by Adele Geras

'You mean a curse?' Bella looked happier instantly.

'They call it the Ill-Wishing in my family,' I said.

'It sounds blissful! I'm mad about things like that. Who's had this malediction put upon them?'

'Me'

At her christening, Alice's thirteenth aunt, the dreadful Violette, cursed her: Alice would never grow old but instead would be extinguished 'like a candle' on her eighteenth birthday. Her other twelve aunts tried to undo the damage, but still, something horrible happens on that day. Afterward, Alice refuses to talk to anyone but her diary. In its pages she confides her hopes for the return of her true love, her fears about leaving school, and the truth about her birthday and the brutal attack that threatened everything she holds dear.