School Library JournalGr 7–10—Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart, mute since a traumatic childhood incident, records a life rife with incident in the journal gifted to her on her exit from the Connecticut Asylum. Her mannered, overwrought prose suits the character of a privileged young woman from the 1880s, and her descriptions of 19th-century New York City have charm. An encounter with a cursed painting draws Natalie into the world of spiritualism and demonic possession. Jonathon Denbury, a young English lord missing and presumed dead, is actually trapped inside a portrait acquired by Natalie's father for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Natalie is the only connection Denbury has to the real world, and she and Mrs. Northe, a wealthy intellectual spiritualist, strive to free him before his soul is forfeited.
