A brilliant and powerful novel from the highly-acclaimed author of Breathe Cliff McNish. It’s a novel about obsession, a theme that will strike strong chords with tween and teenage readers and also about family, friends, school and bullying. With all the originality and inventiveness of McNish's vividly realised fantasy worlds – angels and angelic powers - it also combines almost seamlessly with a contemporary and realistic setting.
It's been many years since fourteen-year-old Freya's life was ruled by an obsession with angels - an obsession which destroyed her family. She hasa burgeoning social life at school, and feels adjusted in the world. But thenthe angels return, and Freya discovers that she herself is a guardianangel. What makes matters worse is the arrival of the strange new girl,Stephanie, who craves for herself the angelic power that Freya resists.Learning to harness this difficult new friendship and her otherworldlyabilities are complicated tasks, fraught with difficult decisions to make anddangerous situations to negotiate. Every time Freya helps one of herwards, she puts her own life at risk. And then there are her fellow angels -understanding what they want from her is perhaps the hardest task of all.
Cliff McNish was born in Sunderland, but has spent most of his life in the southeast of England. His daughter Rachel loved listening to his stories from an early age. THE DOOMSPELL started as one of these. 'But before I knew what was happening,' says Cliff, 'the whole magical world of Ithrea just wanted to come to life in a bigger way. It wanted to live!'
