What if you could make your own pet in a jar, using the magic of alchemy? Vinni's family, the women of the Red House, have built their wealth and standing by making homunculi: Artificial creatures that act as companions and helpmates. Vinni's mother made the best, and Vinni thinks she can do it earlier than any of her cousins. But her mother was institutionalized for madness when Vinni was five, and none of her Aunts will undertake to teach Vinni anything serious of the craft until she's had her first blood. Vinni must learn in secret, hampered by her Grandmother's strict rules. Making a homunculus early puts Vinni on a collision course with Grandmother's plans to rebuild the Red House's influence by any means necessary, which in turn puts the Red House on a collision course with the most powerful families of Sangrila. When Vinni discovers that her Grandmother's plotting drove her mother insane, she flees to the streets of Sangrila. Hunted by the other families, Vinni collects a group of her sorceress cousins and street urchins to become the opposition to her Grandmother's monstrous plans. Can they save the Red House, the only home Vinni has ever known? 432 pp, some scary situations for children