The Legendary Scarlett & Browne
by Jonathan Stroud
Middle School, High School    Knopf    448 pp.
3/25    9780593707364    $17.99
e-book ed.  9780593707388    $10.99

Stroud has much to wrap up in this third (seemingly final) volume of the exploits of fearsome Scarlett McCain and disheveled, telepathically gifted Albert Browne. In the dystopic, hostile landscape of postapocalyptic Britain, they and their company now have a double mission: to liberate banks of their funds and to free enslaved people and those about to be sold into slavery. Scarlett and Albert pursue personal quests as well: Albert wants to find his former prison and learn its secrets; Scarlett searches for her younger brother, lost to slavers years ago—and all this in the context of a terrorizing force even greater than the pair’s former enemy, the repressive Faith Houses. Now, it’s a group arming itself with weapons unearthed from deep within the ravaged land, “weapons that destroy everything they touch.” Stroud offers much activity and incident; dangerous, malicious terrain; risky schemes with explosive outcomes—in short, there’s barely a moment to stop and ponder. But even within the pressure of action, description, and bringing many threads together, Stroud’s vivacity of phrasing has lost none of its verve. “Her pale face hung beneath her hat like a moon of vengeance in a blood-soaked sky,” he writes in one of many unforgettable descriptive moments.

From the ">May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.