Emma Sweeney, a 16-year-old Watcher who doesn’t know who she really is, was not supposed to have bonded so deeply with her Earth family. But as she watches her adopted mother die, Emma vows to find her missing sister and reunite her entire family, now far-flung across the worlds. Emma undertakes this quest hampered by an identity crisis that will resonate with author Margaret Buffie’s preteen readership.

This is the second book of The Watcher’s Quest fantasy trilogy. Emma’s quest begins when she upsets the the powerful Game Player Fergus. Desperate, Emma challenges Fergus to a magical board game called Fidchell and, surprisingly, wins. Her quest continues but must now be played out in a life-size version of Fidchell. Emma must seek her sister, while Fergus and his arch-enemy/companion secretly play an overarching game against each other. This is one of the ways that Buffie elevates what could have been a standard quest narrative. Emma is playing a game, within a game, within a game.

Buffie also invents beautifully imagined worlds, exquisite villains, and a cast of delightfully improbable quest companions, including Cill, a sweet pile of walking leaves. Emma wants to see the world as black or white but Buffie weaves in shades of grey, which puzzle her protagonist. Against the grey, our hero obsesses about whom to trust. Who are her real friends? And most critically, can she trust her own instincts? The answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no. The ending, which is tied up without being strangled, intriguingly raises as many questions as it answers.