Lady Friday by Garth Nix (The Keys to the Kingdom: Book 5)

7/10

Review by Indra

Thousands of people are going missing from Earth, being taken by Lady Friday in the guise of Dr Friday, first mentioned in Sir Thursday, but what does Lady Friday want with all these mortals, and where is she taking them? In the meantime Arthur, the Piper and Superior Saturday each receives a letter saying that Lady Friday is giving up her position as Trustee to whoever reaches her Scriptorium, in the Middle House, and is first to claim the Fifth Key for themselves, but is she being truthful, and will Arthur be too late to claim the key?

Lady Friday flows beautifully from where Sir Thursday left off, it could almost be the same book continuing the wonderful adventures of Arthur Penhaligon. It never fails to make one wonder where the new ideas come from, the tale simply doesn't get stale, with the new characters being fresh, but never so different they feel out of place. The Winged Servants of the Night are dark and slightly ominous with their bat-like living accommodation and silence, however they don't feel evil or threatening in fact there is quite a calm to them.

If there is a bad point to be brought up about this book, then it would have to be the similarities between Lady Friday and Drowned Wednesday. It is, however, hard to say, if this is due to both characters being female, or due to the similarities of their associated sins, Wednesday being 'gluttony' and Friday being 'lust', both being very selfish and obsessive sins thus with similar characteristics.

This is a very enjoyable book, however if it was read without the support of the previous others, some detail and meaning of the tale would be lost, detracting from the enjoyment, as, in many ways, it continues to build upon previous themes and motifs previously set up in the other books. But reading a series of books in the wrong order is never a logical thing to do, as previous knowledge of the tale is often assumed by the writer, allowing to miss out any repetitions.