I’ve been on a witches kick lately, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the publication of a couple of these so that I can share them with you.
The Mirk and the Midnight Hour by Jane Nickerson
This is an excellent new civil-war era story that kept me on the edge of my seat! Violet Dancey is a sensible and endearing Mississippi girl, mourning the loss of her twin brother, Rush, and trying to keep her family together as the war drags on. Suddenly confronted with a new stepmother and stepsister, an absent father, and mysterious rumors of voodoo practitioners, she manages to find her way with strength, compassion and intelligence. Everything I could tell you about this book gives the impression of fantasy or fairy tale, but it is also a subtle portrait of a troubled time and a wonderfully wrought story.
House of Ivy and Sorrow by Natalie Whipple
Here is that original new teen novel with believable, fascinating witches that you’ve been waiting for. Josephine lives with her grandmother in a small town in Iowa, learning witchcraft while keeping up a normal facade to her two best friends and nearly-almost boyfriend. Then a stranger comes to town, and it all falls into darkness. Not only does his presence threaten to expose Jo and her powers, but it rips open her grief over the mysterious death of her mother. Jo must weave the long history of her family with new ideas in order to protect the ones she loves, and decide in the end what price to pay, because all magic comes at a terrible cost.
Witchlanders by Lena Coakley
The witches on the mountain take a tithe and cast the bones to prophesy in order to keep the villagers safe. This is how it is, and how it has been since the terrible war in which the black-haired singing sorcerers were banished into the Bitter Lands. Now the prophesies are running amok and Ryder, who never believed in them in the first place, has to find a way to pull his mother back from madness, protect his sisters and save the Witchlands from danger. The war is beginning again and there are secrets in the mountain that will make all the difference in the coming conflict.
Permeable Borders by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Reading Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s short stories is a mesmirizing delight. She is such an amazing painter of worlds that it feels like the Permeable Borders of the title refer to the spongy separation between her incredible imagination and the reader’s reality. Hopping from one fully formed bubble of a world into another, you fall into landscapes full of haunts and magic, but not like any kind you’ve ever seen before. Altogether this collection just sweeps me away.
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