THE OCTOBER WITCHES

Two witch covens vie for power, one hoping to take it all and the other to preserve it.

Told in the first person, present tense by 12-year-old Clem, youngest member of the Merlyn coven, this story loosely recasts the Morgana-Merlin struggle from Arthurian legend. Although they’re related, for centuries the Morgan and Merlyn covens have stayed away from each other, only meeting at midnight each Oct. 1 to access magic from the stars—magic that is available to them only for that month. The covens are different—the Morgans are power hungry while the boisterous Merlyns are home centered. The plot unfolds as a grab bag of ideas is thrown together without coming together to form a cohesive whole. The Merlyns grow a giant pumpkin in the hope of being able to harvest and store their magic after October ends; this upsets the Morgans, leading to a battle. Arthurian legend is revisited via a sword and a cave; a segue compares receiving new magic to the menstrual cycle but is not developed. And the too-much-power-is-bad theme doesn’t lead to fresh insights. The characters feel one-dimensional, with singular defining characteristics hammered home repetitively and without nuance, as with Aunt Prudie’s constantly shouting sentence fragments and Aunt Connie’s continual reminders that time is running out. Characters read white.

A mishmash of half-developed ideas.