UNFAMILIAR

Planchette the witch tries to rid her new house of ghosts in this debut graphic novel based on the author’s popular webcomic.

Planchette and her rabbit familiar, Winston, got a great deal on a new place, probably because it’s haunted. Planchette is just a kitchen witch—she’s excellent at food magic—so she needs help with an exorcism of her new house. Searching the town for assistance, Planchette meets fellow witch Pinyon and her bird familiar, Ari, but Pinyon isn’t great at exorcism magic either, despite coming from a family of powerful witches. Thankfully, they run into grumpy loner Sun and pink-haired, half-siren Babs with her cyclops cat, Marlow, who complete their new group of friends. Together, the witches try various ways to help the ghosts in Planchette’s new home move on to the next life, along the way solving their own problems, like curses and tense family dynamics. Planchette and friends are immediately intriguing, drawn with expressive, cartoony eyes and quirky, charming designs. Newsome takes advantage of the graphic format to land countless visual jokes and imbue the world with personality and whimsy. All human characters have light skin although they vary in hair color.

Wide-eyed characters spellbind in this cute and cozy tale.