With a gorgeous title like The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, it’s tough for an author to really deliver. So while the book had promise and was no particular hardship to read, I found myself vaguely disappointed by the story and its characters. There are so many bits of lovely mythology, Gothic sensibilities and supernatural elements that in the end I felt not one of these areas were satisfactorily addressed.

Miss Percy Parker arrives at the steps of the Athens school in London after having been gently booted out from the convent where she spent much of her life. Her hair and skin are pure white, and her eyes are like crystals. Needless to say, her ghostly appearance is shocking and has prevented her from making friends, making her a very insecure, shy girl who hides behind her thick shawls and glasses.

Professor Alexi Rychman is the mathematics professor who immediately captures Percy’s attention at the school. He’s dark and frowny, and Percy tends to daydream about him during class, to the detriment of her grades. Alexi begins to give her supplemental tutoring, and the time alone with him gives Percy the confidence to shed her costumes and show her true self. She tells him about the ghosts she sees haunting the halls, the visions she has no power over, and the bits and pieces of supernatural life that overflow into hers. This immediately gets Alexi’s attention, because he is the leader of the Guard, a group of six people who are bound to fight the Darkness and maintain the peace. A Prophecy has foretold the arrival of their seventh member, completing their circle, and Alexi becomes more and more convinced that she is the one. However, a beautiful woman named Lucille has appeared to his comrades, and they believe that it is Lucille who is their seventh, and not Percy. As chaos spreads, Alexi must quickly decide who is Prophecy and who is a traitor if he has any hope of saving the world.

My main problem with the book is its overall vagueness. I felt like the exposition of the novel was severely lacking. There are currently six Guards, and their personalities are basically unknown. They seem funny and interesting, but it’s barely evident beyond snappy one-liners. The prophecies and omens lack a pressing quality, and I was continually frustrated knowing who the traitor was and watching the entire Guard fall for her fakeness. I was appalled that they would not even consider Percy as possible Prophecy before babbling to Lucille the secrets of their work. For a bunch of people with extraordinary powers, they’re extremely naïve and gullible.

Alexi is such a mild man (which should not be confused with restrained; he is barely passionate) that I didn’t feel satisfied with his love for Percy. I could vaguely feel his frustration about his life, but something about it didn’t ring true to me. I could sense his longing for happiness, but it was fleeting. I am not enamored of fantasy heroines that have the capability to save the world, but forget everything the minute their “possession” is over. Percy is that sort of heroine; she has the magic, but she is merely the conduit through which the power flows. When not possessed, she is a sweet, albeit slightly silly girl.

On the flip side, I loved the environment that the author created. It was nice and believable in its darkness. Percy’s friend Marianna and the various ghosts were nice touches, especially Gregory, who I thought was a pretty darling ghost.

So, on the whole, I wasn’t totally feeling The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. That doesn’t mean that I couldn’t enjoy the rest of the series in the future; there seems to be good stuff here that’s just waiting to be written. This is the beginning of a series, so I can only hope that the characters will continue to expand. The world that this author has created has potential to be (here it comes…) strangely beautiful indeed.