Often sequels end up being paler versions of the original. Happily, Alison Baird’s latest, the prequel to The Hidden World, actually improves upon its predecessor, creating an exciting and often truly magical narrative that will appeal to sophisticated teenaged readers.

Set in Newfoundland in 1940, the novel successfully blends fantasy with historical fiction, and follows Jean MacDougall, a 15-year-old girl with “second sight” who one day inexplicably finds herself in an unknown landscape. She has crossed into Annwn, a parallel world, where Newfoundland is the Isle of Avalon, and where creatures and stories that are myths in our world, such as fairies, druids, and King Arthur, exist for real. Both parallel worlds are under attack by evil powers: Annwn faces the invasion of the Lochlannach and Woden, god of war and death, while the Second World War rages in the “Shadow-world.”

Jean learns she has an important role to play in defending the kingdom of Avalon and, because the fates of both worlds are linked, in saving her own world from destruction. Readers of The Hidden World will find that Baird has better streamlined the transitions between the two worlds, making the connections between them more logical and relevant. In Jean she has created a heroine who is likable and believable in both realms. Jean’s anxieties about the Second World War as well as her budding romance with a family friend make compelling subplots. The conclusion, however, is disappointingly confusing and belaboured, lacking the drama of the rest of the novel. More unfortunate is the book’s cost: at 352 pages this is a hefty and engrossing novel, but readers may find the paperback price of $19.99 prohibitive.