lots of character growth and more foreshadowing of stories to come. Ropa continues to explore her abilities while learning more of her family’s past. I love the world building that continues to enfold. I felt like I was actually on the streets with Ropa as she told her tale. Must read for urban fantasy and dystopian fans. I also enjoyed the pop culture references scattered throughout the book.

There’s so much to love about this book. The characters are fun. The story is interesting and mostly well plotted. The fox sidekick is awesome, and some of the writing is lovely. The Edinburgh setting is great. The diversity is perfect.

But for me it’s just a bit ruined by the slang writing for the main character. It’s so over the top that it’s jarring and really off-putting. And some of the prose where she’s thinking or talking about magic is lovely and eloquent and then it flips back, and that’s really confusing.

(It’s not that I mind Scottish slang, huge Christopher Brookmyre fan for instance, but it’s so OTT it feels forced and the flip back and forth feels schizophrenic. Every time the character talked about cheddar I winced).

The hints about the magic are good and I think the magical theory behind it looks really interesting - but I want a LOAD more of that. More of the science and more of the geekery.

I also want slightly less time with Ropa banging on about money and more focus on the mystery (I like the depth of her needing to support her family and those conflicting interests, but there was so much of it in this book) . I want to see her practicing and improving her magical skills.

And I want a little bit more development of all the sidekicks. They’re all great and I need more background and time with them.

I also felt like the conclusion is slightly rushed in this one, probably because the mystery of itself was a bit of an afterthought to everything else going on.

I love the world and I want more of it. So that’s great. But to enjoy more of it, the accent / slang needs to be more consistent, and taken down a notch.

Ropa is clearly really intelligent, but sometimes she’s written as if she’s not and that’s a shame.

After reading the first one, I was really looking forward to this one. It didn't disappoint. It was great to visit with many of the same characters. I enjoy reading the Scottish slang and the flawed main character. Looking forward to the next.

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is the second book in T.L. Huchu's new urban fantasy noir series, Edinburgh Nights, which began with last year's "The Library of the Dead" (my review is here). I very much liked the first book in this series, which featured an alternate/slightly-futuristic Scotland, where there's an undercurrent of magic (regulated and unregulated), and some dystopian elements in a land ruled by a King whose reign is openly praised by all. Into this world came a remarkable heroine - teenage Zimbabwean-Scottish dropout Ropa, who tries to earn money passing on messages of the dead to their loved ones via her ghosttalking magic, only to get roped up in more regulated and "proper" European magic as well as a street-level mystery of missing children. It was an easy book to enjoy, even as it was at times clearly setting up a larger plot, so I was excited to try out the second book in the series.

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is very similar to the first book, with a street-level adventure forcing Ropa again between various needs and forces - her need to earn money for the sake of her grandma and sister, her want to learn proper magic and to prove herself to the magician who has trusted her (and the ones who discriminate against her for her background), the street gangs who she owes debts to, and more. There's some strong themes here to go with a mystery that works generally pretty well, although the solution comes a bit out of thin air, but still - it's highly enjoyable all the way thanks to Ropa's narration and viewpoint, even as it hits serious themes. Again there's a lot of building of a longer myth-arc going on here, which prevents this from hitting a really big high, but I remain very curious where it's all going.


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Ropa's ghosttalking business may have fallen apart, but to her mind things seem to be looking up - after all, Sir Ian Callander, Scotland's leading magician and Secretary of the Society of Sceptical Enquirers, has taken her under his wing and seems about ready to give her an apprenticeship, which will surely give her enough money to support her grandma and sister.

But when a stuck up politician in the Society ensures that her apprenticeship is instead an unpaid internship, Ropa once again finds herself needing a source of cash. And so when her friend Priya, a wheelchair bound girl who works at a magical hospital, asks her to come to said hospital to investigate a strange illness afflicting a comatose boy from a prestigious all-boy magic school, Ropa reluctantly takes the job.

Ropa's investigation leads her to a secret society at the school, which seemed to have been investigating forbidden magics. And at the same time, she's approached by a Canadian man searching for a fortune stolen from his family generations ago by the society, which could solve all her problems....or get her banned from the Society and ruin her chance of solving the mystery all for nothing if she's not careful.....
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Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is carried once again by the narration of Ropa, which is just delightful. This is a poor black girl who faces a classist/racist/sexist society and reacts to the latest discriminatory disappointment with another scheme to get what she needs, who genuinely cares for her family and friends (a subplot in this book of Ropa trying to help a neighbor who's interested in dating her grandma is an absolute delight), and who is aware a good deal of how shitty the world is and how to react, and yet at the same time is overly eager when she does get scraps of the white/proper man's magic - after all, she could never quite figure out how to make her grandmother's traditional magic work, and her intelligence has always been drawn to books and formulas, so why shouldn't she jump full on into that type of magic when she somehow gets the opportunity. It's a combination of experience and yet-still-naivete that feels very real and makes Ropa just so easy to care for. Of course it helps that she's sardonic and hilarious in how she reacts to certain things.

And so it shouldn't be a surprise that Ropa once again finds herself caught between multiple forces, peoples and magic-wielders as she winds up involved in multiple mysteries that only she can solve - in this case, student-age boys going comatose with a strange malady that is causing them to burn up, eventually fatally. Then she also winds up trying to help a Canadian man hunt down a historical fortune, which leads her to conflicting feelings - after all she's got loyalty to Sir Ian for taking her under his wing and giving her opportunities, and this would seem to sabotage that...on the other hand she really needs the money. And then there's the chance for her sister to go off to magical boarding school again thanks to Sir Ian, which Ropa knows would be great for her but would force her to go away, and well, Ropa finds herself torn in all directions (and I haven't even gotten into the Street Gang which says she owes a debt and wants her to stay out of town till she pays it)!

And again this story is very fun, especially as Ropa deals with more and more people and crazy situations. Priya, Ropa's Indian wheelchair-bound friend (who has slightly different perspectives from Ropa because she grew up more well off and properly schooled, if at the lowest-considered in prestige school) is again a ton of fun, especially as she throws herself into adventure at times to the point even Ropa notices her recklessness. And then there's Ropa's best friend Jomo, whose father is the head Librarian and who just wants to prove himself to his dad as well. Again the plot and narrative is wildly creative and fun, even as Ropa winds up dealing with so much bullshit along the way.

It doesn't all fully work - again the final antagonist seems to come from nowhere (or I missed the clues), and again this book is very much setting up longer plot arcs involving Ropa's gran having a connection to the Society's magical world, as well as bigger bads who are involved behind the scene who are hinted at here but don't come fully into play. But everything else is so fun that it's hard to complain, so I will be back to see if Huchu can make those payoff.

In short, if you're looking for urban fantasy, this is definitely proving to be a series worth checking out, in case you were having any doubts after seeing the reviews for book 1. Give it a try.