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4.0 

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy

By Anne Ursu
The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

From the acclaimed author of The Real Boy and The Lost Girl comes a wondrous and provocative fantasy about a kingdom beset by monsters, a mysterious school, and a girl caught in between them.

If no one notices Marya Lupu, is likely because of her brother, Luka. And that’s because of what everyone knows: that Luka is destined to become a sorcerer.

The Lupus might be from a small village far from the capital city of Illyria, but that doesn’t matter. Every young boy born in in the kingdom holds the potential for the rare ability to wield magic, to protect the country from the terrifying force known only as the Dread. 

For all the hopes the family has for Luka, no one has any for Marya, who can never seem to do anything right. But even so, no one is prepared for the day that the sorcerers finally arrive to test Luka for magical ability, and Marya makes a terrible mistake. Nor the day after, when the Lupus receive a letter from a place called Dragomir Academy—a mysterious school for wayward young girls. Girls like Marya.

Soon she is a hundred miles from home, in a strange and unfamiliar place, surrounded by girls she’s never met. Dragomir Academy promises Marya and her classmates a chance to make something of themselves in service to one of the country’s powerful sorcerers. But as they learn how to fit into a world with no place for them, they begin to discover things about the magic the men of their country wield, as well as the Dread itself—things that threaten the precarious balance upon which Illyria is built.

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226 Reviews

4.0
Thinking Face““They were the troubled girls of Dragomir Academy - breaking, but never broken - and they had stories to tell.” The story follows Marya Lupu, a girl labeled “troubled” in a world where boys get all the magic and girls are expected to stay in their place. When Marya is sent to the mysterious Dragomir Academy, a school for troubled girls, she discovers it’s not just a place to hide away outcasts—it’s hiding secrets about their society. At its heart, this is a story about found family and learning to question the rules society forces on you. The friendships Marya builds with the other “troubled” girls are as empowering as the mysteries they unravel together. Although the story is somewhat predictable at times, I still found it enjoyable. The friendships and themes of empowerment stand out beautifully, though I do wish there had been a bit more rebellion toward the end. I also absolutely loved the hidden symbolism in the needlework and tapestries, which were my favorite parts of the story.”

About Anne Ursu

Anne Ursu is the author of the acclaimed novels The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, The Lost Girl, Breadcrumbs, and The Real Boy, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. The recipient of a McKnight Fellowship Award in Children’s Literature, Anne lives in Minneapolis with her family and an ever-growing number of cats.

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