COVEN

A teenage witch is torn between the life she’s built and the bonds of a coven she barely knows.

Emsy’s life is mostly that of an ordinary California teen, except for some occasional pyrokinesis. Magic and ritual are her parents’ things—Emsy would rather be surfing. So when her mother tells her that a family of witches has been brutally murdered and they must move back to upstate New York to rejoin their coven for safety, Emsy’s world comes to a shattering halt. Leaving her friends and girlfriend is bad enough, but Emsy soon realizes just how little her parents told her about witches and magic as she suddenly finds herself training to wield a power she’s never embraced. Desperate to undo it all and return to normal, Emsy agrees to help another teen coven member who is even more devastated than she is to bring his family back from the dead. But every choice in the world of magic comes with a cost, and Emsy’s involve the very highest of stakes and direst of consequences. Seaton’s richly colored illustrations are dynamic, adding to the atmosphere. The multiracial, intergenerational ensemble cast of queer witches facing a deadly, unknown magical threat forms a strong narrative foundation, enhanced by intense character conflict and action. The neatly wrapped-up conclusion doesn’t deliver on such compelling tension, however, and despite some remaining questions leaving room for a sequel, the ending may leave readers deflated.

Not a must-read but a solid, witchy story.