THE DEMON'S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan

 

I liked this book enormously.  And I liked it from the very first paragraph:  "The pipe under the sink was leaking again.  It wouldn't have been so bad, except that Nick kept his favourite sword under the sink."  Fifteen-year-old Nick, the practical one, gets on with the repair, while eighteen-year-old Alan cooks dinner.  "There was only an instant's warning . . . Then the window exploded inward, a sharp burst of glittering shards caught in the fluorescent lights. . . . In through the...