CURSE OF THE PHOENIX

Following their mother’s sudden passing, a brother and sister must contend with a family curse.

Twelve-year-old twins Zac and Lu grew up in Chicago hearing their mother’s stories about the Wildewoods, a fantastical forest full of magic creatures. One month after her death, their grieving father sends the siblings to England to spend the summer with maternal relatives they’ve never met: their great-aunt Merle and her wife, Rowena. It’s in the family’s enormous manor house and surrounding forest that they discover that the Wildewoods and its creatures—unicorns, mermaids, centaurs, and other supposedly mythological beings—are not only real, but also part of a curse their family has endured for centuries. From the age of 13, each descendant is required to become a caretaker of the Wildewoods and its inhabitants. Carter’s latest offering is a harmonious mix of lighter fantasy elements and the more somber portrayal of the family’s grieving process. Lu and Zac share the narrative in alternating chapters that reveal their inner troubles, particularly Lu’s worries about Zac’s health and anger over their father’s emotional abandonment and Zac’s trauma over losing their mother and his struggles with asthma and life-threatening allergies. This thoughtful story also shows how their sibling relationship has changed over the years and the difficult choices they must make regarding the curse they have inherited. All characters are assumed White.

An imaginative adventure with emotional depth.